I also know that the need for such leaders is growing nationwide.

According to the Map the Gap study conducted recently by EdFuel, a national human capital watchdog, the education systems in the 50 largest U.S. cities will need to fill 32,000 non-instructional leadership roles in the next decade. Not only is that number staggering, but the leadership skills needed are ever-changing. Leaders today often face tasks that require competencies in marketing, data and analytics, advocacy, policy and research, to name a few. Education leaders across the country affirm time and again that the search for talent is the challenge they find most daunting.

To address this growing need for great leaders, the Walton Family Foundation has announced a collaboration with Harvard University. The foundation’s $5 million gift to the Harvard Graduate School of Education will help endow Harvard’s Education Leadership Doctoral Program, develop leadership-training content to be shared broadly through HarvardX, and position Harvard and the foundation to jointly convene leaders in the field and alumni to develop new thinking and creative solutions to the formidable and urgent talent gaps on the horizon.

Throughout this collaboration we hope to learn from the considerable and forward-thinking team at Harvard, and from the legions of Harvard alumni who are hard at work in the field.

To achieve our mission of providing high-quality education choices to all families, we have to do our part to ensure the leadership is in place to provide these choices. Our hope is that this collaboration with Harvard will yield future leaders, insight and best practices to impact school districts nationwide.