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Durham Charter’s Alex Quigley honored as ‘Platinum Leader in the Field’

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Courtesy of Lindsay Mirchin-Robinson

Education leaders from across the United States and countries like the United Kingdom, Chile, India, and Singapore recently visited Alex Quigley, the executive director of Durham Charter School, to observe, study, and evaluate his leadership, including school culture, team culture, observations, data-driven instruction, and ongoing professional development.

Quigley, in addition to being a school leader, serves on the Charter School Review Board. He was a member of the North Carolina Charter School Advisory Board for eight years, serving as vice-chair for the first two years and chair for six years. He formerly led Maureen Joy Charter School in Durham and was the executive director of Teach For America-ENC.

Courtesy of Durham Charter School

The cohort of leaders who visited North Carolina is part of the Relay Graduate School of Education‘s Leverage Leadership Institute (LLI) Fellowship, which according to the website, “is for high-performing principals and principal managers who serve in traditional school districts and charter management organizations from all over the world.”

LLI looks for leaders “who are in the top 10% of schools in their local district or state, and have led student outcomes to double-digit gains.”

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Quigley was a 2021-22 fellow, and he is also now one of eight “Platinum Leaders in the Field,” an award he received during “All Cohorts Gathering.” Carice Sanchez, co-founder and chief academic officer of Henderson Collegiate, also received the high honor. Just eight of 200+ leaders have earned the distinction.

Quigley says LLI was founded by Paul Bambrik-Santoyo — the author of “Leverage Leadership, Get Better Faster, Driven by Data” — “to highlight and scale the best instructional leadership practices in schools that are delivering real results for kids.”

When presenting the platinum award, Bambrick-Santoyo said LLI has the award so that “if someone asked if there is an exemplar school in the country where we could see the leadership levers in action, they could have a list of schools doing it really well.”

Melissa Altemose, the chief academic officer of Durham Charter, said:

This acknowledgement from the Leverage Leadership team is a testament to Quigley’s leadership, as well as a testament to the hunger, drive, and passion of this team. The data shows the schools that use these leadership tools are consistently outperforming other schools and creating incredible outcomes for students. Our team is hungry to achieve these outcomes for students because you have embraced this vision of always driving for more through coaching and feedback. 

Quigley says he believes in the Leverage Leadership practices and the impact they can have on kids, particularly students who come from low-income backgrounds.

“Over the past 15 years as a school leader,” he says, “no framework has shaped my leadership or student outcomes more than Paul Bambrick-Santoyo’s model of school leadership.”

Here you can find more information about the fellowship.