Serving more than 900,000 students, New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) implements numerous large-scale initiatives aimed at advancing high-quality teaching and learning. Since 2006, Education Pioneers (EP) has placed more than 200 Fellows within NYCPS to support the operations of these efforts, helping ensure they are executed effectively and with impact.
In the 2023-2024 school year, EP placed four Impact Fellows—Terrye S. Davis, Marylu Bautista, Sunny Snell, and Sa’adat Mohammed—within NYCPS to support two major programs: the NYC Partnership for Math Equity, which explores supplemental digital math activities for middle school students, and NYC Reads, a research-based initiative ensuring that elementary school students receive the most effective reading instruction materials and methods. These Fellows brought expertise in data analysis, project management, and stakeholder communications to provide the necessary capacity and help the district improve student outcomes at scale.
Shaping the Future of Math Instruction
EP Fellows Terrye S. Davis and Marylu Bautista worked within the NYC Partnership for Math Equity to coordinate the adoption of supplemental math lessons across middle school classrooms.
With a background in congressional communications and educational policy, Marylu Bautista’s work focused on boosting school and teacher engagement in the Partnership’s math curriculum. Her outreach to principals secured near-universal participation in the initiative’s third phase, and she organized a Summer Institute, creating a collaborative space for teachers to refine their practices and deepen their knowledge of the lessons. Marylu also launched a monthly teacher newsletter, providing a platform to share best practices, highlight educator successes, and sustain ongoing collaboration.
“The EP Fellowship broadened my perspective on impact. I’ve realized that public service isn’t the only path—I can make a meaningful difference in education by helping to bridge policy and practice.” – Marylu Bautista
With deep expertise in school operations and data analysis, Terrye S. Davis played a key role in optimizing data-driven decision-making across the Partnership’s major organizations: NYCPS, Amplify, and NYU’s Metro Center. She developed process maps to guide their work, clarifying interconnected workflows and improving the accessibility and quality of program insights. She also designed and administered teacher surveys, ensuring that educator feedback directly informed program improvements. Her efforts strengthened the Partnership’s ability to track impact and adapt to the evolving needs of schools and students.
Together, Marylu and Terrye brought the dedicated capacity needed to keep the Partnership work on track as it entered its third phase. The Fellows’ contributions helped address key challenges within NYCPS: the district’s limited ability to hire full-time staff for time-bound initiatives. By stepping into these critical roles as EP Fellows at NYCPS, Terrye and Marylu enabled NYCPS staff to focus their efforts on advancing high-impact goals while they managed essential operational components.
Both Terrye and Marylu continued their roles within NYCPS after their Fellowship ended, ensuring the sustainability of the systems they established.
Creating Pathways to Enhanced Literacy
During their Fellowships, Sunny Snell and Sa’adat Mohammed supported NYC Reads, a landmark initiative by NYCPS to improve early literacy outcomes by grounding instruction in the science of reading. The initiative focuses on equipping educators with evidence-based, phonics-focused curricula and professional development to ensure all students—particularly those in the earliest grades—build strong foundational reading skills. In its initial phase, NYC Reads is being implemented across 700 elementary schools citywide.
Sunny Snell leveraged her experience as a classroom teacher to strengthen the district’s systems, supporting strategic planning and helping to build institutional memory. She designed a framework for a quarterly NYC Reads newsletter, providing the initiative team with a clear process to improve communication between NYCPS and staff. Additionally, Sunny drafted key communications on behalf of the district’s Deputy Chancellor of School Leadership, helping to bridge the gap between policy decisions and on-the-ground implementation.
With a background in curriculum development and program management, Sa’adat Mohammed focused her efforts on family engagement and vendor management processes. She worked closely with an education consulting firm to ensure parents had accessible ways to provide feedback and support their children’s learning at home. Additionally, she streamlined the initiative’s vendor management processes to ensure efficient contract execution and timely payments for program partners.
Together, the Fellows’ efforts helped lay the groundwork for the program’s expansion to 350 additional schools the following school year by:
- Optimizing Operations: They developed comprehensive project plans, introduced project management tools, and implemented a knowledge management system to improve efficiency and ensure continuity.
- Scaling Coaching Practices: They coordinated stakeholders to align coaching models across vendors, researched best practices from other districts, and provided recommendations to refine NYCPS’ approach.
By the end of their tenure, Sa’adat and Sunny began to see the long-term impact of the systems and templates they developed, as their tools streamlined the onboarding of new team members and laid the groundwork for the program’s continued success.
Better Together
The four EP Impact Fellows at NYCPS worked as a collaborative cohort, sharing insights, tackling challenges together, and navigating the complexities of district systems. This teamwork not only strengthened their individual contributions but also amplified the overall impact of their work.
“Having a cohort of support was essential to my experience at NYCPS,” Terrye reflected. “Despite our different backgrounds, we were united in learning to navigate a new district and driven by a shared commitment to the work’s success.” Sunny added, “Collaborating as a team helped break down the silos that can be common in large-scale initiatives.”
Filling a Need in Education
Many K-12 organizations struggle to allocate full-time staff to executing critical projects, yet large, multi-year initiatives require dedicated capacity and operational expertise. EP’s Fellowship model fills this gap by bringing in skilled talent—often from outside the education sector—focused exclusively on backbone operations and general management projects.
The work of our 2023-24 Impact Fellows is just one example of how EP is helping education organizations build capacity and drive meaningful change. Whether you’re looking to partner with us or help advance our mission, your involvement helps expand our impact. Email [email protected] to learn how to host a Fellow at your organization, or reach out to [email protected] to explore ways to support our work.
EP is grateful to the Gates Foundation for their generous support of these EP Fellows who served at NYCPS.
