Students at the Harvard-Kent School helped celebrate an unprecedented outpouring of financial support for Boston's public schools on Tuesday morning.

The Charlestown elementary school hosted a press conference to mark the city's progress in response to the Annenberg Foundation's October 1996 challenge. Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced that Boston corporate and foundation leaders have contributed $9.7 million to meet the Foundation's challenge gift of $10 million, the largest private donation in the history of the Boston Public Schools. One of the largest and most innovative of these gifts is a $1 million grant to fund a partnership among Fleet Financial Group, the Boston Public Schools, and the Graduate School of Education (GSE).

Fleet Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Terrence Murray '62 said that the gift is the largest in Fleet's corporate history. "Fleet is making this commitment now because this partnership offered us a unique opportunity to help our local school system achieve its goals for the children of Boston. We are proud that Fleet's gift will help students achieve higher levels of academic performance and we look forward to collaborating with the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Boston Public Schools."

Murray is a member of Harvard's Corporate Campaign Committee, the Committee on University Resources, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Boston Major Gifts Steering Committee.

Fleet Financial Group, the Boston Public Schools, and the GSE are creating the Leadership Development Initiative. The Initiative will use GSE's expertise to support Boston School Superintendent Thomas Payzant's five-year comprehensive reform plan, Focus on Children. The Initiative will create a jointly designed and developed five-year program of intensive, ongoing professional development and technical assistance.

"I have been enormously impressed with Fleet's steadfast commitment to designing a truly collaborative project," said GSE Dean Jerome T. Murphy. "This new initiative marshals GSE's strengths in leadership development, teaching, and urban education to help schools meet Boston's new learning standards. Our faculty and students, along with employee volunteers from Fleet, will be helping Boston take the best research, absorb it, and utilize it to make the city's schools work more effectively. We are delighted that Terry Murray and Fleet have made this initiative a reality for Boston."

The Initiative will enable school-based teams of educators to use three components which build upon each other: a series of five-day intensive summer institutes at GSE; ongoing technical assistance to schools provided by GSE doctoral students and supervised by GSE faculty; and follow-up workshops, seminars, and study groups facilitated by GSE faculty. Fleet Financial Group will also encourage its employees to volunteer as part of the Initiative in Boston schools. Fleet's funding will also make available to Boston schools the resources of Harvard University through the Harvard Project on Schooling and Children, led by Katherine Merseth.

The Initiative will be coordinated by GSE's new Office of School Partnerships, established last fall to manage GSE's work in Boston, Cambridge, and other local communities. The office's director, Peggy Kemp, is a former Boston school administrator who has also worked in school reform initiatives in Philadelphia, Louisville, and Prince George's County, Md.

"This Initiative builds on and greatly extends GSE's history of working with educators in Boston," Kemp said. "Many Boston principals and headmasters are members of our Principals' Center and sponsor internships for principals-in-training. Each year several Boston teachers and administrators train at GSE with the support of our Conant Fellowships. Boston Public Schools assist in our teacher education programs, partner in our research activities, and host a variety of interns, particularly in student support services. These connections will provide a strong start to our new collaborative effort with Fleet and the Boston Public Schools."

Kemp plans to draw on several GSE faculty members who have substantial experience in local schools. Most notable are Robert Schwartz, first director of the Boston Compact; Mildred Blackman, a former Cambridge school principal; and Robert Peterkin, former Boston Public Schools Deputy Superintendent and chair of Payzant's transition team. Peterkin also directs GSE's Urban Superintendents Program, which counts several Boston administrators and teachers among its graduates and current students. Superintendent Payzant and Deputy Superintendent Janice Jackson both received their administrative training at GSE.

GSE Academic Dean Susan Moore Johnson notes that the Initiative will provide many mutual benefits to the collaborators. "We feel extremely lucky to see such a match between Fleet's goals, our expertise and needs, and the ambitious plans that Boston is implementing. GSE faculty and students will bring our research on learning and teaching to the real world of school reform. Our experiences working with the Boston Public Schools and Fleet will influence our own teaching, research, and program design."