Neubauer Fellows Community
Donna Ragsdale

Donna Ragsdale

Assistant Superintendent of School Performance for the Acceleration Network
School District of Philadelphia
2018 Neubauer Fellow
Sector
District
Grade Level
PreK - 5th
Student Enrollment
560
School/Org Neighborhood
West Oak Lane
Education
M.S. Educational Administration, Administrative Certification, Gwynedd Mercy University
B.S. Education, Milllersville University
"I serve as a principal so that I can make a difference in the lives of students and parents and produce productive citizens who will be able to take care of themselves and family members as they get older. I want to expose students to activities that they may not experience if they attend a different school. I am a principal so that I can make a difference in the world one child at a time. I believe if we invest in schools, we can eliminate prison."

Donna Ragsdale was appointed Assistant Superintendent of School Performance for the Acceleration Network in 2024, following a 13-year tenure as Principal of Prince Hall School. In her last year at the helm (2022-2023), the school demonstrated a 6.3 percentage point increase in teacher attendance; a 10.2 percentage point increase in Grade 3 Reading Proficiency; a 20.5 percentage point decrease in students assessed as Reading Below Basic (Grade 3); and a 12.1 percentage point decrease in students assessed as Math Below Basic (Grades 3-8).

Under Donna’s leadership, the school also achieved four straight years of improvement on the district’s School Progress Report (SPR). Prince Hall also improved student attendance, increasing students with 95% attendance from 38% to 48%. In 2018-19 Prince Hall had zero students with in-school suspensions and 98.6% of students had no out-of-school suspensions. In addition, the school was a winner of the district’s Mad Breakfast Challenge for increasing the school’s breakfast participation rate from 46% to 89%.

Donna has been an educator since 1998. Prior to becoming a principal, Donna served as an elementary and middle school teacher, school-based math teacher leader, and dean of students. She also served as principal of James Alcorn School. Donna served on the Neighborhood Network VI Principal Advisory Board from 2018 to 2020. Donna grew up in Philadelphia and attended Murrell Dobbins High School.

Fellow Listing
Donna Ragsdale