Philadelphia Academy of School Leaders adds two Leader Coaches to team

Philadelphia Academy of School Leaders is pleased to announce Michelle Allen (left) and Jovan Moore (right) (2019 Neubauer Fellow) are joining the team as Leader Coaches. In this role, Allen, founder of Allen Learning Partners, LLC, and former Founding Assistant Principal of turnaround school Harrity Elementary in the Mastery Charter Schools system, and Moore, who most recently served as Principal at Girard Academic Music Program (GAMP), will provide high-impact blended coaching as part of the two-year Neubauer Fellowship experience.

As research from the Wallace Foundation and other organizations indicates, expert and ongoing coaching can enhance capacity and support goal achievement for educational leaders. PASL has accordingly strengthened our 2023–2024 program offerings to include a dynamic coaching element to maximize positive impact on Philadelphia’s educational landscape in alignment with our mission and vision.

“Our organization is dedicated to developing school and system leaders so that they can better support their students and school communities,” said PASL Executive Director Edwin M. Quezada, EdD. “We are excited to strengthen our professional development experience to include robust blended coaching opportunities, and we look forward to having such experienced and qualified Leader Coaches as Michelle and Jovan deliver the organization’s efforts at enhancing our existing offerings in this way.”

A proven equity-centered education leader with more than 15 years of experience in a variety of school-based and nonprofit organizations in Philadelphia, Allen forged her career on a foundation of creating real and positive change in leaders, teams, schools, and organizations through the advocacy for justice and improvement in opportunities for historically under-resourced communities.

Before launching Allen Learning Partners, a professional development consultancy firm committed to social justice advocacy and activism in K–12 education spaces, she served as an Executive Director at Children’s Literacy Initiative (CLI), providing equity-centered workshops and coaching to school leaders, literacy coaches, and teachers. Additionally, under her leadership at Harrity Elementary, math scores in grades 3 through 8 increased by 19 percentage points, and reading scores increased by 11 percentage points.

Allen has also served as Senior Director of Talent at KIPP Philadelphia Public Schools, Director of Early Elementary Research and Design at Mastery Charter Schools, and an elementary teacher and team leader, in addition to consulting for Relay Graduate School of Education (GSE).

Allen is an alum of the founding cohort of Relay GSE’s National Principal Fellowship and a founding fellow in Leverage Leadership Institute, through which she deepened her understanding of adult learning principles and honed her skillset in delivering impactful professional development.

Her career as an educational leader in Philadelphia and the impact she made on student achievement earned her the recognition of being named to Metro Philadelphia‘s list of Education Power Players in 2022.

“Throughout my career, my coaching focus has been on developing educational leaders and empowering them to drive positive change,” said Allen. “I welcome the opportunity to utilize my skills and experiences to foster continued success in classrooms and schools across Philadelphia.”

In her more than a decade serving as a school leader in Philadelphia, Moore developed extensive insight into not only the challenges facing principals and systems leaders, but also the skillsets and resources that drive success.

Moore served as Principal of Kensington Urban Education Academy and Grover Washington Jr. Middle School prior to taking on the principalship at GAMP in 2018. With a focus on restorative practice, Moore’s leadership elevated GAMP’s success metrics in attendance (increase in the number of students attending 95% or more), graduation (a 12.4% increase in the number of 9th grade student on track to graduate), and academic achievement (a 9% increase in science achievement on the Pennsylvania System of State Assessment (PSSA)). In 2021, GAMP was named a Blue Ribbon School for Excellence.

Prior to her roles as Principal, Moore served as Assistant Principal of School Culture at Simon Gratz Master Charter School, focusing on driving a positive, supportive, and achievement-focused culture among teachers, staff, and students, and in the classroom as a biology and environmental science teacher.

In addition to being a 2019 Neubauer Fellow, Moore also participated in Cohort 9 of Relay GSE’s Leverage Leadership Institute.

“I became a principal in Philadelphia because I wanted to effect change on levels beyond a single classroom,” said Moore. “As a Leader Coach for PASL, I will be able to effect change in a greater way. Having just transitioned out of the principal role, I look forward to coming alongside principals and being a support to increase student outcomes and see the successes we all desire to see within our school communities.”

For nearly a decade, PASL has delivered impactful leadership development for school and system leaders, providing them with the skills, support, and resources necessary to improve school performance and increase academic achievement. Across all PASL programs, the organization has served more than 180 school and system leaders as it strives to transform the educational landscape and improve the lives of the nearly 225,000 students in Philadelphia.