High-performing, successful schools start with exceptional principals, who then hire and develop exceptional teachers who motivate students to achieve to their true potential. Successful leaders beget successful schools.

With that idea in mind, The Ohio General Assembly has authorized and funded BRIGHT New Leaders for Ohio Schools® as an innovative collaboration of the Ohio Department of Education, the Ohio Business Roundtable, and the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University. BRIGHT seeks extraordinary individuals from different walks of life – education, business, the military, government, philanthropy and nonprofits – to spend a year as a BRIGHT Fellow preparing to take on the challenge of serving as a principal of a high-poverty public school in Ohio.

Conducted in the spring of 2012 by the distinguished nonprofit organization Public Agenda, the study examined nine Ohio public schools that are high-performing despite having student body poverty rates exceeding 50 percent. The research was designed to identify how these "unexpectedly high-performing" schools deliver positive results results despite their challenges.

The key conclusion from the report, "Failure Is Not An Option," is that each of the schools was headed by an exceptional and highly skilled leader. In each case, the building principal led with passion, commitment, remarkable interpersonal skills and a solid conviction that failure is not an option when it comes to the education and lives of young Ohioans.

That discovery led directly to the creation of BRIGHT New Leaders for Ohio Schools®.