Principals Driving Student Success: Edgility Partners with Education for Change

At Edgility Search, we know the right leader can transform not only a school but also the community it serves. Our partnership with Education for Change Public Schools (EFC) in Oakland has helped place three principals who are guiding their schools in equity-centered, student-focused growth. Based in Oakland, EFC is dedicated to accelerating student achievement and ensuring all children are prepared for college, career, and a meaningful life. Their work is grounded in four core values—Connected, Inclusive, Interdependent, and Learners—which guide leaders to build trust with families, disrupt predictable patterns of opportunity, and create sustainable, collaborative school communities.

Through this partnership, Edgility successfully placed three exceptional principals:

• Jacqueline Parker, Principal at ASCEND (TK–8)
• Kenyana Booker, Principal at Cox Academy (TK–5)
• Lawren Keaton, Interim Principal at Achieve Academy (TK–5)

Together, these leaders are poised to advance student success, support staff growth, and strengthen the relationship between each school and its community. Their stories demonstrate how an intentional, mission-aligned search process can lay the groundwork for lasting, meaningful change.

Centering Community in the Search Process

At Edgility, we recognize that the search process itself is a reflection of a school’s values, shaping outcomes as much as the final selection. For each school, our approach prioritized mission alignment and community engagement.

Nora Maligmat, Edgility Principal and the consultant for these searches, explained:

“We sought leaders who were both an instructional expert and a systems builder, able to inspire a shared vision for joyful learning and turn it into results for every student.”

For ASCEND, the search began with a large town hall that invited families, teachers, and network staff to share their vision for the next leader. This engagement was followed by surveys, small-group interviews, and a closing feedback session, ensuring families had a meaningful voice in the outcome. The process revealed a clear priority: a principal who could embody ASCEND’s whole-child approach and project-based learning model, bringing the school’s vision to life through arts integration, community partnerships, and collaborative decision-making.

At Cox Academy, school leaders played a central role in interviews and recommendations to the superintendent, reflecting EFC’s commitment to sustainable collaboration and shared decision-making. These conversations also informed the search for Achieve Academy, helping define a leader who could unite the community, build trust, provide stability, and keep students at the center of every decision.

Leading Searches with Care

Community involvement is integral to Edgility’s search philosophy, and this was a guiding principle throughout these searches. Nora reflected:

“I pride myself on translating what I hear from stakeholders—students, families, staff—into clear candidate criteria that shape the search process.”

By grounding each search in the lived realities of the school community, Edgility ensures that candidates are evaluated on both skill and values alignment. The team’s approach is both rigorous and relational, combining EFC’s internal protocols with Edgility’s tools and screening rounds to maintain transparency and trust.

As EFC’s Chief of Schools, Abby Nuñez, shared regarding the process:

“One thing that stood out was how Edgility managed relationships with candidates. Nora kept them informed, engaged, and excited. It’s a full-time job to maintain that level of investment, and she did it beautifully.”

Three Principals, Three Stories of Impact

Each leader emerged from a robust, equity-focused process that included performance-based exercises such as artifact reviews, data discussions, live facilitation, scenario simulations, and behavioral interviews. This allowed candidates to demonstrate both their skill and their approach to leadership challenges. Ultimately, Jacqueline, Kenyana, and Lawren stood out among many talented candidates, not only for their instructional expertise and their commitment to the mission, but also for their proven success in schools serving similar populations.

Jacqueline Parker, Principal at ASCEND
Jacqueline blends instructional expertise with deep community trust to center students’ needs and voices. Drawing on her bilingual education background and strong family partnerships, she stewards ASCEND’s whole-child vision and advances a rigorous, project-based learning model.

Kenyana Booker, Principal at Cox Academy
Kenyana is a visionary school leader who grounds every decision in what’s best for students, ensuring their voices and remain at the heart of the school. With a relentless commitment to high academic rigor and instructional excellence, she empowers teachers to deliver challenging, engaging, and equitable learning experiences for all students.

Lawren Keaton, Interim Principal at Achieve Academy
Lawren is an equity-driven leader who builds systems that turn vision into action and lasting impact. She leads with intention, coaching and developing her team while ensuring operations run seamlessly in service of equity and excellence. Reflecting on Edgility’s process, she shared:

“What impressed me most was that my initial interviews were led by former educators. They knew the right questions to ask and truly understood my perspective. The performance tasks let me show my skills in a meaningful way.”

Our team is honored to have led these three searches. As members of the larger EFC community, we look forward to celebrating the continued success of their new school leaders.

A Partnership Built on Trust

Education for Change and Edgility have now partnered on a total of four searches, each one deepening our shared commitment to Bay Area students and families. For EFC, the outcomes are clear: values-aligned leaders who build trust and drive academic growth. For us, it’s another reminder that a leadership search, when done with intentionality and care, can be a powerful lever for lasting change.

“Edgility has a system and a track record of results. They’ve executed time and time again. If I go to a community and tell them about Edgility’s process and the results, they always want that for their schools too.” - Abby Nuñez, Chief of Schools, EFC

At Edgility Search, we don’t just help organizations find leaders; we help them keep great leaders, too, through in-depth onboarding and evaluation processes. Because when communities get the leaders they deserve, everyone wins. Learn more about our approach.