Dr. Patrick Schuermann, Ed.D
Innovative Programming Strategic Coordinator
Patrick J. Schuermann is an assistant professor of the practice of educational leadership and public policy at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. Patrick has authored numerous articles, commissioned reports and books on leadership. Successful School Leadership: Planning, Politics, Performance and Power is the anchor text in the Peabody Instructional Leadership Series. Leading Schools to Success: Constructing and Sustaining High-Performing Learning Cultures is used in schools, districts and graduate programs across the country. Most recently, Data Fluency is a practical text that seeks to help leaders empower their organizations with effective data communication.
Patrick served as the founding co-editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Education Online and in 2014 won an Emmy Award for Best Educational Piece for his documentary “A Matter of Principles” – a piece that sought to tell the story of effective leadership in a more compelling manner that traditional print form. He has also received several Telly Awards for short films about his recent work developing school leaders in Abu Dhabi.
Patrick created and directs the new Master’s in Independent School Leadership program at Peabody College – an innovative program that draws on experts across the higher education and independent school community in Tennessee and beyond. For the past four years, Patrick has served as the director of Vanderbilt’s Abu Dhabi Leadership Development project, and founded the Tennessee / Shanghai shared leadership initiative. He is a member of the Gates Foundation project studying the ways leaders use teacher effectiveness data to make critical human capital decisions and has developed several policy manuals and tools to support this work.
Prior to these international leadership development projects, for 5 years Patrick served as the policy director and director of technical assistance for the federally funded Center for Educator Compensation Reform (CECR), the comprehensive assistance center for Department of Education’s Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant. In this capacity, Patrick coordinated support to states, districts and charter schools in domains such as communication planning, data quality, the evaluation of teachers and principals, utilizing value-added measurement to assess teacher and school effectiveness, the alignment of professional development to performance award programs, and fiscal and programmatic sustainability.
Patrick developed the Peabody Professional Institutes to offer intensive one-week professional development during the summer for new and aspiring independent school teachers and leaders. Previously a teacher, tutor, coach and leader at the elementary, middle and high school levels, Patrick holds BS and MA degrees from Furman University and a Doctorate in Education Leadership from Vanderbilt University.