Hunter College

Nell Scharff Panero is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership in the School of Education at Hunter College, City University of New York. She is co-developer and researcher of the strategic inquiry model of continuous school improvement through leadership development which has been found according to two independent evaluations to improve schools by focusing on and supporting marginalized and minoritized students and by shifting school culture, including teachers’ beliefs and practices, in support of these students. Strategic inquiry (SI) formed the foundation of Collaborative Inquiry as implemented across New York City during Children First reforms under Chancellor Joel Klein; Nell wrote the handbook to support this work. Between 2014-2018, Nell led implementation of a train-the-facilitator model of strategic inquiry as the core strategy for supporting 35 of NYC’s most struggling “renewal” high-schools. Independent research found that students these high schools were two-and-a-half times more likely to be brought on track to college and graduation than students in similar schools not using SI (Wohlstetter, et. al., 2018). SI also forms the foundation of school building and district leadership certification programs: Collaborative Leadership to Advance School Success (CLASS) at Hunter College in NYC and Leadership Education for Anaheim District (LEAD), a partnership between California State, Fullerton and Anaheim Union High School Districts. Nell’s current research and practice focus on implementation of SI with a special focus on literacy (closing high leverage skill gaps surfaced through prior inquiry). Nell’s publications include Strategic Inquiry: Starting Small for Big Results in Education (with J. Talbert, Harvard Education Press, 2013); Sentence Strategies for Multilingual Learners: Advancing Academic Literacy through Combinations (with J. Yip, Routledge, 2024); and Radical University-District Partnerships: A Framework for Preparing Justice-Focused School Leaders (with J. Goldstein & M. Lozano, Teachers College Press, 2024).