ABOUT
What is
Nurturing Greatness?
A Coherent, Integrative, and Interdependent Model for School Design
The Nurturing Greatness Blueprint, developed by Dr. Tonya Breland and Dr. Erika Leak, is a research-backed, systemic, practice-tested approach to teaching, leadership, and learning that centers one core belief:
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Every child who enters our schools is brilliant.
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Our job is to recognize their gifts and cultivate their brilliance, and create the conditions where they can flourish into greatness.
Nurturing Greatness is not a program.
It is not a curriculum.
It is a way of seeing students, designing learning, and leading systems so that the brilliance already present in young people is intentionally developed.
This approach challenges traditional school models that focus primarily on remediation, compliance, and standardization. Instead, it shifts educators and leaders toward an asset-based, student-centered model that prioritizes strengths, curiosity, creativity, and meaningful application of learning.
At its core, Nurturing Greatness asks:
What happens when schools are designed to grow gifts instead of simply measuring deficits?
What Nurturing Greatness Looks Like in Practice
When schools adopt the Nurturing Greatness approach, you see:
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Students who feel seen, valued, and capable
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Classrooms filled with engagement and curiosity
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Educators who teach with purpose and creativity
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Leaders who design systems that cultivate, not constrain, brilliance
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Families and communities actively connected to student growth
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Learning that prepares students not only to succeed in school, but to contribute meaningfully to the world
A Shift in How We Think About School
From
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Fixing weaknesses
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Compliance
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Standardization
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Passive learning
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Teaching content
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School as a place of measurement
To
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Developing strengths
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Curiosity
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Personalization
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Active engagement
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Cultivating gifts through content
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School as a place of development
Meet the Designers
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Dr. Tonya Breland
Recipient of the National Milken Educator Award and former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Education for New Jersey, Dr. Tonya Breland has spent more than two decades transforming schools and systems at every level — from the classroom to state policy. Her work is grounded in a single conviction: every child who walks through the schoolhouse door carries brilliance. Our job is to find it, name it, and grow it.
Co-author of Today’s Classroom: Practical Strategies for Nurturing Greatness in Your Diverse Learners and co-host of the Nurturing Greatness Movement Podcast, Dr. Breland is a sought-after keynote speaker, coach, and consultant known for inspiring action and delivering strategies educators can use immediately.
Dr. Erika Leak
As former Director of the New Jersey Office of the State Board of Education, Dr. Erika Leak has shaped educational systems at the highest levels — and she brings that systems-thinking lens into every engagement she leads. With over 25 years of experience across schools, districts, and state agencies, Dr. Leak helps organizations see clearly — identifying the beliefs and structures that either limit or liberate the potential of every person within them.
Co-author of Today’s Classroom: Practical Strategies for Nurturing Greatness in Your Diverse Learners and co-host of the Nurturing Greatness Movement Podcast, Dr. Leak’s work is always centered on one question: What does this child — or this adult — need to thrive?
The Seven Principles of Nurturing Greatness
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1) Personal Introspection
Educators and leaders engage in continual reflection on the beliefs, experiences, and biases that shape how they see students. This reflective practice ensures that instructional decisions truly serve all learners.
2) Strength-Based Relationships
Students are seen first for their value and potential. Through an asset-based lens, educators recognize the cultural, intellectual, and experiential capital that students and families bring into learning spaces.
3) Gift Cultivation
Learning is intentionally designed to identify and develop students’ talents, interests, and skills rather than relying on tradition or routine instructional patterns.
4) Instructional Approach
Content areas are used as launchpads for students to explore their strengths, develop critical thinking, and better understand their world. Instruction becomes a vehicle for empowerment.
5) Learning Experiences
Classrooms become environments where curiosity is encouraged, risks are safe, mistakes are part of growth, and engagement is the norm.
6) Creativity and Innovation
This principle challenges what we call the “epidemic of boringness” in schools. Teaching and learning are reimagined to foster imagination, originality, and fresh thinking.
7) Contextualized Application
Students are given opportunities to apply their developing greatness in real contexts — within classrooms, schools, families, and communities — supported by educators, leaders, and mentors who recognize their potential.