Pence Elementary School in Fairfield has earned Leader in Me Lighthouse Certification, a globally recognized standard of excellence in school leadership, culture, and academics—the result of nearly eight years of dedicated implementation of the Leader in Me program.
The certification was awarded following a formal review conducted on March 4th, 2026, by a team from FranklinCovey Education. Lead Reviewer Kim Nelson and Reviewer Stephanie Burrow-Carpenter spent a full day at Pence conducting observations, interviewing students, parents, and staff, and analyzing data before designating the school as a Lighthouse School. The review was coordinated by Principal Angela Jones and Lighthouse Coordinator Kristen McCready.
“It is a pleasure to designate Pence Elementary School as a Leader in Me Lighthouse School,” the review team wrote in its formal report.
David Ansbacher, Ed.D., Director of Lighthouse and Quality Initiatives at FranklinCovey, congratulated the school in a letter to Principal Jones. “Achieving Lighthouse Certification is certainly worth celebrating, and FranklinCovey Education is thrilled to share your great news,” Ansbacher wrote. “Welcome to the community of Lighthouse Schools.”
Principal Jones revealed the news to her staff at the end of a professional development session on Friday, March 27th, with a video presentation. The day also included a short video, confetti poppers, cake, and a group photo. On Monday, March 30th, the entire school—staff and students—celebrated together in the gymnasium with the lights off, light-up glasses, music playing, and glowing necklaces for a morning dance celebration.
What Lighthouse Certification Means
Lighthouse Certification is a global standard of excellence recognized by FranklinCovey Education, awarded to schools that demonstrate high-quality implementation of the Leader in Me program across three interconnected areas: leadership, culture, and academics. Becoming a Lighthouse School is typically achieved within three to five years of implementing the program and requires a formal site visit and evidence review. The certification is valid for two years, after which schools undergo a recertification process. Pence’s first recertification milestone will be due during the 2027-28 school year, with an onsite recertification visit scheduled for the 2029-30 school year.
Research supports the impact of Lighthouse certification, with over 80 third-party studies confirming positive outcomes for schools, students, staff, and families. Studies show Lighthouse schools achieve higher academic growth across ELA, math, and science, improved student self-regulation and lower discipline rates, better student attendance and engagement, and deeper development of student leadership skills.
What the Review Found
The review team evaluated Pence across all core areas of the Leader in Me framework and found the school meeting standards across the board. Notably, all five Core Paradigms were fully met: the Paradigm of Leadership, the Paradigm of Potential, the Paradigm of Change, the Paradigm of Motivation, and the Paradigm of Education.
In demonstrating the Paradigm of Potential, reviewers noted that students were invited to participate in the Read Across America Bookmark contest and that the school’s end-of-year Leader in Me Assembly includes a talent show—both examples of the school’s belief that every student has unique genius. The Paradigm of Motivation was evidenced by TAG students being given the opportunity to choose a topic to research and deliver a TED Talk-inspired speech to share with others. The Paradigm of Education was demonstrated through the Spring Family Engagement Night, where students shared with families how they use the 7 Habits in class, and through the Family Connections team sending home monthly activities for families to practice the 7 Habits together.
In the area of leadership, reviewers noted that 100% of staff and students are involved in a leadership team, that all new staff members receive training in the 7 Habits and Leader in Me within their first year, and that the school has created a mentoring and accountability system among staff members. The school also actively teaches the 7 Habits and Core Paradigms to families. Areas identified for continued growth include developing a more structured system for ongoing staff learning and creating more opportunities for families to contribute ideas to the school’s leadership model.
In the area of culture, reviewers highlighted that the physical environment throughout the school communicates the worth and potential of all stakeholders, that student voice and creativity are visibly reflected in classrooms and common areas, and that the school has built an environment where all students and families feel welcomed, valued, and trusted. Leadership roles are available to all students, and 100% of students hold classroom or schoolwide leadership roles throughout the year. All students have created personal mission statements and review them regularly. Reviewers noted no areas for growth in the shared leadership category.
In the area of academics, the review found that all students create academic Wildly Important Goals written in a measurable format, that all students use lead measures and scoreboards to track their personal progress, and that peer-to-peer accountability partners are in place throughout the school. Notably, 100% of Title I and IEP students showed growth on reading and math assessments from fall to winter. Reviewers encouraged the school to continue developing systems for teams to publicly track growth on classroom scoreboards.
What’s Next
Pence will receive a new Lighthouse School banner from FranklinCovey in the coming weeks and has been recognized on the Leader in Me website at theleaderinme.org. As a certified Lighthouse School, Pence may also serve as a model school for other Leader in Me schools looking to learn from and be inspired by its implementation.
In Their Own Words
Principal Angela Jones on the 7 Habits and the philosophy behind Leader in Me:
“For the last almost eight years, we’ve been fully implementing it. We started with the staff and then we moved it into the students and surely it was a big piece that helped us support our teachers through COVID and everything that has happened in the Fairfield community. It was really like focusing on ourselves. Underneath the ground, those are those first three habits. They start with you—being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, and putting first things first. That piece of you can’t help others until you help yourself, that’s the big mentality behind it.”
“As you go towards that middle chunk piece, thinking win-win, because you’re trying to think of others and also think of yourself, not just about me or just about someone else. I think a word that people come up with is compromise, but usually in compromise, somebody loses—in this mentality we kind of work together. Then as you think about relationship building, you really think about seeking first understanding, being a good listener. Then as we listen together, that synergizing is when we work together, we can do things quicker, we can do things better because we’re working together. That last habit, sharpen your saw, really that’s a big piece — it takes a lot to take care of yourself and to help others and you have to be able to take that trip, go on that walk, read that book, take that nap, do whatever.”
“The habit that’s not on there is habit eight, which is a piece where working with the students is finding your voice because these are all leadership pieces—like knowing yourself, knowing how to work with others, and being able to speak up, being able to share what gifts that you have because truly behind all of this is finding your own genius and finding your own gifts.”
“We’ve had a hard-working Lighthouse team kind of working behind the scenes that’s worked with our 22 leadership teams that we have throughout the building. With that, every student, every adult in this building is on the leadership teams and those leadership teams are either adding value to the school and/or community—from how it’s happening with the blood drive to our welcome wagon that either comes in as a guest that wants to have a tour, we do a tour, things that we embrace others around us.”
“We’re not perfect and we know that. We all have things that we can improve on and there are pieces that we’re already starting to put our heads together for next year that like this has to get better. And I feel like we have a receptive staff that want to do that too.”
Jones on family engagement and the impact of COVID:
“We have WIGs which are wildly important goals and those goals are based on academics—reading and math—but then also family engagement. Along with our family engagement in the fall and spring, each trimester each grade level is inviting the families into the classroom and that’s all a response of our MRA data, which is a survey that we get of families and staff and students showing us where our deficits are. That’s our goal — to get families into the school. COVID did its piece where it kind of shut people off. Now it’s like people want in and so you’ve got to let them in. That’s probably good news and there’s a lot of good stuff going on. We’re proud of everyone. It’s a team effort. It’s not one person.”
Lighthouse Coordinator Kristen McCready on what the certification represents:
“Achieving Lighthouse status means that we’re exemplary in all of those things that she just described. Someone from the Lighthouse, FranklinCovey, came and toured all day long and interviewed students, interviewed parents, and interviewed staff and designated us as an example to other schools — which probably will happen more in the future — where other schools that are part of the Leader in Me will come here and look and see how things are going and kind of look to us as a model school for everyone.”
Photos courtesy of Angela Jones and A.J. Roe.
