Gwinnett County's school system has won a $12.5 million grant to expand its nationally recognized executive training program to groom new principals.
The Wallace Foundation named Gwinnett as one of six districts in the nation to participate in its $75 million "principal pipeline" initiative, which will explore how effective administrators impact student achievement.
Over the course of five years, each participating district will receive $7.5 million to $12.5 million to develop, hire and support new principals. Gwinnett's first-year award is $3.9 million and it expects to receive a total of $12.5 million.
Gwinnett school officials said the money will be used to expand the Quality-Plus Leader Academy, which has been training assistant principals to become heads of schools since 2007.
This is the second national recognition for the program in three months. In June, the program received an endorsement from the George W. Bush Institute, which added Gwinnett schools’ leadership academy to a network of “innovators” changing the way principals are selected, trained and empowered to boost student achievement.
"We are just incredibly excited," said Glenn Pethel, executive director of leadership development for Gwinnett schools. "We think it's a great opportunity for us to refine what we have been doing and take it to the next level."
Among other things, the Wallace Foundation grant will allow Gwinnett to expand the year-long training program's residency portion, where participants job-shadow principals, from 50 to 90 days. Wallace grants are to account for two-thirds of funding for the programs; the districts pick up the rest.
"For the past decade, Wallace and its partners have helped identify objectively what it takes to shape a principal who can improve teaching and learning, especially in troubled city schools," Will Miller, president of the Wallace Foundation, said in a statement. "We have now selected exemplary urban districts that are well on their way to putting in place the training and support necessary to have enough effective principals for all of their schools."
Gwinnett, the state's largest school district, is expecting an enrollment of 162,459 students by Labor Day.
The assistant principals in Gwinnett’s Quality-Plus Leader Academy use case studies, tips from insiders and job-shadowing experiences to help them identify their strengths and weaknesses as leaders.
Of 116 academy graduates, 85 have been promoted to principal. There are 23 in the 2011 program slated to graduate in December.
Applicants are screened by Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks, who brought home the Broad Prize for Urban Education in 2010 for work done to narrow the achievement gap.
"Not just anyone can be a successful principal today," Wilbanks said in a statement. "To be effective, a principal must have knowledge, skills and talent that cannot be acquired in college courses alone, and cannot be mastered without opportunities to learn from outstanding leaders in the profession."
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