Education Week - January 21, 2015 - Special Report - S8

S6 |
EDUCATION WEEK n
January 21, 2015
Shaping Strong School Leaders > www.edweek.org/go/principals
Greg Kahn for Education Week
DEEPENING THE BENCH OF
SCHOOL LEADERS
BY COREY MITCHELL
Annapolis, Md.
The Maryland education department is
immersed in a yearlong endeavor aimed at
developing a model program to provide support,
networking, and practical training for
assistant principals who want to become
principals.
Through the Governor's Promising Principals
Academy, officials will train nearly 48 assistant
principals this academic year, selecting
two of the best and brightest from each of
the state's 24 districts.
Education leaders say Maryland's initiative
represents one of the most ambitious statewide
efforts undertaken to upgrade school
leadership ranks and is distinctive for its
deliberate tapping of the state's assistantprincipal
workforce as the main source of
promising talent.
The yearlong academy was designed to
help construct a key piece of the principal
pipeline at a critical time, when the success
of school improvement initiatives-from the
implementation of the Common Core State
Standards to conducting meaningful teacher
evaluations-depends largely on the political,
managerial, and instructional-leadership
skills of principals.
It is also a response to a widespread concern
expressed by district executives: Too
many new principals-even those who have
served as assistant principals-face a steep
learning curve, said Tom DeHart, a leadership-development
specialist with the Maryland
education department.
'A Learning Process'
The participants-primarily assistant principals
chosen by their district superintendents-gathered
for multiday retreats in July,
September, and December. A final in-person
session is scheduled for March. Each cohort
of aspiring principals is paired with a coach,
a former principal who serves as a mentor. In
between the sessions, the groups gather online
with their state-provided iPads to complete
exercises and network under the guidance of
their mentors.
"They're very eager to bounce ideas off
each other," said coach John R. Nori, a reMaryland
grooms
assistant
principals to
move into top job
tired principal and assistant principal in the
154,000-student Montgomery County district
and a former director of program development
for the Reston, Va.-based National Association
of Secondary School Principals.
Maryland is using $440,000 in federal Race
to the Top funds to underwrite the effort. The
participants are in line to take top jobs at
schools during the 2015-16 school year.
At least one participant has already
climbed the career ladder. Rochelle Archelus
opted to remain in the academy even after
leaders in the Baltimore County system appointed
her as acting principal at Woodlawn
Middle School in September, shortly after the
start of classes.
"Every moment is still a learning process,"
she said.
Faced with a four-month conception-toPAGE
S8 >
Jennifer Schrecongost, an assistant principal
in Stevensville, Md., views a peer's mock
news conference as part of a state effort to
prepare more principals.
http://www.edweek.org/go/principals
Education Week - January 21, 2015 - Special Report

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