Wallace Foundation supports principal initiative

[from Philanthropy News Digest] The Wallace Foundation has announced the launch of a five-year, $75 million initiative designed to help six urban school districts develop and groom qualified principals and determine whether the investment improves student achievement, especially in high-need schools.

Based on ten years of research, Wallace has identified four key parts of a "principal pipeline" that it believes can develop and ensure the success of a sufficient number of principals to meet a school district's needs: rigorous job requirements, high-quality training, selective hiring, and on-the-job evaluation and support. The initiative will provide the participating districts with up to $12.5 million over the next five years to develop, hire, and support effective school principals. Funding from Wallace, however, will account for only two-thirds of the total investment; the districts will be required to make up the remaining third as a condition of the grants.

Selected from a pool of ninety candidates, the six districts are Charlotte-Mecklenburg in North Carolina; Denver; Gwinnett County in Georgia; Hillsborough County in Florida; New York City; and Prince George's County in Maryland. In the initiative's first phase, Wallace will distribute a total of $21.35 million, including up to $17 million to build the pipeline in the six districts and up to $3.5 million for independent research that will examine the districts' efforts and answer a number of questions.

The foundation also will make additional grants to provide the districts with needed expertise and learning opportunities, including $600,000 to the Education Development Center to work with each district to assess the quality of its leader training programs and $250,000 to the New York City Leadership Academy to help create a "learning community" that will enable participants to exchange ideas, discuss common problems, and engage with evaluators and other experts.

“The Wallace Foundation Launches Major 'Principal Pipeline' Initiative to Help School Districts Build Corps of Effective School Leaders.” Wallace Foundation Press Release 8/23/11.