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20 ASPIRING PRINCIPALS HOPING FOR AN A+
IN NEW LEADERSHIP ACADEMY
Selected  from over 230 applicants, members of the first cohort are developingskills to lead
the Houston region’s most challenged middle and high schools

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: July 10, 2008
Contact: Melissa Milios Davis, Houston A+ Challenge: 713-658-1881, mmdavis@houstonaplus.org

Building trust and support among parents and community members.  Winning the hearts and minds of an overtaxed staff.  Reaching all students where they are, and inspiring them to aim higher.

This summer, 20 aspiring principals are spending six grueling weeks in a new, intensive leadership training program to help prepare for these and other certain challenges faced in urban secondary schools across the Houston region.

The interns – nine assistant principals, six classroom teachers and five content coaches/mid-level educators – were selected from among 235 applicants as the first cohort of Houston A+ Challenge’s three-year Regional Principal Leadership Academy.  Two interns are alumni of Teach For America.  The rigorous selection process drew candidates from as far away as Qatar, New York and Chicago.

• For a list of interns with ZIP codes and school district affiliations, click here.  For biographies on each of the interns, click here.
  
  
• Through July 25, the Academy meets each week day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Contact Melissa Milios Davis to schedule a visit.

In the fall, each aspiring principal will begin a yearlong internship under the tutelage of a mentor principal at secondary schools in Aldine, Houston, Humble, Spring and Spring Branch ISDs and YES Prep Public Schools – all which are Academy partners.

“This summer’s intensive six-week session is giving these future leaders the tools to look at schools critically and systemically, and to think as turnaround specialists,” said Sheri Miller-Williams, Director of Leadership for Houston A+ Challenge.  “This fall they’ll be placed in real schools with real challenges.  They’ll be shadowing some of the most effective principals in their districts.  For a hands-on learning experience, there is no better classroom.”

Throughout the 2008-09 school year, interns will continue to meet as a cohort for about eight hours per week to reflect on their school experiences and discuss how to apply these lessons in their next assignments: Successful interns will be placed as leaders at area secondary schools, and receive two years of continued coaching and professional development for themselves and their campus leadership teams.

Interns’ salaries are paid by their host district, and Academy costs are supported generously by local philanthropies including Houston Endowment and The Brown Foundation.  The New York City Leadership Academy, Rice University, Region 4, the University of Houston, and Teach for America Houston have been "thought partners" throughout the development and launch of the Academy.

An estimated 160 principal vacancies need to be filled annually across the Houston region, and more than one-fourth of all principal positions turn over each year in some districts.  Teacher turnover increases with principal turnover, and these rates are highest at secondary schools in which more than 50 percent of the students are economically disadvantaged.  Turnover is expected to increase as current school leaders approach retirement age.

Academy interns began their three-year journey on June 16 with a week of Critical Friends Group training, which provided tools and strategies for creating instruction-focused professional learning communities on their campuses.

"We pull everything out from our readings and activities that we can. We don't stay on the surface," said Ellen Winstead, who will intern at YES Prep Public Schools next fall. "Every day, we delve deep into how this is going to be applicable to us as principals."

“We are developing trust very quickly, because we know that we need to lean on each other if we are going to get through this,” said Ann Mayfield, a former math teacher for Houston ISD.  “We come from different places in our lives, but we always find that common thread.”

On June 24, Houston A+ Challenge hosted a kickoff dinner with special guest Tony Wagner (co-director of Harvard University's Change Leadership Group), who spent the next day in private conversation with the cohort.  Houston A+ Challenge will bring adjunct national and regional faculty to instruct the Academy through the program’s duration.

* Began training with the cohort in June, but withdrew after being assigned as a principal of Garden Oaks Elementary School in Houston ISD. Congratulations, Lindsey!

About Houston A+ Challenge
Houston A+ Challenge is an independent nonprofit that has supported public school improvement and education leadership development in the Houston area since 1997. Houston A+ partners with local school districts to build professional networks and school leaders who create lasting improvements in classroom instruction and student achievement.  On the web at: www.houstonaplus.org.

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