Foundations of Principal Supervision is a year-long blended learning program that builds the culturally responsive leadership skills of new and experienced district leaders who supervise and support principals. When you join this program, you join a community of 108 principal supervisors working across 36 districts in 21 states, who collectively reach close to 1,900 principals and more than 2.2 million students.
Now in its 6th year, Foundations of Principal Supervision allows participants to unpack the role and impact of the principal supervisor; build their capacity as instructional leaders to support culturally responsive practice; analyze data to support planning, decision making and feedback; and learn to leverage a coaching approach and communities of practice to build the capacity of principals as culturally responsive instructional leaders. Participants will work in teams with peers in similar positions from across the country, in a lively, fast-paced learning environment that encourages collaboration and creative solutions to the most daunting challenges. The program will help principal supervisors adapt to the ever-evolving expectations of the role, strengthen their vision, develop the skills to build leadership capacity of principals, and plan for the upcoming school year.
In the below video, Dr. Michele Shannon, former Boston Chief of Schools and one of the Foundations of Principal Supervision facilitators, shares how her experience in The Leadership Academy’s aspiring principals program and her long career as an education leader inform her work with principal supervisors.
Participants in Foundations of Principal Supervision will:
- Reflect on the history of racial inequity in American education and develop a personal “why” for their work as principal supervisors in dismantling inequities faced by students.
- Develop an understanding of what culturally responsive and equitable practice looks like at the classroom, school, and district levels.
- Analyze and interpret data across a network of schools with specific attention to the diverse cultural and learning needs of students.
- Leverage a coaching approach and communities of practice to grow a network of principals as culturally responsive instructional leaders and capacity builders of school staff.
- Develop a strategic support plan aligned to a culturally responsive theory of change that advances equity and drives continuous improvement for a network of schools.
The program is comprised of the following learning components:
- Summer/ Fall Professional Learning Sessions – 7 virtual half days (4 in summer, 3 in fall)
- Mid-Year in-person convening – February 16-17, 2022 (location TBD)
- 3 virtual problem of practice consultancies (sessions in March, May, and August 2022)
- End-of-Year virtual convening—September 19-20, 2022
The tuition is $6,000 per person.