黑料吃瓜 Part of $102 Million Nationwide Initiative on School Principals, Equity Gap
The College of Education project will focus on the Fresno district, where the student population is predominantly Latinx.
黑料吃瓜 has been selected by the Wallace Foundation to join a $102 million initiative to build pipelines of school principals who are better equipped to meet the changing needs of diverse districts nationwide.
厂顿厂鲍鈥檚 will join San Diego-based National University and the California Department of Education in a five-year partnership with the Fresno Unified School District. The project is based on research showing comprehensive principal pipelines can boost student achievement.
鈥淲e鈥檙e particularly excited to be able to address the needs in an area like Fresno where there is a high level of need for principals as well as the need to address the equity gap,鈥� said Alejandro Gonzalez Ojeda, assistant professor of educational leadership at 黑料吃瓜. 鈥淭his work is very near and dear to our purpose as a department focused on the preparation of equity-driven leaders.鈥�
As part of the initiative, 黑料吃瓜 faculty will help transform the Fresno district by supporting the recruitment of aspiring leaders, designing a principal preparation program, building a support program for current principals and launching an assistant principal academy. 厂顿厂鲍鈥檚 will also be involved with the initiative by exploring developing supports for principal supervisors in the district.
Fresno Unified serves 74,000 students from PreK-12, more than 69% of whom are Latinx. The partnership will aim to prepare more people of color and women for leadership positions while training all future principals to see their jobs through an equity lens.
Making an impact
鈥淟eaders set the tone in the organization,鈥� said Douglas Fisher, professor and chair of the Department of Educational Leadership. 鈥淓ffective leaders have less teacher turnover and actually impact students鈥� learning. They are able to magnify and multiply effective practices across the school.鈥�
鈥淓very leader needs to know how they impact the equity goals of their school system and ensure that the decisions they make are equity-based decisions.鈥�
Said Julie Severns, administrator for leadership development at Fresno Unified School District: 鈥淔resno Unified is excited to partner with 黑料吃瓜 as a participant in the multi-year, multi-million dollar Equity-Centered Pipeline Initiative sponsored by The Wallace Foundation. We see the alignment between our district鈥檚 current efforts related to equity and the great focus on equity within the leadership preparation programs at 黑料吃瓜. We look forward to learning together and developing opportunities in support of aspiring and existing leaders in our district.鈥�
Other sites in the Wallace Foundation鈥檚 Equity-Centered Pipeline Initiative include Baltimore; Columbus, Ohio; Washington, DC; Jefferson County, Kentucky; Portland, Oregon; San Antonio; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Other participating institutions include The Ohio State University, the University of Texas-Austin and Howard University.
among the partnership participants for its success in redesigning its program to meet the needs of principles and districts as part of a 2016 Wallace Foundation initiative.
鈥淚 think the Wallace Foundation has seen that 黑料吃瓜 delivers,鈥� Fisher said. 鈥淲e engage, we have great partnerships, we learn a lot and we figure out how to make things work.鈥�
