Twenty-two (22) new awards were made in FY 2008.

We are proposing a comprehensive leadership development program focused on preparation of principals for high poverty and remote Alaska schools, and support for those who are currently serving in those schools. The program consists of three components: 1) preservice, 2) induction, and 3) training and technical assistance for principals in high need districts and schools in need of improvement, corrective action, or restructuring.

Component I: Rural Alaska School Leadership Development This component is a unique educational leadership program that prepares principals to lead rural, high-poverty Alaska schools. Input from rural superintendents and principals, plus partner experts, will be used to enhance the University of Alaska Anchorage Educational Leadership Program courses with theory, knowledge and skills needed for success in rural Alaska schools. About 20 educators a year graduate as principals a year. All o the courses can be delivered via distance delivery.

Component II: Principal Induction Program Component I graduates and other principals new to Alaska who become rural school principals will be given support by specially trained coaches from the Alaska Administrator Coaching Program (AACP). These coaches -similar to mentors for beginning teachers- help the new principals, via a distance and on-site presence, with organizational and facilitation skills, teacher observation and evaluation, using data to improve instruction, and effective school-level and classroom-level practices.

Component III: Professional Development for practicing principals who lead schools that are In Need of Improvement or in Corrective Action status. All Component III professional development is coordinated with the NCLB School Improvement/Corrective Action Plans that most of the participating schools are currently working under. The professional; development will be delivered by a combination of AACP coaches and project partners (MCREL, Measured Progress, etc.), mostly through distance technology.

It is estimated that 55-60 new principals will graduate; 175 or more new principals will receive induction coaching; at least 80 experienced principals will receive educational leadership professional development.

All eighteen are in high poverty; 141 rural and isolated schools (no roads); 13,601 students, of whom 12,776 are Alaska Natives; 30 schools at NCLB levels 2, 3, or 4; 49 schools in Corrective Action/Restructuring Status.

The URBAN-EXCEL (U-E) Principal Certification and Professional Development Partnership builds on an existing, highly successful and nationally award-winning university school partnership with high-poverty rural and urban communities all over the state of Arizona. The partnership reflects nine high poverty school districts (6 rural, 3 urban), 51,200 students, 3,115 teachers, and 76 schools. Of these schools, 45% were in some level of corrective action in 2007. The U-E proposal creates a high quality and rigorous principal certification program built on the needs of the partner districts and the recommendations of exemplary principal certification programs (e.g., Darling-Hammond, L., LaPointe, M., Meyerson, D., and Orr, M., 2007; U.S. Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement, 2004).

The U-E Principal Certification Program represents a new and higher standard of rigor in the preparation of Arizona principals with full-year internship, intensive observation and coaching (using a Blended Coaching framework). The program is also specifically designed for principals who will serve in schools in high-poverty rural and urban communities.

The partnership also brings state o-the-art professional development to acting principals in the U-E network through technology. The "Principal Academy" will offer application oriented workshops and advanced professional development seminars with the option of site based, individualized coaching and/or collegial visits. The Principal Academy will be delivered through live, interactive videoconference to partner districts all over the state. This virtual "face-to-face" medium allows even the most isolated and remotely located administrator to receive high-quality professional development and collegial support.

This is a Community of Practice Model. By building skills for self-reflection, inquiry, and the improvement of practice in a positive, supportive, and collegial context, we will expand our collective K-20 capacity to reflect on and improve leadership, teaching, and student learning.

The Great Leaders for Great Schools Institute at California State Polytechnic University Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona), in collaboration with the Pomona Unified School District (PUSD), will implement a School Leadership Development Program that will prepare thirty new school administrators with the leadership skills that will ensure that underperforming PUSD schools meet the state proficiency standards by 2014 and that these schools demonstrate adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward meeting these standards. The goal of the proposed program is to prepare and support practice-ready administrators for the challenges of turning around underperforming urban schools in the Pomona Unified School District and eventually, in the greater San Gabriel Valley Region of Southern California (a highly diverse, urban environment).

Our program will provide an innovative approach to leadership preparation that is modeled after similar programs in the New York City Schools, Delta State University, and New Leaders for New Schools. Framed around a full-time, site-based apprenticeship, the program will include a cohort-based learning community, a curriculum that integrates the apprenticeship experiences with important concepts and theories in leadership and urban school reform, a problem-based learning instructional approach, mentoring and executive coaching, off-site visitations to exemplary schools no longer in the "underperforming" category, and collaboration between university faculty members and school district administrators.

The project will produce 180 new, credentialed principals and assistant principals, and will retain an additional 185 current principals and assistant principals in high-poverty, low performing urban schools in four LAUSD local districts that enroll more than 300,000 students. In these local districts, 163 of the 282 schools are in Program Improvement. This points to the need for well-qualified school leaders who can raise student achievement. The project design is based on research, gives priority to participants who have a record of commitment to low performing schools, uses incentives for participants to earn their required state credentials, fosters retention of principals or assistant principals in these schools, and creates a learning community focused on how leaders can improve student achievement. Aspiring leaders will earn their preliminary credential and master's degree (required by LAUSD) in an innovative program with substantial school-based work experience in only 12-16 months. Those with a credential will join quarterly activities for help in completing the 6-12-month LAUSD eligibility process and being placed as an assistant principal or principal. New principals and assistant principals with less than 2 years' experience will be mentored and will participate in quarterly group activities to increase retention and student achievement. Principals and assistant principals with 2-5 years' experience will earn their professional administrative credential (required) and participate in activities that will increase retention and student achievement. All groups will attend learning-community activities that provide professional development related to the leadership strategies needed to overcome the barriers to student achievement that are specific to their local districts. Target: 514 unduplicated aspiring & current school leaders over 5 years.

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The Pueblo City School District #60 (PCS-60) is partnering with the National Institute for School Leadership, Inc. (NISL) to carry out the Principal's Development Program for the district, which is a high-need local educational agency. NISL will work with district officials in the development and conduct of a major principal training project that will result in the recruitment, selection, training, and retention of high-quality principals and assistant principals that serve high-need PSD-60 schools not meeting minimum Colorado and international standards. NISL, which has developed a world-class executive leadership program for elementary, middle and high schools principals, will work with the district's executive staff to set up activities designed to quickly and effectively identify and increase the leadership and management capacity of principals and other potential school leaders in order to enable these executives to bring about sustainable higher levels of student achievement in low performing schools.

The NISL Executive Development Program has been sponsored in part by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Broad Foundation, the New Schools Venture Fund, and the Stupski Family Foundation and is considered a world-class program to train principals to meet any type of challenges. NISL works with school districts and other organizations to enable them to deliver high quality/high performance executive development directly to school principals. Training is needed for the new restructured district leadership.

In 2006, the PCS-60 Board of Education hired Dr. John Covington to work with the community to completely recreate the district. The curriculum, while geared to State of Colorado standards, had to be changed in order to prepare a large population of lower-income minority students to meet national and international standards. Schools and classrooms would be revamped, changing the unsuccessful traditional method of teaching to one that prepares all students regardless of their backgrounds to meet international standards. To do this, the Superintendent has completely revised the executive structure and is in the process of reconstituting schools with new school principals, concentrating on replacing or retraining those that are not succeeding according to Colorado educational standards and the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

Changes are needed, in part, because over the past two decades, PCS-60's enrollment has sharply declined due to the flight of more affluent white and Hispanic families to surrounding communities and private schools. As a result, a lower economic Hispanic population has remained along with an increasing proportion of elderly persons.

Superintendent Covington, who is currently a participant in the Broad Foundation Superintendent's Academy, is currently participating in a 10-month program designed to train top executives to lead urban public school districts. His training combined with the NISL training carried out under this project for newly recruited and current principals in high-need schools will serve as the basis for restructuring and improving school leadership throughout the district.

By the completion of the five-year project, 60 highly motivated school principals; assistant principals and potential school principals will be trained to effectively lead the district's high-need schools. Additionally, leadership development will be offered to 180 school administrators and teachers who show potential to be school leaders in high-need schools. Project staff will create a network among school districts with leaders trained by NISL and Colorado university faculty to disseminate findings about the ability of the project to serve as a model for school reform.

As part of the project, financial incentives will be offered to aspiring new principals and payment of stipends of NISL trained principals to mentor identified and newly selected principals as they are identified. Additionally, an incentive program will be implemented for PCS-60 teachers and individuals from other fields with leadership ability that want to become principals and are interested in participating in special training designed to prepare them for future school leadership.

Denver Public Schools (DPS), in partnership with the University of Denver's Ritchie Program for School Leaders, seeks to expand and enhance innovative strategies to recruit, train and retain highly qualified instructional leaders to serve as principals and assistant principals (APs) through the proposed Urban Principal Leadership Program (UPLP). DPS currently has 66 (of 151) schools in need of improvement, corrective action or restructuring under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The proposed UPLP will assess and address the specific instructional needs at these schools with the placement of highly qualified principals/APs, thus meeting SLP's defined competitive priority. Goal 1 is to improve student achievement across DPS, particularly among schools that are in need of corrective action, improvement or restructuring under NCLB; measurable objectives include increased academic achievement in targeted schools and improvements under the direction of Ritchie alumni. Goal 2 is to attract, develop and retain effective principals and APs to improve student achievement in high-needs schools; measurable objectives include the number of internships and scholarships awarded, retention of principals/APs in high-needs schools and satisfaction with the preparation received. Goal 3 is to enhance principal and AP skills in raising student achievement; measurable objectives include participation in professional development activities, number of principals/APS paired with mentors, increase in principal effectiveness and retention in high-needs school. Over the course of the project, it is expected that 185 people will participate in UPLP.

The Academy for Educational Development Middle School Leadership Project (AED MSLP) is designed to assist low-performing middle schools in the Bronx through the development of innovative programs to develop, train, and coach principals (including assistant principals) to serve in high-need urban middle schools. The Academy for Educational Development's (AED) program of leadership development is aligned with and supportive of the New York City Department of Education's Children First Initiative and will assist the department in its effort to ensure that every New York City public school is led by a leader with the skills, knowledge, and behaviors to continuously improve student learning.

MSLP will address the critical need of improving Bronx middle schools by creating an aligned and interconnected program that will provide aspiring leaders, assistant principal, and principals with a strong foundation in adolescent development anchored by the five New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) School Leadership Competencies. Through the MSLP, we will implement the following:

Recruitment and Training for Future Principals: We will create the AED Leadership Fellows Program, which will prepare experienced middle school assistant principals to be excellent principals for high-need urban middle schools. AED Leadership Fellows will receive training to ensure that they are grounded in the principles of Middle Start (AED's research-based comprehensive middle-grades reform initiative) as well as in all five of the NYCDOE School Leadership Competencies.

Professional Development for Current and New Principals: We will offer a comprehensive two-year program of support for participating middle school principals, including a Middle Start Study Institute, three semester-long institutes designed to support the five competencies, an annual leadership development institute with the Center for Creative Leadership, and an opportunity to be trained as a coach for new principals in the program. Assistant principals in participating middle schools will also participate in a two year Middle Start Study Institute and have the opportunity to attend two skill-development institutes around the areas of the five competencies each year.

Described below are the long-term goals and intended outcomes for the proposed program:

Goal 1: To recruit highly qualified experienced assistant principals to prepare for principalships in high-need urban middle schools.

• Outcome 1.1: A pool of approximately 50 highly trained assistant principals skilled in instructional and managerial leadership and knowledgeable about the principles of adolescent development will be prepared for placement in principal positions in high-need urban middle schools.

Goal 2: To strengthen the abilities of principals and assistant principals to meet the academic, social, and emotional needs of students in high-need urban middle schools.

• Outcome 2.1: A cadre of accomplished principals will have developed a full repertoire of coaching and facilitation skills to support their newly placed peers in promoting student outcomes and school success.
• Outcome 2.2: Participating principals and assistant principals will demonstrate gains in their knowledge and skills as a result of participation in ongoing, sustained professional development aligned with the NYCDOE School Leadership Competencies.
• Outcome 2.3: Participating school principals and assistant principals will demonstrate increased skills needed to address the academic, social, and emotional needs of students in high-need urban middle schools.

Goal 3: To retain highly qualified leaders in high-need urban middle schools.

• Outcome 3.1: Decreased rate of principal turnover in high-need urban middle schools.
• Outcome 3.2: Participating assistant principals and principals are more engaged with and connected to the school community and will become increasingly able to manage their own individualized and ongoing professional development.

The project's objective over 5 years is to model a scalable system that develops school leaders to implement interventions in curriculum, instruction and school culture to bring about continuous improvement of student achievement. This objective will be achieved by working with six Florida high-need districts to:

1. Recruit, train, certify, hire and retain up to 60 new leaders who can work with teachers, parents and others to achieve improvement in high-need schools;
2. Provide professional development and coaching support to current principals and assistant principals at 25 high-need schools to implement proven practices that impact student achievement; and
3. Develop and test a replicable academy model (the Florida Leadership Academy for Schools of Innovation and Improvement, hereafter referred to as the 'Academy') for both preparation and professional development of aspiring and current school leaders through a problem-centered approach that enables them to improve student achievement in low-performing schools.

The theory of change that grounds the development of the Academy is:

1. Selecting the right candidates to prepare as school leaders, rather than accepting anyone willing to pay tuition;
2. Creating leadership training and coursework that is research-based and reflects the needs in today's schools, rather than relying on traditional administration texts; and
3. Providing significant school-based learning experiences under the direction of a mentor who is a practicing principal. (Darling-Hammond, LaPointe, Meyerson, & Orr, 2007).

The intended outcomes of the project include:

1. An Academy program for aspiring and current leaders that incorporates the elements identified by research and best practice, addresses district and school leadership needs, leads to certification for aspiring principals, and improves the effectiveness of current principals and assistant principals in their schools;
2. An increased supply of prepared, committed and certified school leaders to serve as principals or assistant principals in low-performing schools within the six high-need districts;
3. Incentives and supports that will attract, place and keep well-prepared new principals and assistant principals at the helm of hard-to-change schools; and
4. A state framework of policies for scaling up, supporting and sustaining a system that provides well-prepared leaders for low-performing schools in a high-need district or cluster of districts.

The ultimate impact of the project will be seen in:

1. Changes in the culture and practices of the schools served by the project and the new leaders produced by the training program; and
2. Changes in student achievement in the schools served. Student and faculty surveys, 360º principal leadership evaluations, and student test scores and performance indicators as specified in this proposal's evaluation design will measure this impact of the project.

The Florida Department of Education, with guidance from SREB, will establish a Commission on Leadership for High-Need Districts to plan, coordinate and review the Academy's development, review implementation and evaluation reports, and to craft recommendations that support its continuation and replication. The long-term purpose and role of the Commission will be to lift the preparation, support, and retention of effective leaders in low-performing schools to a state priority, recommend to the State Board of Education an appropriate set of policies and a plan for replicating the Academy's emerging training and delivery design in other districts, and secure state political and financial support for scaling up the Academy model in districts across the state.

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The ELIS II Program seeks to increase student achievement by supporting the placement of a highly qualified, effective leader in every school. Program goals include:

1. Identifying, recruiting and training aspiring principals by creating and implementing rigorous selection processes and criteria, working with partner principal preparation (P3) programs to provide standards-based instruction, and creation of a program to support Assistant Principals in becoming Principals;
2. Providing new principals with support systems appropriate to their developmental needs, by providing coaching, differentiated professional development and technical support; and
3. Supporting the development and retention of highly qualified mid-career and veteran principals by providing differentiated professional development, providing incentives for high performing principals to become mentors, and providing opportunities for retiring principals to become coaches to new principals.

The scope and depth of ELIS II's offerings are made possible because of OPPD's partnership with a wide range of academic and community partners. The ELIS II target population is comprised of highly qualified aspiring, novice, and veteran principals who are committed to and/or working in high need, low-performing urban schools. Currently, 329 CPS schools qualify as high-need and low performing.

ADVANCE BATON ROUGE (ABR), the Louisiana State University (LSU) College of Education, the Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute (SEI), and area public and charter schools propose Re-Designing Lessons, Re-Envisioning Principals (RLRP), an alternative certification program to prepare 60 highly qualified principals to lead troubled schools in the Baton Rouge area. Principal turnover is high in participating schools, with as many as 8 principals in one school over a 2-year period.

All partnering districts include Schools in Need of Improvement or Not Meeting AYP, thus qualifying the project for the 15 Competitive Priority Points. RLRP also meets the Invitational Priority with a bold plan to:

• Target recruitment to specific school needs;
• Provide innovative instruction aligned to state standards and that includes university instruction, lessons from other educators who have successfully dealt with similar situations, and best practices from the business community;
• And to include continued coaching support for new principals for 2 years following the 14-month initial instruction/certification program.
• The timing is excellent for this program as ADVANCE BATON ROUGE (lead applicant) has just been approved by the state to provide alternative principal certification and the ABR/LSU partnership is embarking on the second year of a complementary Transition to Teaching project in the same-targeted school districts.

This five-year project, the Los Angeles Principal Residency and Pilot Leadership Networks (LAPRPLN), is a collaborative partnership with organizations ranging from the local, state and national levels. The partnership is based on like-minded values of the importance of community and family involvement in schools, equity as the foundation for all teaching and learning, and school reform through small, autonomous schools-either Pilot schools or intentional small schools. Most of these partners have worked together to bring the successful Boston Pilot model to Los Angeles as a catalyst for change in a low-performing, high need LEA.

In Boston, CCE coordinates the highly successful Boston Pilot Schools Network—20 in-district, autonomous schools—and the Greater Boston Principal Residency Network. This proposal is to launch a similar principal residency network in LAUSD, beginning in Local District 4 for leaders of Los Angeles Pilot and small schools established in the student catchment areas of chronically underperforming public schools. The goals of the project are: 1) To establish and state-certify the Los Angeles Principal Residency Network (PRN) in collaboration with California State University Los Angeles and over the life of the project to graduate, credential, and place 45 aspiring principals as either assistant principals or principals. 2) To build a Pilot Leadership Network that will provide ongoing, structured professional development for at least 50 Pilot and small school leaders. We believe that this professional development support will translate to an 85% retention of these school leaders over the life of the project.

In addition, target training will be provided for Mentor Principals who participate in the PRN. A pathway to an advanced administrator credential will be developed for the sitting leaders who participate in the Network professional development programs.

The PRN is a 15-month, apprenticeship based principal credentialing program that provides modest stipends to mentors and a salary reimbursement to aspiring principals who want to lead small, innovative schools. Mentor and aspiring principals apply together as a team committed to change within their school. No other program like this currently exists in California. This proposal is submitted under the competitive priority.

The Jackson Public School District has made strong efforts through its strategic plan to upgrade its data use, professional development, support operations and financial planning. We have successfully implemented and improved teacher recruitment, retention, and professional development program through the US Department of Educations Transitions to Teaching program. Now we must address school leadership recruitment and training in order to continue efforts to meet our goals.

Based on the NISL model and encompassing the ISLLC Standards for School Leaders, the Leadership Development Academy (LDA) will address leadership developmental issues in four (4) separate stages: Aspiring Leaders' Academy, Junior Administrators' Academy, Novice/Young Principals' Academy, and Veteran Principals' Academy. While the project will provide professional development to individuals district-wide, efforts will be made to focus on the eleven (11) schools identified for improvement, corrective action, or restructuring under section 1116 of Title I, part A, of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The project will meet the district's objectives to recruit, select, prepare and support a trained pool of applicants from education or other fields for leadership positions within the high-need Jackson Public School District, develop a clear set of standards and desired characteristics of high performing school and district leadership necessary to improve school and student performance, and establish a clear, definitive process for screening applicants.

Working with the Department of Educational Leadership at Jackson State University—an HBCU and Mississippi's only urban university, the LDA will develop comprehensive evaluation activities that will measure the success in meeting the objectives and intended outcomes. The LDA evaluation-generated information will serve six primary purposes: (1) accountability, (2) project management, (3) staying on track, (4) efficiency, (5) sustainability, and (6) replicability. To determine the extent that the project is successfully implemented and lead to the intended outcomes, the evaluation consists of both Formative and Summative evaluations.

Gallup-McKinley County Schools, a large (5,000 square mile) school district in NW New Mexico, serves 12,000+ students in 35 schools. The student population is primarily (81%) Navajo. Over 90% of district's schools failed to make AYP and are at some level of school improvement designation. Principal turnover exceeds 20% per year.

The Instructional Leadership Academy seeks to increase and maintain the number of high-skilled principals and assistant principals in high-needs schools in a high need LEA and neighboring high needs LEAs serving primarily Native American students. The model is one of formal education through the Educational Leadership graduate program at Western New Mexico University (WNMU), combined with mentoring, financial incentives, and ongoing in-service professional development.

Up to 10 principal candidates per year (50 total candidates) will complete the intensive, 36-credit hour Master's program in Educational Leadership at WNMU. They will receive mentoring services by WNMU staff as they take classes, and will be provided opportunities to shadow current principals two half-days per semester to see what being a principal is really like. They will also attend three full day Saturday Seminars with existing principals throughout the year. They develop a portfolio of their training. Tuition and books will be paid by the grant.

Upon graduation, the principal candidates are matched with schools that need their particular talents. They enter a one-year internship, supported by a mentor principal and WNMU mentors throughout the year. The project will emphasize training and supporting local individuals in a "grow their own" approach, but those candidates who are not local will also work with a community mentor to develop a relationship with their school community and the local culture. All mentors are paid a stipend by the grant.

• An additional 25 current principals and up to 10 Assistant Principals develop a spirit of collegiality by attending twice-monthly Principal Seminars in which District business and school business are conducted, and principals meet in "sectionals" focusing on specific issues. In addition, all principals attend the three Saturday Seminars (one each semester), hosted by WNMU but facilitated either by WNMU staff or national level trainers, and focus on topics selected by the principals. Stipends are provided for all training time.

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Supporting NYC Leadership Academy Aspiring Principal Program graduates leading New York City Department of Education principals of high-need schools. Early career principals in high-need schools need effective systems of support in order to do the challenging work of transformational leadership. The NYC Leadership Academy will expand its pre-service Aspiring Principals Program, which prepares educators to lead New York City's high-need schools, to include early-career coaching support through the third year of the principalship. This program expansion will build upon the relationships, professional trust, and firm commitment to closing the achievement gap shared among the Aspiring Principals Program graduates, and will provide facilitative, competency based coaching to those graduates in the most demanding assignments. The project will serve 45-50 APP principals per year.

The Leadership Academy coaching model employs recently retired principals and/or principal supervisors—who are continually trained in the NYC DOE accountability tools and leadership competencies—to build the capacity of principals in their first several years on the job. During the school year, we use the immediate problems that the principals face as an entry point to broader competency development. Our coaches assist principals in building both their individual skills and their school's collective capacity for leveraging interventions and implementing approaches to accelerate student-learning gains. In this facilitative model, coaches work in partnership with principals to

1. Establish a purposeful and strategic individual growth plan that defines the learning priorities; and
2. Build the principal's professional repertoire so as to create independence and self-sufficiency.

The individual growth plan serves as a guidepost for competency development, and both the principal and coach measure progress against the learning priorities. Coaches maintain confidentiality in their relationships with principals, allowing for a rigorous, productive learning experience in which principals can expose what they do not know without fear of judgment or professional vulnerability.

Our program consists of both 1:1 coaching and other forms of professional learning, for teams of principals, school-based teams, and using methods of inter-visitation and on-line communication to bolster the coaches' work. We anticipate that this program will contribute to greater principal retention in the most complex school contexts.

The New York City Department of Education's (NYCDOE's) Children First reform agenda is based on three imperatives: leadership, empowerment and accountability. New York's school leaders are fully accountable for driving meaningful gains in achievement for all students. In order to produce our next generation of school leaders, NYCDOE has designed a comprehensive, fully aligned leadership development strategy, based on a Leadership Competency Continuum that describes in detail what NYC school leaders need to know and be able to do at each stage of their careers.

The NYCDOE will partner with two colleges, the administrators' union and a research organization to create, implement and assess an innovative leadership development program that combines the best aspects of traditional university certification programs with a new curricular approach based on sophisticated on-line simulations of the daily leadership challenges faced—and the competencies needed—by leaders of NYC schools. A total of 120 identified high potential leaders for high needs schools will attend classes in our partner college certification programs that employ this new curricular approach. Moreover, the on-line simulations will become a fully open-source curriculum, based on NYC accountability tools, data, and school needs, that will be available to all teacher leaders, assistant principals and principals as well as to additional university credentialing partners. Thus, in addition to investing in individual high potential leaders, this program will create state-of-the-art, cost-effective system wide capacity to equip the next generation of school leaders to deliver on the Children First promise.

The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) along with its diverse group of partners is proposing to establish a school leadership development program geared specifically to meet the leadership needs of Philadelphia's most challenged and challenging schools. This unique, highly collaborative effort - the Philadelphia School Leadership Project (PSLP) - will target SDP high schools that have been designated for School Improvement or Corrective Active under No Child Left Behind. The project will recruit exemplary teachers who have demonstrated a commitment to work in and an ability to succeed in such schools, and provide them with collaboratively designed and individually-tailored graduate-level coursework and internship experiences to prepare them for principal or assistant principal positions. Participants who successfully complete the program and who have met the District's selection requirements will be placed as a principal or assistant principal in a struggling SDP high school. During their first two years in a school leadership position, participants will continue to receive mentoring/coaching and other supports from the program to help ensure their retention and success in their new role. Major components of the project will include:

• Intensive outreach/recruitment to attract a large and diverse pool of applicants;
• Formalized processes for screening and intake to ensure high quality candidates;
• A standardized assessment of educational leadership skills linked to NASSP's 21st Century Principal Skill Dimensions used to identify participants' areas of strength and weakness, to tailor coursework and internship experiences, and to evaluate program effectiveness;
• Coursework, designed and taught jointly by Lehigh faculty and SDP staff to provide participants with knowledge and skills they need to "turn-around" low achieving high schools in an urban setting, offered during after-school hours and summer at a very affordable (50% subsidized) cost to participants;
• Structured internships, which will immerse participants in a variety of urban educational leadership settings and put them in contact with trained, experienced mentor principals; and
• Ongoing mentoring and workshops for newly placed principals and assistant principals throughout their first two years in these positions.

The program will recruit, prepare, place and retain an estimated 15 high-quality urban high school principals/assistant principals each year (total of 50 by end of five-year period of federal funding). The proposed initiative will also include a rigorous program evaluation, designed to generate and analyze data from a wide array of sources to inform and improve program design and implementation, as well as to guide program expansion and replication after the five-year period for which federal funding is requested. The most important outcome will be a new, cost-effective, sustainable model for meeting school leadership needs in low-achieving, urban public high schools, with potential for replication across the country.

Technology and Innovation in Education, a division of Black Hills Special Services Cooperative, submits this proposal on behalf of an eligible consortium of partner organizations. Eight eligible high need LEAs will be the focus of efforts to build the capacity of practicing principals and assistant principals, as well as, the focus of recruitment and retention of aspiring leaders who will receive training and support toward full credentialing as building administrators. The partner school districts represent 28 elementary, middle and high schools. Twenty-three of the schools have been identified as in need of improvement with 19 of those at Level 3 or above. Each of these schools/districts is located on or near one of the state's nine Native American Reservations and in the most rural areas of South Dakota.

The Partnership for Improvement in Rural Leadership and Learning (PIRLL) has designed a program and interventions to build the capacity and availability of principals who are well prepared to effectively lead these high need schools toward improved educational outcomes for their students. The design of PIRLL is responsive to the overwhelming challenges of leadership and school improvement in these very rural schools. Professional development for practicing principals will be intensive, but will primarily occur on-site at the principal's school. Coaching and mentoring from highly qualified school administrators will serve to embed professional development in daily practice. Capacity building will improve personal knowledge and skills in the context of building leadership and school improvement.

The second area of emphasis for the PIRLL project is the recruitment and instruction of aspiring leaders who will be well prepared and available to accept positions in high need, rural schools. PIRLL will focus on teacher leaders within the partner schools/districts as a primary source for recruitment. Already connected to their community, these individuals present the greatest potential for retention as building principals. PIRLL will work closely with the South Dakota Department of Education and the University of South Dakota in designing a contextual rich and relevant instructional design that will lead to graduate degrees in Educational Administration and completion of all requirements for certification as a building administrator.

The goals and performance objectives of the Partnership for Improvement in Rural Leadership and Learning are:

• Goal: To build the capacity and availability of educational leaders who will serve in high need schools and inspire improvements in educational outcomes for students in rural South Dakota.
• Objective 1: To provide intensive professional development for 60 practicing principals and assistant principals that is embedded in their local practice and responsive to the needs of students served and the culture of their local community.
• Objective 2: To recruit, instruct and support 50 aspiring school leaders who will become prepared and credentialed to serve high need schools.

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Recently, the Austin Independent School District (AISD) followed the lead of many businesses and engaged in succession planning to fill an increasing number of principal and assistant principal vacancies in the district. Succession planning refers to establishing processes and procedures to develop talent to meet the current and future leadership needs of an organization. Each year the succession planning model developed by AISD will provide direct services to 385 administrators and future administrators, benefit the 8600+ students who Austin schools, and provide research based information about succession planning and its impact on student achievement to numerous other public and private school districts.

Federal funding will be used to:

• Experiment with some of the more cutting- edge but currently unfunded components of the model, including the concept of Collaborative Inquiry Sites that would function in Education much as teaching hospitals do in the medical field;
• Systematically assess the effectiveness of model components and the costs and benefits of the model, as a whole;
• Develop and implement sustainable approaches to formative evaluation within the district;
• Disseminate what is learned about succession planning to other public and private school districts.

The University of Texas Collaborative Urban Leadership Project (UTCULP) is an extension of the University of Texas at Austin Principalship preparation program's effort to increase academic achievement by developing 120 effective leaders prepared for urban secondary schools. Through partnerships with three LEAs, serving 14% of all Texas students living in poverty, the UTCULP will:

1. Identify the unique needs of each district partner;
2. Recruit, identify, select, financially support and prepare at least 120 candidates who have the potential to become effective principals of secondary urban schools;
3. Provide ongoing evaluation to ensure candidate growth and program effectiveness;
4. Recruit, select, and train a District Site Coordinator and five District Mentors in each partner district; and
5. Develop and implement district level strategies to support and retain current effective leaders who can provide follow on and support to future aspiring leaders in the district.

Each district partner will be provided customized services from an institution with a long history of providing excellent leadership development. Once the UTCULP has developed a District Profile, the findings will be used to collaboratively develop district Retention and Capacity Building Plans. The UTCULP team will review on-going evaluation data and revise the UTCULP program as needed. Findings from the project will be disseminated to other school leadership preparation programs across the state and country through documents posted on the UTCULP website, journal articles, and presentations at state and national conferences.

The Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD), the fourth largest district in the state of Texas, is a large, urban district serving more than 79,000 students at 144 schools. FWISD faces many of the major challenges common among large, urban districts, including increasing learner diversity, large populations of LEP and economically disadvantaged students, and increasing demands for accountability and achievement at all levels.

GAP Program Design: Best Practice Components

• Research-based and program-aligned vision of effective leadership
• Targeted recruitment strategies and rigorous selection procedures
• Reflective and supportive cohort experience
• Instruction that unites theory and practice
• Mentoring support from expert mentor principals
• On-site administrative experience Continual program and candidate assessment

As one of several initiatives aimed at increasing high quality leadership capacity within the district, FWISD proposes the Growing Aspiring Principals (GAP) program, which will recruit, select, train, place, and retain four cohorts of 15 highly-qualified individuals and provide them with an innovative Master's and principal certification training program that unites the theory of effective administrative leadership with FWISD's specific vision for best practices within its schools. The GAP training program, in partnership with the University of Texas at Arlington's College of Education, will be an expedited yet intensive yearlong program, which will include a full school year's residency on a FWISD campus. The GAP resident will act as an assistant principal on his/her campus at least three days per week and attend their coursework at least one full day per week. GAP coursework will be designed in close partnership between FWISD and UTA, in order to integrate Fort Worth's specific vision of leadership (as laid out in its Dimensions of Leadership). FWISD master principals and central administrators will teach at least half of GAP coursework as "teachers of record" with UTA.

The Generational Educators Network (GEN) Futures Program or GEN "F." Old Dominion University will partner with Northampton County Public Schools. The overarching goal of the project will be to build internal district capacity that will allow NCPS to "grow their own" leaders within the context of the school culture being served. This will stabilize and strengthen the retention of school leaders who can successfully guide and direct instruction in a high-need LEA. Its specific objectives are:

1. To identify, recruit, and enroll 2 cohorts of 10 for total of 20 as measured by enrollment records
2. To prepare 2 cohorts of leaders for assistant principal and principal as measured by 100 percent pass rate on SLLA exam, and
3. To model and evaluate a program of preparation, professional development, and reculturation of school leadership that enables school administrators to learn and use research-based educational strategies to guide and direct instruction as measured by increases of 15 percent in student performance as measured by Virginia Standards of Learning Tests over the 5 years of the program.

The foundations for this program reside in the following: a program comprised of specially designed courses that meet ISLLC and Virginia accrediting standards, as well as address the identified needs of the school division developed in collaboration with university faculty and school division personnel; completion of a graduate degree in administration; a strong mentoring component embedded into the program; a three semester internship that provides in-depth, authentic experiences; an action research component where each cohort member will team with teachers to increase assessment literacy specifically to embed student assessment for learning and to form data teams; specific attention to the multicultural and diversity needs of the division using a social justice framework; and on-going professional development for cohort participants and division administration. These needs were determined in consultation with the district superintendent and his staff as well as our experiences working side-by-side with leaders and teachers in the district's classrooms over the past 4 years.

Project ALL: Authentic Learning for Leaders brings together two universities, two school improvement centers, and the Richmond Public Schools (RPS) to increase student achievement by preparing and retaining assistant principals (APs) and principals to serve as instructional leaders in high-need secondary schools in RPS. Project ALL will:

1. Recruit 30 exemplary teachers into a compressed, innovative field-based instructional leadership program that includes a year-long simulation, followed by a summer internship and a year-long paid apprenticeship as an assistant principal in RPS;
2. Prepare 15 instructional leaders to become full time mentors;
3. Develop a strong induction program that includes intensive mentoring for project participants during their apprenticeship and two additional years;
4. Incorporate newly designed training methods and materials into both university leadership preparation programs;
5. Provide instructional leadership training to 28 RPS principals and assistant principals; and
6. Develop a simulation built with RPS data, scenarios, cases, and experiences of the targeted schools. This simulation will allow participants to examine real situations in a safe environment and to be able to "hit the ground running" when they begin their apprenticeships. This simulation will be made available to the 496 administrator preparation programs in the U.S.

The project will be evaluated using a quasi-experimental design, which compares participants in the experiential, simulated program with students prepared in more traditional programs. Gains in student achievement in target schools will be compared with student achievement results in schools not in the project.

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