Fund For Public Schools

KEY INITIATIVES

"To boost the supply of high-quality principals, [the Mayor] drew on the private sector to fund a leadership academy that rivals the best corporate training. Today, New York has changed from a symbol of all that was wrong with urban districts to one that is increasingly seen as a model.”
- “Beyond ‘No Child’,” USA TODAY.com, (22 February 2007).

NYC LEADERSHIP ACADEMY

Established in 2003, the NYC Leadership Academy is an independent nonprofit organization that addresses the New York City Department of Education’s critical need for transformational, school-level leadership. Since its inception, the Leadership Academy has offered comprehensive leadership development programs for aspiring and early-career New York City public school principals. By focusing on in-depth data analysis, theories of organizational change, and the development of a deep understanding of how to accelerate learning for students and adults, the Leadership Academy’s rigorous programs help participants strengthen their abilities to transform schools. The Leadership Academy’s programs are responsive to the school system’s Children First education reforms, which give school-level leaders unprecedented decision-making authority while holding them accountable for student performance gains.

The Fund for Public Schools helped raise $84 million of critical funding that supported the NYC Leadership Academy's transformational leadership development and support programs for aspiring and current principals during the organization's first five years of operation. This funding included support for the Leadership Academy’s Aspiring Principals Program (APP), which prepares aspiring principals to lead high-need city schools-- those marked by low student performance and high poverty rates. It also enabled the Leadership Academy to provide leadership development support to over 1,000 first-year New York City public school principals and become a national model for principal preparation and leadership development. During the 2007-2008 school year, 13% of New York City principals were APP graduates and these graduates served over 108,000 students in all five boroughs.