PGCPS TO RECEIVE $12.5 MILLION DOLLARS FROM THE WALLACE FOUNDATION
UPPER MARLBORO, MD, – Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) is one of six urban school districts that has been selected by The Wallace Foundation to participate in a new $75-million “principal pipeline” initiative. This national initiative aims to help school districts develop a much larger corps of effective school principals and to determine whether this improves student achievement across the district, especially in the highest needs schools.
Wallace is awarding $12.5 million to PGCPS over the span of five years, to build four key parts of a “principal pipeline” that can develop and ensure the success of a sufficient number of principals to meet district needs: rigorous job requirements, high-quality training, selective hiring, and on-the-job evaluation and support. In year one of the award, PGCPS will receive $3.6 million to begin work on the on the four major components of the “Principal Pipeline.” A strong pipeline would have four interlocked parts:
- Defining the job of the principal and assistant principal. Districts create clear, rigorous job requirements detailing what principals and assistant principals must know and do. These research-based standards underpin training, hiring and on-the-job evaluation and support.
- High-quality training for aspiring school leaders. “Pre-service” principal training programs, run by universities, nonprofits or districts, recruit and select only the people with the potential and desire to become effective principals and provide them with high-quality training.
- Selective hiring. Districts hire only well-trained candidates to be school leaders.
- Leader evaluation and on-the-job support. Districts regularly evaluate principals and provide professional development, including mentoring, that aims to help novice principals overcome weaknesses pinpointed in evaluations.
“PGCPS is investing and participating in this work because we believe that by building a stronger pipeline and the capacity of our instructional leaders; we will create a direct impact on improving teaching quality and increasing student achievement” said Dr. William R. Hite, Jr., Superintendent of Schools. “We are excited to be selected as one of six urban school districts, to take part in an ambitious initiative that will boost the creation of effective principals and student achievement.”
The grant will enable PGCPS to: define the role of principal and assistant principal more deliberately; develop and refine a recruitment and selection process for aspiring administrators; provide high quality training for aspiring administrators; and develop a more comprehensive evaluation system for administrators.
“I am extremely excited about the opportunity to work with the Wallace Foundation,” said Douglas Anthony, Director of Human Capital Management for PGCPS. “Together, we will develop outstanding leaders to create a pipeline that will produce highly-qualified principals and in turn, high student achievement.
Over the next five years of the initiative, PGCPS estimates it will be able to potentially hire 125 principals and assistant principals over the five years of the grant and will have a strong pipeline in place to hire even more principals in the future.
For more information on this topic, please contact (301) 952-6001 or communications@pgcps.org. Follow Prince George’s County Public Schools on Twitter: @pgcps and @pgcpshite.
About PGCPS: Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) is the 18th largest school district in the nation, with 198 schools, over 127,000 students, and nearly 18,000 employees. With an annual budget of $1.6 billion, the district serves a diverse student population of students living in urban, suburban, and rural communities. PGCPS is nationally recognized for its innovative programs and initiatives, including expansion of Advanced Placement courses, partnership programs with business and higher education, and the FIRST teacher incentive program.
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PGCPS Office of Communications
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Upper Marlboro, MD 20774
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Phone: 301-952-6001