In an effort to improve the leadership skills of the nation’s school principals and superintendents, the Education Department has awarded grants totaling $7.1 million to help states set up centers to assess and train administrators.
Grant recipients, including state education agencies, administrators’ organizations, and universities, will each receive about $141,000 during the first year of the three-year program, department officials said.
Thus far, grants have been awarded in 49 states and the District of Columbia. A competition to select a grant winner in Indiana, the one remaining state, is now under way.
With roughly half of the principals and superintendents nationwide expected to retire in the coming decade, “it is essential that we do everything we can to train new leaders and to help current ones sharpen their skills,’' Secretary of Education William J. Bennett said in a May 31 statement announcing the program.
While the programs of each center will be tailored to meet specific state needs, all of the centers will introduce or expand programs for assessing administrative skills, coordinate training and development programs, and help districts establish school-improvement plans, the statement said.
In addition, it said, each center will collect and analyze data, and establish a telephone hot line, a newsletter, and a resource bank for sharing information on school leadership with educators across the state.
To carry out project activities, each grant recipient is required to match the federal money with resources of its own, and to become self-supporting by the end of the three years.
The project is funded under the Leadership in Education Administration Development Act, authorized by Title V of the Higher Education Act.
The grants are administered by the Education Department’s office of educational research and improvement, which conducted a national competition to select the winners.
The 50 grant recipients are:
Alabama: Alabama Council for School Administrators and Supervisors, Montgomery; Alaska: Alaska Council of School Administrators, Juneau; Arizona: Arizona School Administrators, Phoenix; Arkansas: Arkansas Department of General Education, Little Rock; California: California Department of Education, Hayward.
Colorado: Colorado Department of Education, Denver; Connecticut: Area Cooperative Educational Services , Hamden; Delaware: Delaware Department of Public Instruction, Dover; District of Columbia: District of Columbia Public Schools, Washington; Florida: Florida Department of Education, Tallahassee.
Georgia: University of Georgia, Athens; Hawaii: Department of Education, Honolulu; Idaho: University of Idaho, Moscow; Illinois: Illinois Board of Education, Springfield; Iowa: Iowa Department of Education, Des Moines.
Kansas: Kansas Department of Education, Topeka; Kentucky: Kentucky Academy for School Executives, Frankfort; Louisiana: Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; Maine: University College of Education, Gorham; Maryland: Eastern Shore of Maryland Educational Consortium.
Massachusetts: The Regional Laboratory for Educational Improvement of the Northeast and Islands, Andover; Michigan: Michigan Institute for Educational Management, Lansing; Minnesota: Independent School District No. 625, St. Paul; Mississippi: Mississippi Department of Education, Jackson; Missouri: Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Jefferson City.
Montana: School Administrators of Montana, Helena; Nebraska: Nebraska Council of School Administrators, Lincoln; Nevada: University of Nevada-Reno, Reno; New Hampshire: University of New Hampshire, Durham; New Jersey: New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association, Trenton.
New Mexico: University of New Mexico Educational Administration, Albuquerque; New York: Capital Area School Development Association, Albany; North Carolina: North Carolina Association of School Administrators, Raleigh; North Dakota: North Dakota Consortium, Bismarck; Ohio: Buckeye Association of School Administrators, Westerville.
Oklahoma: State Department of Education, Oklahoma City; Oregon: COSA Foundation, Salem; Pennsylvania: Temple University Center for Research in Human Development and Education, Philadelphia; Rhode Island: Rhode Island Educational Leadership Academy, Cranston; South Carolina: South Carolina Department of Education, Columbia.
South Dakota: University of South Dakota, Vermillion; Tennessee: East Tennessee State University, Johnson City; Texas: Texas Association of School Administrators, Austin; Utah: Brigham Young-Public School Partnership, American Fork; Vermont: Bennington-Rutland Supervisory Union, Manchester Center.
Virginia: Virginia Department of Education, Richmond; Washington: Washington Association of School Administrators, Olympia; West Virginia: West Virginia Department of Education, Charleston; Wisconsin: Administrator Leadership Academy, Madison; Wyoming: University of Wyoming, Laramie.
