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Milwaukee always needs great leaders, and while the door for special opportunities is closing on many other professions, it is still open for skilled educators.
New Leaders for New Schools (NLNS) is a program that takes aspiring leaders and places them in urban schools that need a turn-around. New Leaders include teachers and administrators from within the school system or teachers with successful backgrounds in universities, companies, non-profit organizations and foundations.
The difference between a new leader and a New Leader is that New Leaders receive extensive training, coaching and support over several years and can further refine their skills on the job.
The vision of NLNS is that by 2020, in at least ten cities, every student will be on track to graduate from high school ready for success in college, careers, and citizenship.
MPS partnered with NLNS upon its Milwaukee initiation two years ago. The year after, during the 2008-2009 school year, 21 New Leaders were part of the program, according to the NLNS web site. Eleven have joined the team for the 2009-2010 school year, Megan McDonald, NLNS program coordinator in Milwaukee, said.
It is too early to know what the impact has been on student achievement in Milwaukee, but the program proved to be highly successful in the eight other cities, four of which began in 2001.
“Students in elementary and middle schools led by New Leaders principals for at least three years are making academic achievement gains faster than comparable students in their districts by statistically significant margins,” according to the New Leaders web site.
Next year, NLNS will be focusing on the Urban Excellence Framework (UEF), a critical component of the program, McDonald said.
The UEF is a national complication of research and effective strategies and practices that examine what sucessful schools in the country are doing. The Key Insights of the Urban Excellence Framework report also emphasizes that:
“One of the most crucial strengths of a school leader is the ability to diagnose their school’s unique context and determine exactly how and when to push the key levers identified by the Framework.”
In order to become a New Leader principal, interested applicants should make sure their beliefs and teaching strategies reflect those of the program, that they are confident they want to apply because there are rigorous selection criteria, and that they are aware of the city-specific requirements. For example, Milwaukee requires residency in the city and a master’s degree in education.
To read more on jobs in education from other Education Examiners, go here.
For more information on NLNS:
Oprah’s Angel Network supports NLNS in Chicago
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