Public School Divisions Sold on University of Richmond's Leadership Education for Teachers and Administrators
January 10, 2006
Aspiring principals and other officials from public schools in the City of Richmond and Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico counties may benefit from an innovative program in leadership at the University of Richmond.
The university is addressing a shortage of administrators in elementary and secondary schools with the new program, called the Next Generation Leadership Academy and a breakfast lecture series called Issues in Leadership.
Billy K. Cannaday, superintendent of Chesterfield County Public Schools, is a strong supporter of both programs. He and others in Chesterfield were in the pilot programs. Assistant principals, administrative assistants and deans who would like to move up have been involved in the academy, and his principals, directors and assistant superintendents in the breakfast series.
The Chesterfield County School Board even has attended the series, which gives school officials the chance to hear from and discuss ideas about leadership with academic scholars. Topics include “School Leadership and Business Culture,” “Leading for Change” and “Leadership and Communication.”
“Richmond is offering us the very best for these two special programs,” Cannaday said. Chesterfield has launched its own Institute for Leadership in Career Development to help create its own next generation of leaders, he added.
The State Council of Higher Education awarded the university a $102,653 grant to help implement the innovative program, which includes partnerships between the university’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies, School of Continuing Studies and four local school divisions. The Jepson School’s Thomas J. Shields, is the center’s director.
The center also provides instruction to elementary and secondary students, as well as assistance to elementary and secondary teachers in the area of leadership studies. The center runs programs for Chesterfield County’s James River High School Leadership Specialty Center and the Emerging Leaders Program of Hanover County.
Richmond’s Center for Leadership in Education is developing non-traditional programs and seminars for all levels of administrators in both public and private K-12 schools and will be a resource for research on the effectiveness of a non-traditional approach to leadership studies for educators. One of the programs in development is an innovative seminar for superintendents from the greater-Richmond area.
“Superintendents have as much responsibility as leaders of major corporations,” said Jepson Dean Kenneth P. Ruscio, “but often don’t have the chance to think about their professional role in society and the role education plays in society. They get lots of management training, skills training, but what they don’t get is the opportunity to step back and reflect upon their professional role. Thanks to the day-to-day demands of the job, they don’t have time to reflect on larger issues.”
Shields said, “Leadership studies is integral to developing administrators, teachers and students who can think critically about their role in society.” He hopes the center will transform how leadership studies is taught and administered in K-12 and become a national model in the study, teaching and practice of leadership in that setting.
Further information is available at the center’s Web site: http://leadershipk12.richmond.edu/.