EduLead was featured in the Fall 2007 issue of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Education's Alumni magazine, The Bridge, in an article titled "VCU & UR Form Partnership to Improve K-12 Education in Richmond."

VCU & UR Form Partnership to Improve K-12 Education in Richmond

Full text © 2007 School of Education, Virginia Commonwealth University

VCU and the University of Richmond have established a partnership to improve school leadership, instruction, and student achievement in the Richmond area.

EDULEAD will offer an expanded number of leadership programs to four groups of public school leaders – aspiring principals, principals of academically struggling schools, first-year principals and principals of highly successful schools – and follow up with impact studies of what the training accomplishes.

Impact studies will be supported with a three-year, $225,000 grant from Genworth Financial Inc. of Richmond.

EDULEAD was created in response to requests for more programs on school leadership by the superintendents and staff development specialists of the school divisions in Chesterfield County, Hanover County, Henrico County, and the City of Richmond.

Its co-directors are Jo Lynne DeMary, Ed.D., director of the VCU School of Education’s Center for School Improvement and former Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction; and Thomas J. Shields, Ph.D., director of the Center for Leadership in Education, part of UR’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies and the School of Continuing Studies.

“First and foremost, the universities and the divisions acknowledge the influence of leadership on student learning,” said Dr. Shields. “Research provides evidence that leadership is second only to teaching among the school related factors impacting student achievement, especially in schools where the needs of the students are the greatest.”

“The school divisions have documented leadership needs at all points of the continuum: recruitment, induction, and retention,” said Dr. DeMary. “They realize that we can leverage human and financial resources by working together to secure funding and to study and apply best practices.”

EDULEAD’s goals are to:

• Establish a continuum of professional development opportunities that is conducive to the development of aspiring, new, and current school leaders.
• Offer training and support to new principals through education and mentorship.
• Help stuggling schools and principals become successful in a standards-based environment.
• Promote the growth of exceptional principals and use their success as an example to help others.
• Promote regional cooperation and create an opportunity to combine resources in order to impact school leadership on a greater scale.

In addition to its regional focus, EDULEAD will conduct education leadership workshops for Fairfax County Public Schools – the nation’s 13th largest school system — and develop a turnaround specialist program for public school leaders in difficult school districts in Louisiana.

The Center for School Improvement was launched in 2006 to improve school leadership, instruction and student achievement through research and best practices.

The Center for Leadership in Education at UR seeks to infuse leadership studies in the K-12 field of education.