Abstract:

Why University-School Partnership?
The influence of working conditions on teacher retention and student success cannot be underestimated. In Solving the Teacher Shortage: How to Attract and Retain Excellent Educators, the Learning Policy Institute identifies factors most important to “teaching and learning conditions for teachers and most highly related to their decisions to remain teaching in a given school.” School leadership and administrative support ranked first in success and retention factors. Leadership matters.

This call for skilled leadership has been consistent over the past decades. It is especially relevant in post-Covid education as an increase in teacher vacancies and the politicization of education in America make school leadership more challenging than ever. Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) estimates that approximately 1 out of every 10 public school teachers (8,434) in Virginia was not equipped with traditional training or qualifications during the 2021-22 academic year. Teacher inexperience and rates of turnover are proven to negatively impact student learning. To complicate matters, schools across the nation are employing a teacher population with reduced qualifications and shorter lengths of tenure with reduced educational funding (JLARC), dramatically changing the role of school leaders.

To address this need, a private university in central Virginia (USA) has partnered with regional school divisions for 18 years to bring relevant curriculum to over 850 current and aspiring leaders preparing them for a variety of roles in schools.

The NGLA Model
Committed to developing the next generation of leaders in schools, the Center for Leadership in Education developed and implemented the Next Generation Leadership Academy (NGLA) program to provide current and aspiring public school leaders with skill enrichment and opportunities for collaboration and to support succession planning in local school divisions. Piloted in 2005 with one of the largest school divisions in Virginia, NGLA has expanded to include nine school divisions in central Virginia including metropolitan, suburban, and rural school divisions ranging in size from student populations of 1,663 to 63,962. With such diversity of location, community, and student body, this partnership is a highly desired opportunity to strengthen schools across division lines. From a large annual pool of qualified applicants, selected leaders who serve at the level of elementary, middle, and high schools or central office engage in monthly regional professional development throughout the academic year in instructional, organizational and transformational leadership curriculum in response to needs expressed by school division level leadership. NGLA offers a full-day experience with expert, theoretical presentations each morning designed by university faculty and field experts combined with practical application and discussion each afternoon coordinated by division level leaders. Numerous and multifaceted benefits of the NGLA program will be explored and incorporated into the presentation, including participant data and examples of alumni successes.

The teacher pipeline crisis has long been a concern in American schools. It is clear that a leader crisis is impending. This regional partnership offers one example of a practical, collaborative effort to build leaders skills and promote stability for students and educators in K-12 schools.

Keywords:

Educational Leadership Training, Leadership Development, University/School Partnerships, Leader Crisis, Teacher Crisis, Change in Schools, Succession Planning, Leadership Management, Essential Leadership Skills.