UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 8, Page 3
October 24, 1991
University selected for principals' academy

     The principal is the key person who provides critical
leadership in a school. We have learned that in poor rural areas or
troubled inner cities, when a school, against all odds, is doing a
good job, there also is a dynamic principal who does not accept
failure and whose goal is academic achievement."
     Frank Murray, dean of the College of Education and H. Rodney
Sharp Professor of Educational Studies, describes the important
role of a school principal-the underlying philosophy of the
National Academy for Principal Leadership that will be held at the
University of Delaware for three weeks next summer, to give school
principals intensive training in hands-on leadership skills and
methods of restructuring schools and education.
     Funded by a grant of almost $400,000 from the U.S. Department
of Education, the academy will enroll 60 principals from seven
RE:Learning states-Delaware, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Illinois,
Arkansas, Colorado and New Mexico. It is one of three such
academies across the country.
     RE:Learning was formed in 1987 as a partnership between the
Coalition of Essential Schools, founded by Ted Sizer now of Brown
University, and the Education Commission of the States (ECS), a
group of education reform-minded governors, including Delaware's
Michael N. Castle, who encouraged the University to sponsor the
academy, Murray said. Delaware has played a leadership role with
Castle chairing the national advisory board of ECS.
     Sizer is well-known for his proposals for restructuring
education. Robert Hampel, associate professor of educational
studies at the University, who is one of the core faculty for the
principals' academy, worked with Sizer in the Coalition of
Essential Schools from 1980-84. The coalition made a study of high
schools that was the foundation for many of the coalition's
recommendations. Hampel wrote a book describing some of their work
entitled, The Last Little Citadel: American High Schools Since
1940.
     According to Hampel, Sizer believes that individual schools
should restructure themselves. Sizer says successful schools are
those that ensure that children develop reasoning and analytic
skills, and where children are not pigeon-holed as to their
abilities but are held to high expectations with individualized
attention.
     With RE:Learning as a basis for the program, another component
of the principals' academy is input from the business community to
develop leadership skills and to encourage creating links between
businesses and schools. Howard Garland, chairperson of the
Department of Business Administration, will assist in developing
this part of the program.
     Other faculty members involved in the academy are Douglas
Archbald, assistant professor of education development, and Ludwig
Mosberg, director of the Center for Educational Leadership and
Evaluation.
     Eugene Smoley, who heads services for education organizations
at Towers Perrin, an international management consulting firm, will
direct the principals' academy as an adjunct professor.
     According to the proposal for the academy, principals will
develop an overall plan to effect changes in their schools. Since
they must work effectively with many constituencies, including
government and business leaders, school boards, teachers, parents
and administrators, they will examine different strategies to help
them carry out their programs.
     Another part of the academy program will emphasize how
students learn and how to encourage and motivate staffs.
     Each principal will have a mentor and serve as a peer mentor,
and the core academy staff will also offer support and follow-up
beyond the summer course, visiting schools and holding a working
reunion in February 1993.
     "More is asked of principals today," Murray said. "Formerly,
if a principal ran a school smoothly with no problems surfacing,
that was considered successful.
     But that is not enough today. Principals are expected to be
leaders, the movers and shakers in reforming education, and this
academy is designed to help them."
                                        - Sue Swyers Moncure