Schools

Gwinnett Schools Receive Grant To Train Principals

GCPS selected to participate in Wallace Principal Pipeline initiative and receive $7.5 million to $12.5 million in grant money.

Gwinnett County Public Schools learned this week that the school district is one of six in the nation selected to participate in the Wallace Foundation’s Principal Pipeline initiative.

Included in this initiative is between $7.5 million and $12.5 million in grant money the school district will receive over a five-year period. This money is to be used to develop, hire and support new school principals. Officials said they expect to receive $3.9 million of this money in the first year.

The other five districts, which serve thousands of low-income students, selected to receive the initiative are: Charlotte-Mecklenburg in North Carolina; Hillsborough County (near Tampa) in Florida; New York City; and Prince George's County (near Washington, D.C.) in Maryland.

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The foundation selected these districts from 90 candidates because they already have efforts under way to groom qualified principals and thus are best able to put strong, complete pipelines in place.

GCPS participation in the project is expected to allow the district to extend its Quality-Plus Leader Academy Aspiring Principal program, established in Gwinnett by GCPS CEO/superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks. The program is one of the main reasons for GCPS being chosen to participate in the Wallace program.

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"Not just anyone can be a successful principal today,” Wilbanks said in a press release. “The demands of the job are great and require exceptional expertise.

"To be effective, a principal must have knowledge, skills, and talent that cannot be acquired in college courses alone, and cannot be mastered without opportunities to learn from outstanding leaders in the profession. That is why Gwinnett County Public Schools launched its Quality-Plus Leader Academy Aspiring Principal Program."

The curriculum for the Academy includes Foundations of Leadership; Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment; Human Resources; Budgeting and Finance; Community and Public Relations; Operations Management; and Information Management. 

In addition to these leadership skills taught through curriculum strands, the program involves participants in a residency experience that provides them the opportunity to work alongside proven principals.


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