UMKC Principals Institute | University of Missouri - Kansas City
Program Summary
Introduction
The UMKC Principals Institute is designed to work with aspiring and practicing principals in the urban districts in the Kansas City region. Recently, the focus has been to develop and enhance the pipeline of principals for each district by providing in-depth leadership experiences for individuals who are employed by the district and who aspire to the principalship.
Theory of Change
Effective school leadership sets the tone and culture in a school. It is this culture that promotes or stops change from happening. The culture must build leadership capacity among the administration and teachers for change to become long-term and not leave when the current leader leaves. Preparation for the principalship is more effective when the participant can experience being a principal. To facilitate this process the UMKC Principals Institute uses an aggressive simulation experience during group meetings. Participants are videotaped dealing with “real world” principal challenges. Following their performance as the principal in the simulation the cohort provides feedback facilitated by an expert in leadership. Additionally the participant is given the video for private reflection.
Definition of Leadership
Leadership is the characteristic of an organization -- not of an individual -- and focuses on developing the capacity of the school to lead. It would be defined as the broad-based and skillful participation in the work of leadership (Lambert, L. Building Leadership Capacity in Schools. ASCD, 1998).
Mission Statement
The program's mission is to develop principals who create and lead high-performing schools by providing state-of-the-art training in a collegial and reflective environment focusing on instructional leadership, organizational leadership, resource leadership and the creation of an effective learning environment.
Costs
Moving ahead to the 2005-2006 school year the funding of the UMKC Principals Institute has dramatically changed. With no new funding from the outside and only a small portion of funds from the Kauffman Grant rolled over to the current year, participating districts have been asked to share the costs of the program. Currently the two participating districts will contribute $27,500. An additional $50,000 was rolled over from the existing grant. This total of $77,500 will operate the UMKC Principals Academy for the 2005-2006 school year. This will include working with 26 aspiring principals from two participating districts.
Licensure
This is not a licensure program. The districts ask that their participants have completed a university program in educational administration (or be near completion) before applying to participate.
Standards
The program is based on the seven Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC) standards, which have been approved by National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).
Measuring K-12 Student Success
The Principals Institute itself has no criteria for measuring its impact on K-12 achievement. School leaders who are Principals Institute graduates are evaluated by their districts to evaluate their success in the principalship.
Contact
Gus Jacob, Director
UMKC Principals Institute
School of Education, Suite 331
Kansas City MO, 64110
Phone: 816.235.2454 | Fax: 816.235.5270 | Email: jacoba@umkc.edu
More Information
View all links for UMKC's Principals Institute
Disclaimer
e-Lead provides information on professional-development programs for school leaders that have submitted detailed information and that also meet certain standards-based criteria. Programs listed at the e-Lead website are not endorsed by either the Institute for Educational Leadership or Temple University's Laboratory for Student Success.