Contact: Kristen Dechert
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Principals across the state are revitalizing their schools and improving student achievement with help from a training program at Mississippi State University.
The Turnaround Leadership Academy, managed by the university's Research and Curriculum Unit with support from the colleges of Business and Education, employs proven business strategies and team approaches to problem-solving.
The training is designed to help school leaders meet the challenges of improvement and advance their ability to create, manage and sustain high-performing schools. While primarily focused on underperforming schools, the program is open to any district that meets the criteria and has a desire for dramatic improvement.
"Our vision for TLA is that it becomes a recognized, quality leadership academy experience that contributes to growing the pool of successful school leaders in Mississippi for years to come," said Julie Jordan, RCU director.
Modeled after the Darden-Curry Partnership for Leaders in Education at the University of Virginia and funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission, the academy involves two years of training by university education and business faculty members. Leadership seminars led by nationally recognized experts and on-site visits also are part of the process.
The program is designed primarily for principals with less than three years of administrative service and a clearly demonstrated potential to excel as institutional leaders and turnaround specialists. In addition to principals, district teams include lead teachers, curriculum coordinators, counselors, and other administrators.
Throughout their training, school leaders learn how to make organizational changes that generate quick, dramatic improvements in their schools, Jordan explained.
Even though they are public agencies, modern schools should be focused on standard business practices, including customer service, data analysis, image marketing, and results, she added.
Jordan said many members of the RCU professional staff are educators with classroom teaching experience. With support of the Mississippi Department of Education, they offer a ready resource that makes the RCU "an ideal home" for such a training program, she observed.
"By integrating this expertise with Turnaround Leadership Academy training, the RCU provides Mississippi principals a support system that helps them meet the needs of their teachers and improve the learning of their students," Jordan said.
The training program gives special emphasis to the value of teamwork, said special projects manager Cathy Davis, another staff member involved in TLA.
"By including personnel from all district levels, teams consider multiple variables to their turnaround success and encourage personnel from all levels to contribute," Davis said.
The 2011 TLA conference held earlier this year included 24 administrators and teachers from Starkville and Claiborne County, the program's two newest participating districts. They joined 30 others from Corinth, and the Oktibbeha and Kemper county schools, the academy's first cohort districts.
Conference attendee Kim Wilkinson of Starkville's Armstrong Middle School applauded the training program for forcing participants to examine their schools' strengths and weaknesses.
"We need to capitalize on our strengths and surround ourselves with people that are strong in our weak areas," Wilkinson said. "We are so fortunate to have a university that is concerned with the success of our public schools."
For program and application details, visit www.business.msstate.edu/turnaround/ or contact Jordan at julie.jordan@rcu.msstate.edu or 662-325-2510.