Lehigh U joins city schools to train new principals

Sixty aspiring principals will train to work in the city's toughest high schools through a new partnership between the Philadelphia School Disrict and Lehigh University.

Mayor Nutter, district Chief Academic Officer Maria Pitre-Martin and Lehigh University President Alice P. Gast are expected to announce the start of the Philadelphia High School Leadership Project at a news conference tomorrow.

Already, 14 district employees - mostly high school teachers, but also counselors and employees in the district's regional offices - have begun coursework at Lehigh University, through the Center for Developing Urban Educational Leaders. They could begin work as principals or assistant principals in September 2010.

Over five years, Lehigh expects to train 60 leaders.

To qualify for the program, each must have at least five years experience as a high school teacher. The district will pay half of each educator's tuition through a grant with the U.S. Department of Education.

The program, officials say, will help plug gaps in leadership at the city's neighborhood high schools, where graduation rates and test scores are often low and violence and teacher turnover are traditionally high.

"We're building a bench of effective school leaders in our most difficult high schoools, our comprehensive high schools," said Marcia Schulman, project manager.

Contact staff writer Kristen Graham at 215-854-5146 or kgraham@phillynews.com.