Lehigh University to train principals for Phila. schools

Sixty aspiring principals will train to work in the city's toughest high schools through a new partnership between the Philadelphia School District 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 today.

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. September 2010 is the soonest they would begin work as principals or assistant principals.

Lehigh expects to train the 60 leaders over five years.

To qualify for the program, each participant 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, and the principals will be required to remain in the district for several years after receiving the training.

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 schools, our comprehensive high schools," said Marcia Schulman, project manager.