The Wallace Foundation has announced a five-year, $24-million initiative that seeks to learn how districts can improve the effectiveness of principal supervisors so they can better help principals improve teaching and learning in schools.
The project will fund better training and support for principal supervisors in up to six large urban school districts that serve many disadvantaged children, and help reduce the number of principals each supervisor oversees.
An independent $2.5-million study will help determine whether better supervision can help principals be more effective, and shed light on good supervision practices.
Wallace will select the districts for the initiative from a shortlist of 23 that have been invited to compete for grants. Grantees will be announced in September.
The new initiative is designed to build on lessons Wallace has learned from a separate, $75-million initiative to help districts develop a “principal pipeline” and from Wallace-commissioned research on principal supervisors. A recent Wallace article examines efforts by the Denver Public Schools to reimagine the ways in which its principal supervisors support school leaders.