In 2008, The Fairfield County Community Foundation uncovered that half of the principals leading 92 public schools in Bridgeport, Danbury, Norwalk and Stamford will retire by 2014, and there are few qualified candidates to replace them. At stake: the education of 60,000 children.
To turn this crisis into an opportunity, the Foundation convened the four urban school districts, the Connecticut Center for School Change and the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education to design a program that trains a new generation of urban school principals.
The result is the Urban School Leaders Fellowship. The goal is to train 60 qualified and committed future principals to lead public schools in Bridgeport, Danbury, Norwalk and Stamford. This one-year Fellowship begins where academic preparation ends. To qualify, applicants must be educators with 092 endorsements on their teaching certificates, committed to becoming a principal in Bridgeport, Danbury, Norwalk or Stamford, and nominated by their school districts.
The first class of 29 fellows graduated in June 2009. The second class of 38 fellows will graduate in June 2010. To date, six of the Fellows have been promoted to positions of school principal, assistant principal and other leadership roles.
