NYCLA is thrilled that iLeadAZ, the aspiring principals program we helped develop in collaboration with Arizona State University’s (ASU) Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, will become the university’s flagship preparatory initiative. Initially launched with support of a federal grant, the program has partnered with nearly 20 districts throughout the state and has sustained high graduate placement rates in school leadership positions (86-93%) across the cohorts it has trained. As a result, the university has decided to make the program a central component of its ongoing educational leadership work.
ASU sought NYCLA’s expertise in school leadership development and experience in innovation around principal preparation to help design and launch the iLeadAZ program. Leveraging our Aspiring Principals Program (APP) model, we worked with the Arizona-based program team to co-design a summer intensive curriculum and to incorporate leadership standards throughout the iLeadAZ program. Click here to see a video of program director, Kay Coleman, talking about this collaboration.
iLeadAZ selects and prepares educators for school leadership positions in partnering districts, many of which are located in rural communities and serve Native American students, while others serve urban communities. In addition to a five-week summer intensive, the 15-month program serves its geographically dispersed cohorts of aspiring principals by providing a combination of online and hybrid courses, with participants coming together for weekend conferences nine times throughout their residency year. For more information about the program, visit http://education.asu.edu/ileadaz.