The Nevada Department of Education has selected NYC Leadership Academy to develop and support a new statewide school leadership network of principals from the lowest performing schools in the state.
Over the next two years, the Leadership Academy will facilitate a community of about 150 educational leaders from across the state and design and deliver training programs for network members. The leaders in the network will learn how to better support and coach their teachers; to conduct productive learning walks that empower them to identify instructional challenges in classrooms and address them in ways that improve teaching; and to lead strong school-based leadership teams.
“We are excited about the partnership between the NDE and New York City Leadership Academy,” says Steve Canavero, Ph.D., Nevada Superintendent of Public Instruction. “Their collaboration in the past and their long-standing reputation in delivering this evidence-based professional development will bring strategies, best-practices, resources and support that these school leaders have never been offered before.”
In the first year, Leadership Academy facilitators will bring together leaders by region for both in-person and online learning sessions. In the second year, state education leaders will take on a bigger role in facilitating sessions so that by the end of the second year, the state will be able to own the network program and continue to move it forward.
“When leaders come together to share resources, learnings, and best practices, schools and children benefit,” said NYC Leadership Academy President & CEO Irma Zardoya. “School leaders are critical to school turnaround and improvement, and we are honored to be a part of Nevada’s efforts to develop principals who can lead excellent schools. Our work is about building the capacity of state education officials to do this work across Nevada.”
The Leadership Academy was also selected to work with school leaders in Nye County, Nevada. Working with a handful of schools there, Leadership Academy facilitators are supporting principals in leading a continuous cycle of school improvement that will help build positive school cultures and increase learning for all students. Leadership Academy facilitators and Nye County School District principal supervisors will lead professional learning sessions for principals and their school leadership teams as well as coach on-site in schools to model effective leadership behaviors with principals, helping them to form a cohesive building leadership team aligned to NCSD’s goal to provide excellent instruction to every child, in every classroom, every day.