Two in ECPRP lead High-Progress Reward Schools
Writer:
Michael Childs, 706/542-5889,
jparish@uga.edu
Contact:
Jack Parish,
706/542-0612,
Published in LEAP, Press Releases, Student News
The schools of two participants in the University of Georgia College of Education’s Early Career Principal Residency Program (ECPRP) were recently named High-Progress Reward Schools by the Georgia Department of Education.
The category is reserved for schools with the highest performance or the biggest academic gains by students in the last three years.
Bacon County Elementary School in Alma, led by Judy Rowland, and Bernd Elementary School in Macon, led by Chris Ridley, were among those named High-Progress Reward Schools.
A High-Progress School is a Title I school among the 10 percent of Title I schools in the state that is making the most progress in improving the performance of the “all students” group over three years on the statewide assessments. A school may not be classified as a High-Progress School if there are significant achievement gaps across subgroups that are not closing in the school.
“These schools are shining examples of what we can achieve in public education in Georgia,” said State School Superintendent John Barge (EdD ’04). “I want to take what’s working at our Reward Schools and replicate that in every school in the state. These are the schools making education work for all Georgians.”
The ECPRP was selected for a federal Race to the Top Innovative Fund grant which is being used to provide support to young administrators in high-need schools who are participating in the UGA program.
The two-year professional development program began a few years ago in a partnership between the college and the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders (GAEL). The program provides opportunities for new principals to learn how to enhance their leadership and problem-solving skills from leading researchers, scholars and current educational leaders.
The program kicked off in fall 2010 on UGA’s Athens campus with the first cohort of 16 principals from nine school districts in the state. Sessions are held throughout the year in Athens and at GAEL conferences around the state.
The three-year grant of about $156,000 has provided opportunities for 10 additional early career principals to participate in the second cohort of the program.
The program includes face-to-face seminars, interactions with experts in educational leadership, performance-based activities linked to job-embedded learning, a coaching component to provide ongoing support, the development of a community of learners made up of early career principals across the state, and the integration of technology to connect the cohort and support content delivery, said Jack Parish, coordinator of the ECPR program and faculty member in the department of lifelong education, administration and policy.