'Great Principals for Maryland' SU, UMES Collaborative Program Underway
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| Douglas DeWitt | Andrew Carrington | Derry Stufft |
A four-year Race to the Top grant has been awarded to Salisbury University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, sister institutions in the University System of Maryland. The institute is currently underway.
Planners say aspiring principals enrolled in the institute are learning strategies to lead schools in the 21st century. A focus of the program is reducing the achievement gap between different student groups. The institute reached out to Wicomico, Worcester, Somerset, Dorchester and Talbot county schools as partners.
Dr. Douglas DeWitt, director of the SU Educational Leadership Program; Dr. Andrew Carrington, UMES professor of Education; and Dr. Derry Stufft, coordinator of the UMES Educational Leadership Doctoral Program; teamed up to write the grant proposal. They said they view the institute as a collaboration with county school superintendents to help improve education for Lower Eastern Shore students.
“Salisbury University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore have had a distinguished history of collaboration. Our mutual commitment to education and teacher preparation makes this leadership institute a natural and welcome partnership between our two institutions,” said SU Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs Diane Allen.
The two campuses were honored with the prestigious Theodore M. Hesburgh Award from the TIAA-CREF Institute in 1998 for collaborative programming.
“Receiving this grant is another indicator of the close cooperation between the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Salisbury University. This leadership institute will further our efforts to serve and support the public schools on the Eastern Shore,” said Dr. Charles Williams, UMES Vice President for Academic Affairs.
The institute is also partnering with New Leaders for New Schools (NLNS), a nationally recognized non-profit that has a strong track record of recruiting and training principals to be highly effective in managing low-performing schools. NLNS is providing expertise and support in the selection of participants and help with their professional development.
Dr. Carrington stated, “Institute instruction includes traditional coursework leading to principal licensure and professional development; preparation to assume a leadership role in challenging and underperforming schools; an intensive mentoring program with personalized guidance and coaching in the participant’s leadership development; and a personalized and specific action plan to implement improvement at each participant’s school.”
Drs. DeWitt and Stuft are serving as co-principal investigators for the project. For more information contact DeWitt at 410-543-6286 or Stufft at 410-651-6216, or visit their respective campus Web sites at www.salisbury.edu or www.umes.edu.