The Wallace Funds Supports New York City's New Leadership Academy to Bring Excellence to All 1,200 Schools
New York, NY, December 11, 2002 – The Board of Directors of the Wallace Funds agreed in principle on Wednesday to provide up to $15 million to help establish the New York City Leadership Academy to prepare a new generation of principals capable of helping all children achieve at higher levels. Details of the final agreement will be worked out over the next several weeks.
“This is an historic moment for the nation’s largest school system,” said Walter V. Shipley, chairman of the Wallace Funds. “New York City’s sweeping reform agenda, with its focus on effective teaching and learning, will bring together expertise, resources, and the right partners to the benefit of 1.1 million students attending some 1,200 schools. Today’s announcement of a Leadership Academy is the first step in launching this major effort. For the past year, the Wallace Funds have invested in twelve large, mostly urban districts – including Community District 10 in the Bronx – to discover and adopt new ways of strengthening leadership and to have those changes improve the prospects of students in districts across the country. We are pleased to support this timely, bold venture.”
In 2000, the Wallace Funds launched LEADERS Count, a national initiative to strengthen the abilities of superintendents and principals to improve student learning and to create more supportive working conditions for education leaders to succeed. Its centerpiece is a State-District Initiative, which links regulatory reform at the state level with innovative practical reform at the school district level to improve school leadership.