City school officials are turning to Baruch College to help train teachers to become principals.
Complaining about a shortage of qualified applicants, school district superintendents have tapped the CUNY branch to instruct talented teachers how to manage schools.
“There are very few people applying for jobs as principals. The ones who applied did not meet our qualifications,” said Andrew Lachman, spokesman for District 2 in Manhattan.
He said other college training programs are based too much on theory, and are lacking in the realities of running a school.
District 2 educators crafted an 11-month, 24-credit management curriculum with Baruch’s School of Public Affairs that specifically focuses on supervising their schools. The district foots the bill for the night courses for some 25 students.
“We’re using real-world experience. We’re finding excellent teachers and saying, ‘We need you as the next generation of leaders,'” Lachman said.
School districts 4 in Manhattan, 19 and 20 in Brooklyn and 28 in Queens have also contracted with Baruch for the coming school year, said Stan Altman, dean of the public-affairs school.
Eventually, the Baruch program will be offered to all 33 school districts, said Altman.
He said Baruch’s new “Aspiring Leadership Program” is part of the City University of New York’s effort to help provide the Board of Education with qualified principals as well as teachers.
He stressed that more intensive training is crucial because principals are now held accountable for their students’ performance on standardized math and reading tests.
“We bring in real management skills from people who understand education. It’s not about book learning. It’s about the practical skills of being a school administrator,” Altman said.
“We’re also teaching students how to use information technology and the Web.”
Baruch has just formed an alliance with the Center for Education Innovation – a non-profit reform group staffed by former superintendents and principals – to help recruit candidates, teach classes and set up school internships.
“The interns will work alongside the best principals,” said CEI director Sy Fliegel. “We want to bring business management skills into the schools.”