Students in the Texas Tech Principal Fellows Program helped train other universities that are starting similar residency-based principal preparation initiatives.
In another example of how the Texas Tech University College of Education is leading the way in principal preparation in Texas, students in the Texas Tech Principal Fellows Program traveled to Austin to share their experiences with education leaders from around the state.
Their hour-long showcase was at a training event hosted by Texas Education Agency (TEA), and it focused on the Texas Tech program's unique residency experience. TEA invited the students to provide insight for universities and school districts that are receiving agency grant funding to develop similar principal preparation initiatives using residency experiences.
The program at Texas Tech partners with school districts to train their currently employed teachers into principals and assistant principals over the course of 15 months. Aspiring administrators spend the duration interning on a district campus. While there, they complete coursework, receive mentoring and gain real-world experience.
On June 18 in Austin, five students brought that experience to life for an audience of interested TEA officials and university and school leaders. Each student presented one of six case studies they completed during the job-embedded training, ranging from increasing the effectiveness of a group of teachers over the course of a school year to boosting academic achievement for a child who is an English-language learner. All the case studies aimed to solve real-world problems and were based on needs identified in a study of campus data.
"It was an honor to represent the Texas Tech Principal Fellows Program and present to TEA and new grantees in Austin both university and district personnel," said April Baucum, who entered the program while working as a teacher at Lubbock-Cooper ISD and was assigned to a campus there for her residency. "Each of the five of us discussed and highlighted one of our case studies and its impact on students, teachers and especially on us as future leaders."
While working on the case studies, students are continually coached by mentor principals at their campus. On top of that, both students and mentors receive support from Texas Tech faculty.
Baucum, who has now been hired as an assistant principal at Lubbock-Cooper ISD, said the close mentorship was key to improving as a school leader.
"I hope our first-hand experience truly made clear the importance the principal mentor plays in the growth of aspiring leaders," she said. "It's exciting to think about all we have accomplished during our 15-month internship, and I certainly hope it will help shape campus leadership initiatives at the state level."
Other students who presented were Kristen Brown and Daniela Torres from Lubbock ISD, Abi Adam of Seminole ISD and Kyle Noda from Grand Prairie ISD.
In the audience were officials from The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas at Tyler and Southern Methodist University. Each university is receiving funding through TEA's Principal Preparation Grant program, which incentivizes the creation of residency-based initiatives in partnership with school districts.
"Most principal preparation programs do not have residency components," said Irma Almager, an assistant professor of educational leadership at Texas Tech. "Texas Tech's program is one of a few, and we've learned a lot since piloting the program four years ago."
During the residency, students complete a tuition-free master's degree in educational leadership online and earn a principal certification – all while continuing to earn their teaching salary.
Almager said the program produces high-quality principals who are ready to immediately make a difference.
"Students come out of the program with the equivalent of one to two years of experience, and they have already built relationships with teachers, students and staff at the district," she said. "Superintendents are very happy to hire graduates of our program because they don't require a lot of additional training."
The program is also uniquely suited to prepare students to pass the State of Texas' revamped principal certification exam, Almager said. The new exam places an increased emphasis on instructional leadership as opposed to management.
"Based on research, we knew that effective leaders need to have a good grasp on instruction, so we started emphasizing that when the program started," she said. "The new principal certification exam came out aligned with what we were already doing."
Almager emphasized that strong partnerships with school districts were essential to the success of the Principal Fellows Program. Texas Tech currently works with six districts: Brownfield, Duncanville, Greenville, Grand Prairie, Lubbock and Plainview.
"It was an honor for TEA to ask us to present the work of our students, and it's important that we have that communication with TEA," she said. "But more important, I think, is the partnership with the districts who have helped us grow this new type of leader."
More about the Texas Tech Principal Fellows Program
The Texas Tech Principal Fellows Program model was developed in partnership with the National Institute of Excellence in Teaching (NIET) and TEA, utilizing competency-based instruction to ensure graduates can promote effective teaching, deliver high-quality professional development and build communities across diverse school stakeholders such as parents and business leaders.
Almager and Fernando Valle, an associate professor of educational leadership, first piloted the program in 2014 at Lubbock ISD. The U.S. Department of Education later awarded Texas Tech a $7.2 million grant through its Supporting Effective Educator Development Grant Program (SEED) to expand the program in Texas, Louisiana and Indiana.
The initiative continued its success this year after a group of Texas school districts received funding through TEA's Principal Preparation Grant program to partner with Texas Tech.