Program Overview: Training
The Broad Superintendents Academy is run like an executive training program. Participants attend extended weekend sessions over the course of 10 months while continuing to work in their current jobs. In addition to attending sessions, Fellows work with a faculty advisor who provides leadership development, coaching and support.
 Curriculum |
The Faculty and Speakers |
Session Schedule |
Fellow Commitment |
Curriculum
The Academy provides Fellows with intense exposure to the best thinking and most effective practices in public school systems today. Together, Fellows analyze case studies, meet with superintendents from across the country and discuss their observations with leading experts in the field of K-12 education.
Topics covered in the sessions include issues specific to urban school district leadership, such as:
Instructional alignment:
- Raising overall student achievement and eliminating achievement gaps using research-based strategies
- Developing systems to assess and improve the quality of instruction
- Appropriate use of student assessment data
- Reviewing curriculum and instructional material
- Assessing professional development impact
Operational excellence:
- Human resources: recruitment, hiring and evaluation
- Multi-year budgeting and equitable allocation of resources
- Fair and transparent maintenance and capital improvement processes
- Performance management systems
- Improving the effectiveness of business operations services
Stakeholder engagement:
- Partnering with key stakeholders to support the district’s work
- Strategic partnering with the school board to advance district priorities
- Maintaining labor-management partnerships aligned to student achievement goals
- Fundraising aligned with overall strategy
- Forging relationships with parents and the community
- Working effectively with the media to communicate good news and build community understanding of work
Sessions also cover general leadership topics including:
Organizational leadership:
- Communicating your vision and rallying internal and external support
- Theory of change and strategic planning
- Analyzing data to identify and understand performance and challenges
- Aligning all organizational decisions to support overall vision
Interpersonal leadership:
- Inspiring confidence, hope and positive action in others
- Leveraging unique talents in others and developing diverse leaders
- Adjusting leadership style for different situations
- Ethics
Management:
- Structuring the organization to support implementation of strategy
- Developing leadership at every level of the organization
- Prioritizing and pacing work for optimal quality, capacity and sustainability of reforms
- Providing mentoring and support to colleagues
The Faculty and Speakers
The experts who serve as faculty advisors, mentors and guest speakers for The Broad Superintendents Academy include leading educational practitioners, researchers, school board presidents, union leaders, corporate CEOs, high-level government officials and accomplished current and former urban superintendents from Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Houston, Miami, New York and San Francisco.
> View faculty and speaker list
Session Schedule
The 2012 Broad Superintendents Academy sessions will take place on the following dates:
| Session 1: | Jan. 25–28, 2012 |
| Session 2: | March 22–25, 2012 |
| Session 3: | May 17-20, 2012 |
| Session 4: | July 19–22, 2012 |
| Session 5: | Sept. 20–23, 2012 |
| Session 6: | Nov. 15–17, 2012 |
Tuition and travel expenses are paid by The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems.
Fellow Commitment
In addition to attending all sessions, we expect Fellows to commit significant time to complete assignments and to consult with mentors and faculty advisors. Fellows are also required to complete a series of site visits and other hands-on projects designed to round out their leadership repertoire and deepen their understanding of urban school district management and operations.