Prince George's County Public Schools has been awarded a one-year $250,000 grant from the Freddie Mac Foundation. This capacity-building grant will be used to enhance funding for the "principal pipeline" initiative that began this school year through a $12.5 million five-year grant from the Wallace Foundation. The Freddie Mac Foundation grant will enhance sustainability of the initiative and support the school system in its efforts to increase the effectiveness of instructional leaders.
The Freddie Mac Foundation grant will provide critical resources for transitioning principals from administrative leaders to instructional leaders focused on student achievement. This transition includes defining the qualities and skills of an effective leader, providing development support and building the technology infrastructure to help grow and track leadership capacity.
Over the next five years, the national principal pipeline initiative will focus on building four key components: rigorous job requirements, high-quality training for aspiring school leaders, selective hiring of well-trained candidates and on-the-job evaluation and support specific to individual needs. By the end of the initiative, PGCPS will hire approximately 125 highly qualified principals and assistant principals with a strong pipeline in place for the future.