In May 2015, a coalition of stakeholders from business, philanthropy, and education organizations in Cincinnati announced a new public-private partnership called Accelerate Great Schools (AGS). AGS’s goal is to grow the number of high-quality seats in Cincinnati by developing and expanding schools and models that deliver outstanding results for kids. On Wednesday afternoon, AGS announced the recipients of its first two grants.
The first, worth $128,000, will support Cincinnati Public Schools’ (CPS) work with TNTP (formerly known as The New Teacher Project) on attracting, supporting, and developing school principals and assistant principals. As we’ve written before, school leadership is critically important, especially given how difficult it is to recruit and select strong candidates. At an event in October, we heard from Dayton Public Schools Superintendent Lori Ward that it’s particularly difficult for large urban districts to recruit and retain effective principals. Heather Grant, from the Aspiring Principals Program in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, emphasized the importance of ongoing support and development. Thanks to AGS, principal recruitment and development are about to get a whole lot better in Cincinnati. The new CPS grant will assess how the district handles recruiting, hiring, and supporting principals with the intention of creating a “robust leadership development effort.”
The second grant is worth $1.3 million and was awarded to Seton Education Partners. Seton plans to introduce a blended learning model at two Archdiocese of Cincinnati schools, St. Francis de Sales and St. Cecilia. The same model (also implemented by Seton) is already in use at St. Joseph Catholic School in Cincinnati, and the achievement results are promising. The partnership between AGS, Seton, and the archdiocese is exactly the kind of collaboration that the education world should pursue, with kids as the primary beneficiaries.
These two grants, totaling $1.42 million, are a great first step for AGS and another great step for education in Cincinnati. The Queen City already has a lot going for it—from a high-schools-of-choice model to the StrivePartnership to community learning centers—and AGS appears to be an excellent addition. Congratulations to the grant recipients, and kudos to AGS for its commitment to student success.
