LEAD grant helps Eugene schools‘grow their own’ leaders while improving student learning

A grant from Wallace – Reader’s Digest Funds is nourishing the seeds of leadership in teachers and principals throughout Eugene’s public schools.

The Leadership for Educational Achievements in Districts (LEAD) grant provides support and direction to schools so they can ‘grow their own’ leaders who, in turn, will cultivate improved learning among students. Grant funds are encouraging new ideas – and school staff – to blossom in Eugene, even as gray days of budget cutting cloud the state.

‘Everyone A Learner ‘ is the theme in this research-based initiative, now in its second year. The renewable grant will provide around $1 million a year for up to five years. Eugene is one of 12 districts in the nation to receive a LEAD grant – and “the only district west of the Mississippi,” according to Kay Mehas, who directs the grant for Eugene schools. “Nationally the focus is primarily on principals, but we’re focusing on teachers as well, so we’ll have more leadership density in our schools,” she says.

Key strategies in the grant include: renewing the pool of high quality administrators through a more flexible licensure process, apprentice leader positions and an outstanding teacher nomination system; increasing diversity among school administrators; using mentors to support new administrators; and, strengthening accountability and evaluation systems.

“We’re hoping what we’re doing will be replicable in other districts around the state,” Mehas says. “Eliminating the achievement gap is our goal.”

A partnership with the University of Oregon allows both partners to benefit from the LEAD project, according to Nancy Golden of UO’s Educational Leadership Department. “We bring the latest research to the project and the schools inform us about what is happening in the field.” Together the partners are developing a self-assessment tool for school administrators to use in evaluating and improving their leadership skills.

Opportunities available through the LEAD grant have teachers and principals “totally jazzed,” according to North Eugene High School principal Peter Tromba. “This grant helps break us out of our inertia,” Tromba says. “It lets us talk about possibilities for a while, instead of talking only about budgets.” Tromba and his staff are noting benefits from Critical Friends, one the of the project’s ‘best practices’. The group process involves a set of procedures designed to help participants resolve issues and achieve goals. “We discuss, debate and analyze issues, eliminating a lot of the ‘yada, yada, yada’ that comes when everyone tries to talk at once. I find I’m learning more from Critical Friends than I do from observations,” Tromba says.

Awbrey Park Elementary School principal Laurie Moses notes that, “One significant change with the grant is our new focus on K-12 learning communities. In a district our size, elementary principals traditionally meet together, middle school principals have their own meetings, and high school principals have their meetings,” she explains. “With the Wallace funds, we reorganized in K-12 learning communities. We meet in regions now rather than by grade level. That’s good business, because we are all talking about the same kids.”

The grant has restored some profession development opportunities for Eugene principals and teachers that were lost long ago through budget cuts. “Including teachers in the trips helps build our capacity for change,” Moses says. “It’s not only the principal who gets leadership training.”

Moses believes Eugene’s reputation for innovation and creativity – along with its changing demographics – helped secure the grant for the district. “Eugene students have shown good achievement thus far, but we’re gaining more second language students and more diversity. Knowing those changes are coming, will we be able to close the achievement gap?” “I’ve been involved in our district in a variety of grants over the years,” Moses says. “This is the first grant that offers possibilities for a widespread impact on student learning.”

Principal Tim Rochholz already sees results at Kelly Middle Schools, which he says has been the “home of the achievement gap!” “Because we’re the district’s lowest performing, lowest income middle school, we decided a year and a half ago that we needed to change the school structure,” he says.

Grant funds enable Kelly teachers to visit schools around the state and as far away as Fairfax County, VA, and they fund travel to conferences on brain research, mathematics and other topics. Those opportunities to explore ‘outside the box’ have generated unexpected energy – and the reorganization of the school into smaller learning communities. (That reorganization also led to the name change to Kelly Middle Schools.)

“People report back to the rest of the staff when they return from a visit,” Rochholz says. “They get excited about new ideas and step out into leadership roles,” he says. “Conversations among teachers have changed from how the Ducks are doing, to integrating instruction, building relationships with students, and transitioning students from middle school to high school.”

“People have to be willing to change,” Rochholz says. “This grant allows people to get out of the classroom, out of their routine, and take a risk. And it’s all going on while the district is cutting funds.”