Initiative

NCSU Educational Leadership Academy

NC State University’s Educational Leadership Academy (NELA) seeks to increase student achievement by preparing and retaining principals in high-poverty, hard-to-staff, and historically low-performing schools. NELA creates a comprehensive leadership development and succession plan for NC high-need school districts. Each component is anchored in research-based best practices in leadership preparation and is designed to meet the specific contextualized needs of schools in North Carolina.

Home Pathways Action Map NCSU Educational Leadership Academy

Fast Facts

Relevant Actions Action 3.6, Action 3.16, Action 3.19, Action 3.13
State or Local?

State
Counties

Began in Wake, Durham, Cumberland, & Johnston

Lead Agency

North Carolina State University
Type of Agency

Higher Education Institution
Racial Equity Lens
  • Trainees have been trained to address all inequities (strengths/ differences of all students regardless of learning ability)
  • Human Resources Leadership is taught with the lens of racial equity and ensuring that diverse perspectives are hired
  • Recruiting is also done to be representative of the students from those counties
Community Voice
  • MSA students have a summer community immersion experience. They learn to make connections between the local community and the school through asset mapping and volunteer/internship experiences.
  • We follow up with the fellows every month post-graduation.
  • District leaders, other principals, and superintendents in the area are consulted to adjust the training accordingly.
Impact
  • 90% of schools with a NELA graduate serving as principal met or exceeded growth for the 2018 – 2019 school year vs. only 75% of principals across all schools in the state reaching the same level of performance.
  • Current State Principal of the Year: Matthew Bristow-Smith was in Cohort 3
    • Southern Nash Principal of the Year: Hugh Scott
  • Students promoted to have a regional/ district impact (not just principals but also leaders in education)
    • Alexandria Evans: Executive Director of School Improvement
    • Julie Thompson: Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services
Next Steps
  • Strengthen curriculum/add experiences around Birth-5 and PreK leadership and vertical alignment.
  • Design Thinking for school leaders E-book
    • How to create a creative, repeatable process for problem-solving
    • Particularly to address larger contexts and problems such as COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter
Primary Partners
  • North Carolina State University and 25 school districts
Primary Funders
  • NC Partnership for Children/Division of Child Development’s Family Engagement & Leadership Grant
  • Catawba County Partnership for Children
Contact

Bonnie Fusarelli

Active Counties