Dr. Dennis Littky has been a reformer, school designer and the developer of leadership programs. In 1998, after the creation of the first MET School in Providence, Rhode Island it was evident to Littky that he would also have to help develop a cadre of a new type of school leader.

According to Littky, “I watched teachers decide to pursue a principalship, then embark on many semesters of evening courses at a local college.

Typically these courses had little connection with the work they would be doing as principal. There was a gulf between theory and practice, between course-based preparation and the complexities of actually leading something consequential in the life of a school. I have no bone to pick with reading lists and theory. I just think that, on balance, people need a lot more practice in walking like a leader.”

In 1998, Littky gathered a group including Roland Barth, founder of the Harvard Principals Center; Jay Carlson, Dean of Lewis and Clark College; Elliot Washor and several practicing school principals, including Tom McGuire. This group developed a new model of school leadership training where aspiring principals do most of their learning in the schoolhouse under the guidance of an excellent mentor principal and where the learning plan is personalized according to state standards, personal learning goals, and school needs. Aspiring Principals and Mentor Principals come together for network seminars and institutes to share, give feedback and learn together. Aspiring Principals are assessed through on-the-job evaluations by the mentor principal and other members of the school community and through exhibitions.

At the core of the Residency are consequential school-based projects that contribute to the health of the school while fostering the Aspiring Principal’s leadership learning. Through this project work, Aspiring Principals “walk the high wire” according to Littky. School leadership means taking risks in their project work. AP’s know full well that they may take a fall, but trust that the safety net beneath them will prevent lasting damage to them and the community. Mentors are always close by, coaching, pushing, encouraging and sometimes pulling the plug when the risks are too high. AP’s realize they are not doing this work for a grade or a credit, but rather to contribute to the school community, to earn the trust of the staff and the respect of the entire community.

Nine years and over 150 Aspiring Principals later, this once radical design is producing notable school leaders in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The Principal Residency Network is elegant in that it allows districts to train aspiring principals the way the district wants them trained. Districts’ frameworks for learning and professional development can be built into the program through the Learning Plan.

In June 2000, the Wallace Fund awarded Big Picture Company $1.26 million dollars to develop the Principal Residency Network, and in 2001 Ann Duffy, associate commissioner of education in Massachusetts, said that the Principal Residency Network has “influenced Massachusetts Department of Education’s rules governing administrator certification.” She adds, “They are the benchmark. We are really looking hard to see what we can learn from the success they’ve had.” During the next six years, throughout a tumultuous period of change in the demands on public schools, Principal Residency Network sites were established through the Center for Collaborative Education in concert with Northeastern University, in Rhode Island at EdPartners and the Rhode Island Department of Education in concert with Providence College and Johnson and Wales College, and at Keene State College with the approval of the NH Teacher Education Council. These programs have helped to train exemplary school leaders in urban and rural schools.

In November 2006, Keene State College was not interested in expanding the program geographically outside of their small catchment area, and so the program was moved to the Upper Valley Teacher Institute, which has a 40 year track record of field-based teacher training and shares a fundamental belief in a balanced approach to experiential learning.

These documents further explain the development of PRN:

Education News from the Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund

Developing School Leaders: One Principal at a Time
By Dennis Littky and Molly Schen, from the book Reshaping the Landscape of School Leadership Development: A Global Perspective. Philip Hallinger (Editor), Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers, February 2003.