The Business of Strengthening School Leadership
Board certification marks many professions. Penny Pritzker, chair of the Chicago Public Education Fund, asks: Why not education leadership?
Business leaders, no matter their political persuasion, understand that our nation's primary and secondary schools face a leadership crisis. It begins with low levels of achievement for too many students. The Conference Board reports that more than 40% of recent high school graduates lack basic skills in reading, writing, and math.
Even more alarming, is that we are entering an era in which there will not be enough school leaders with the experience and skills needed to address these and other pressing academic shortcomings. The California-based Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning reports that only 48% of primary- and secondary-level principals in California plan to stay in their jobs until retirement. At the secondary level, only 22% of the state's principals plan to do so. The Chicago Public Schools estimate that one-third of its schools will need new principals by the fall of 2011. Both projections are emblematic of the challenges that face school districts across the nation.
Business has a vested interest in improving our schools. An