DC's State Superintendent of Education Deborah A. Gist is among 10 education and military leaders who have graduated from the 2008 Broad Superintendents Academy, The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems announced today.
The Broad (rhymes with “road”) Superintendents Academy is a 10-month executive management training program run by The Broad Center to prepare working CEOs and other top executives from education, military, business, nonprofit and government sectors to lead urban public school systems. The Broad Superintendents Academy is the only program in the country that recruits and trains non-traditional superintendent candidates as well as stand-out career educators. To date, graduates of the program have filled 53 superintendent positions and 70 senior school district executive positions.
“Decisions that are made by urban education leaders impact the lives of tens or hundreds of thousands of students,” said Eli Broad, philanthropist and founder of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, which funds The Broad Center. “Although every parent clearly wants a quality teacher in their child’s classroom, they also need the assurance that the most important decisions about their child’s education are being made by the best leaders in the country.”
A complete list of this year’s class fellows and full biographies can be found here.
Gist’s marks the seventh class to graduate since The Broad Superintendents Academy was founded in 2002. Nearly 70 percent of the graduates of the first six classes have been hired around the country as superintendents or school district executives or have been promoted into those positions, and three-quarters of them are still working in the same, similar, or higher positions. Of all large urban school districts that have conducted external searches for new superintendents between 2005 and 2007, one-fifth filled their positions with graduates of The Broad Superintendents Academy.
The Broad Superintendents Academy has trained more working superintendents in large urban school districts than any other training program. Graduates of the program currently work as superintendents in 37 cities across 23 states.
Based on analysis of publicly available student achievement data for Broad Superintendents Academy graduates who have served as superintendents for three or more testing cycles, 100 percent are outperforming comparison groups in reducing the percentage of students at the lowest proficiency level in reading and math, and 86 percent are meeting or exceeding proficiency standards in reading and math faster than comparison groups.
Participants in The Broad Superintendents Academy keep their current jobs and attend seven extended-weekend training sessions covering CEO-level skills in education, finance, management, operations and organizational systems. They study best practices and lessons learned from current and historical reform efforts in large urban American school districts, particularly those that are the most effective at improving student achievement and closing achievement gaps.
Only 4 percent of applicants to the 2008 class were accepted into the program, making it the most selective of its kind in the country. The 2009 class will be announced in February. For more information, or to apply, please visit broadacademy.org.
The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems is funded by The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, a national venture philanthropy established by entrepreneur and philanthropist Eli Broad to advance entrepreneurship for the public good in education, science and the arts. The Broad Foundation’s education work is focused on dramatically improving urban K-12 public education through better governance, management, labor relations and competition. For more information, please visit http://www.broadacademy.org or http://www.broadfoundation.org.