Our Approach
The Partnership aims to ensure every public school in Chicago is led by a strong principal. We work with university and nonprofit partners to develop targeted programming and strategically invest in school leadership development for new and aspiring principals.
Why Aspiring Principals?
Principals set the conditions for learning in Chicago’s 652 public schools. Developing aspiring principals will help mitigate school performance decline when a principal transitions.
7x
A school with a strong principal is seven times more likely to help students improve in math.
4x
A school with a strong principal is four times more likely to help students improve in reading.
96%
24 of 25 teachers say that their principal is the number one factor in deciding whether or not they stay at their school.
Tomorrow’s principals are learning on-the-job in schools today.
There are many roads to school leadership; assistant principals are a crucial component of the school leadership pipeline.
Data include principals who were APs between 2009 and 2019.
Data only represent district-operated schools. Data from charter schools are not collected in a comparable way.
Let’s build a bench of future leaders.
Learn more about programs for aspiring principals.