Dive Brief:
- Texas grocery store mogul Charles Butt is using $100 million of his fortune to create a nonprofit leadership institute called the Holdsworth Center that will be open to public school administrators from Texas.
- Inside Philanthropy writes the donation is particularly notable for its focus on traditional district school leaders rather than those running charter schools, who have gotten much more attention from education philanthropists.
- The center will open at an Austin high school and 16 districts have been invited to apply for six spots in the program’s inaugural year, though the center will be open to applications from all of Texas’ school districts by 2019.
Dive Insight:
Teacher training often gets the lion's share of attention in school districts, but decades of studies have highlighted the particular importance of strong leaders in schools. Many districts have begun reinforcing a strong leadership pipeline, sometimes by investing in efforts to support homegrown leaders, either longtime teachers or former students.
In Syracuse, NY, district administrators find the aspiring leaders academy creates a level of consistency and unity of vision across the district’s school leadership. In six urban districts in North Carolina, Colorado, Georgia, Florida, New York and Maryland, the Wallace Foundation’s Principal Pipeline initiative has emphasized forecasting leadership vacancies and tracking budding talent.