HELPING TO MEND A BROKEN SYSTEM
LSU education professor develops program to better prepare principals for educating at-risk school populations

Amy Barham Westbrook grew up staring poverty in the face. As a child in the relatively rural and impoverished town of Oak Ridge in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, she personally came to understand the term “at-risk.” After graduating from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., the future teacher began her career in at-risk, minority schools.

Westbrook, an assistant professor in LSU’s Department of Educational Leadership, Research, & Counseling, maintains that much research shows student success is tied closely with excellent leadership: school principals. This fact, along with her experiences growing up and teaching, prompted her to develop a program at LSU to train a new generation of school leaders that can better tackle the problems of at-risk student populations.

“We’ve conducted numerous meetings with principals and teachers to identify areas of professional growth that we need to hone in on for principals to better deal with the needs of students who are at risk of failure. We want to find new ways to lift them up,” says Westbrook.

The term at-risk defines a population or area as having such qualities as high rates of poverty and single-parent families, limited English proficiency, and other special needs.

The first beneficiary of Westbrook’s program is the East Feliciana Parish School System in Louisiana. With about 2,500 students and many of the system’s schools failing Louisiana’s education accountability system, East Feliciana is a great match. In fact, the school system was in such dire need that the current superintendent, Glenn Brady, came out of retirement to resume the post and has been working side-by-side with Westbrook in launching her principal-training program.

Westbrook’s grant from the U.S. Department of Education allows for the training of 15 teachers to become principals. In addition to funding the development of the curriculum and activities for the students, the program grant covers the tuition, fees, and supplies of the teachers involved.
After completing two semesters of course work on best practices and school improvement, the teachers will be paired with mentor principals, who are selected by Brady and currently working in East Feliciana. Once paired, the teachers will have two semesters of a collaborative relationship with their mentors—learning more about instructional leadership, problem-solving techniques, and effective decision-making processes.

Westbrook maintains that there are huge potential rewards for the school system.
“Because there is an investment by the district, there is more likely to be a job opportunity for that aspiring principal at the end of the program. Graduates are able to get involved sooner and help mend the system,” says Westbrook.

Once the first class of new principals graduates from the program, Westbrook hopes it will serve as a template for other troubled school systems nationally. Places where a university and an at-risk school system can partner provide the greatest opportunities to develop innovative leaders that can elevate student success.

ON THE WEB:
LSU Department of Educational Leadership, Research, & Counseling

from Winter 2006 Issue