Clemson, Upstate schools, pilot novel leadership development program

Published: May 10, 2012

CLEMSON — There’s a saying that if you go looking for problems, you’ll probably find them, but that’s exactly what a group of area principals and superintendents will be doing at their high schools and school districts. It’s part of a novel approach to school improvement being launched by a collaboration of Upstate schools and Clemson University’s Eugene T. Moore School of Education.

Nearly 30 school leaders will gather at Clemson Friday to kick off a one- or two-year program — Leadership 2.0 and Leadership 3.0 — both aimed at making good schools even better.

Leadership 2.0 is a two-year program for mid-career principals to give them skills needed to seek out and solve problems, while Leadership 3.0 is a one-year program for senior leaders to train them to them coach and mentor future leaders. Both programs provide Clemson certification and can be used for credit toward an educational specialist degree. The program will be a combination of in-person, on-campus, in-district and online work. Nearly 20 are enrolled in the first cohort, but many superintendents also are participating in the opening session.

The educators represent the Abbeville, Edgefield, Greenwood 50, Greenwood 51, Greenwood 52, Laurens 55, Laurens 56, McCormick, Newberry and Saluda school districts. These districts form the Western Piedmont Education Consortium, a long-time partner with Clemson’s aspiring school leaders programs.

“Many of the new programs’ participants are Clemson alumni, so Leadership 2.0 and Leadership 3.0 are part of our commitment to alumni support throughout their careers,” said Janie Clark Lindle, the Eugene T. Moore Professor of Educational Leadership and program director. “Clemson educational leadership graduates do very well leading schools. On average, schools and districts led by Clemson graduates exceed state averages on metrics such as student achievement, success and satisfaction. But we want them to be even better.”

Unlike most K-12 intervention programs that target schools that are struggling or failing, Clemson is taking a cue from the medical field and focusing on prevention. The “law of averages” dictates that even at a good school, some students are falling behind or failing to succeed,” Lindle said. “Why do we wait until a school is on life-support before we recognize they need help? Our approach is problem-finding rather than problem-solving.

“There’s also a tendency for higher-achieving schools to ‘coast,’ so that they may not be resilient to unexpected major community changes that might impact student achievement, such as layoffs at one of the major local employers,” she said.

The program is also distinctive because of the high level of collaboration among the 10 participating Upstate school districts. All are members of the Western Piedmont Education Consortium, which encourages collaboration rather than competition among schools and districts.

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