Jennie Welch, a doctoral student in the Public Administration and Policy department, is part of a $75-million, five-year Wallace Foundation initiative to build efficient principals in six urban school districts across the nation.

Welch said that of the $75 million, Gwinnett County will receive $12.5 million over the next five years. In this first year, Gwinnett County has received $3.9 million.

“Gwinnett County already has a really strong leadership commitment in the district so the $12.5 million is designed to help refine and elevate an already strong program,” Welch said.

The Wallace Foundation, a national philanthropy dedicated to improving education and enrichment opportunities for children, launched this nationwide initiative to determine if strong principals improve student achievement in school districts, especially in schools with the highest needs.

Welch is now a Ph. D. student working within the Fanning Institute for the Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement (GLISI), an organization contracted with Gwinnett County to help facilitate their grant award.

“GLISI’s main role is helping Gwinnett County rethink their leadership standards in the district,” Welch said.

The Foundation selected six districts among 90 candidates who have already taken the necessary efforts towards grooming qualified principals. In addition to Gwinnett County, other districts chosen to participate include: Charlotte-Mecklenburg in North Carolina, Denver Public Schools in Colorado, Hillsborough County in Florida, among others.

Welch’s responsibility with the Wallace Foundation is researching the best practices around the country for school districts and college and university partnerships. Her research methods will be incorporated into the initiative and field tested within the six districts.

“Its kind of a quality measures assessment,” Welch said. Districts will take this information and assess their relationships with colleges and universities to determine a starting point. This process is underway.

Participating districts are allowed to replace retiring principals and assistant principals with graduates of high-quality training programs. The initiative also allows districts to assess the newly appointed leaders and provide them with mentoring or other developmental programs to improve their performance. Districts expect to replace most of their principal positions with qualified and professional leaders.

For Welch, strong leadership is critical for reaching successful student achievement.

“Strong leadership is critical not only in schools, but in any organization striving to be successful … With that said, I obviously think strong teachers in the classrooms are important because that’s where the most immediate impact on students is,” Welch said. “You also have to have strong leadership at the school and district levels.”

The Wallace initiative strives to ultimately determine whether strong efficient principals can improve student achievement in school districts. While Welch believes securing strong principals is important to student success, she said this kind of achievement will take more than just strong principals.

“You can’t just have a strong principal and expect your student achievement gains to fly through the roof,” Welch said. “There’s a bunch of things that trickle down from strong leadership which involves great teaching, a community with a vision around learning and student success.”