Date: 4/7/00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Dale Jackson, professor, Educational Leadership and Postsecondary Education, (319) 273- 5964

Gwenne Culpepper, Office of Public Relations, (319) 273-2761

University of Northern Iowa chosen as site for school administrator preparation program

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – In an attempt to head off what many view as a catastrophic shortage of school administrators statewide, the University of Northern Iowa will begin providing an Educational Leadership Program in Principalship. All of the teaching institutions in Iowa were invited to apply for the opportunity to provide the program; the Urban Education Network chose only UNI.

The Iowa Department of Education indicates the administrator shortage, projected to commence in 2003, will be the result of 435 retirements; in a normal year, only about 75 administrators retire. Dale Jackson, professor of Educational Leadership, said the shortage could mean a dearth of leadership for Iowa schools. “The UEN initiated this project because of the increasing need to uniquely prepare school leaders to work in urban settings which are facing some rapidly changing demographic and social issues,” says Jackson. “The state's schools can prosper only if they have solid, knowledgeable leaders. This program will help to ensure that they do.”

Through the venture, the university will prepare and offer a two-and-a-half-year program, beginning this fall, for up to 24 students. The UEN will choose candidates and encourage them to consider school administration as a career and participate in the program. Those chosen will be responsible for the tuition cost of $186 per credit hour, although home districts will provide subsidies for successfully completed courses. The program will target teachers in Iowa's eight largest school districts: Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Des Moines, Dubuque, Iowa City and Sioux City.

Some of the instruction for the 39- to 40-hour program will be delivered over the Iowa Communications Network (ICN) and on site in the eight respective districts in the UEN. Participants will need to attend on-campus courses during one summer. A faculty of six UNI professors will deliver the program.

The Urban Education Network of Iowa is a coalition of Iowa's eight largest school districts. The group functions as a support and information system, with the belief that academic achievement is the primary function of all school districts.

###

Back to the news release directory.