AboutThe Michigan Principals Fellowship and Michigan Coaches Institute, funded by U.S Department of Education Title 1 funds, are collaborative efforts by the Michigan Department of Education, the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators and Michigan State University to provide support to Michigan schools not making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). The purpose of the Coaches Institute and the Principals Fellowship is to create a highly interactive and coherent learning experience for participants that will, over time, increase their capacity to lead adult learning in the service of systematic instructional improvement. Both the Principals Fellowship and Coaches Institute are part of the Michigan Department of Education's State System of Support .
The Michigan Principals Fellowship is designed to support principals as they develop the skills necessary to systematically improve the quality of instruction in their buildings by exercising visionary, instructional and operational/systems leadership, and cross-cutting leadership skills related to data collection and analysis, communication and managing change.
In order to build the capacity of principals to lead systematic instructional improvements in high priority schools, the Michigan Coaches Institute is preparing a cadre of experienced educators highly skilled in facilitating professional learning that leads to demonstrable results in student achievement. Coaches are the key mechanism for providing on-site support to principals.
Throughout the MPF and MCI we have stressed the importance of focusing on instructional quality through exercising leadership that improves the capacity and coherence of instructional programs, professional community and effective use of resources. The research evidence is clear: Systematically improving the quality of instruction, and thus what students learn, depends heavily on the level of coherence within a school’s instructional program. Building a coherent instructional program requires a strong professional community because teachers must be able to observe each other teach and have candid conversations about the instructional core, what they do and what is and is not working. Valuing coherence means saying no to some opportunities, buffering staff from superfluous requirements and using all available resources to support improving the instructional core.
