Harvard to Train City Educators

In an attempt to infuse troubled inner-city schools with specially trained leaders, the Graduate School of Education this week announced plans for an innovative program designed to produce superintendents for urban school districts.

The Urban Superintendent Program, the first of its kind in the nation, will begin this summer with a limited enrollment of only 10 to 12 students, school officials said.

"We need to train a super cohort who can lead the difficult school systems," said Deidra A. Lyngard, the communications manager for Pew Charitable Trusts, the Philadelphia based foundation which granted $270,000 for the program.

"Harvard is one of the few institutions which is addressing the problem [of urban schools] and making it a priority," Lyngard said.

The program's curriculum will include studies of the way children in urban schools learn, and information on the historical and contemporary context in which urban schools operate, Graham said. She added that the program will train urban administrators to establish relations with social and community organizations outside the school.

The two-year course of study leading to a doctoral degree will include a one-year internship in an urban school.

The program was initiated to alleviate a shortage of administrators in urban school districts, Ed School officials said. More than 50 percent of such superintendents now in office will retire within eight years, school officials said.

"When you talk to superintendents, they all express concern about the lack of people to take their place," said Patricia A. Graham, dean of the School of Education.

Administrators said they want the program to target minority applicants because of growing concerns that minorities are underrepresented in administrative positions.

The school hopes eventually to establish a permanent endowment fund to support the program, Ed School officials said.

Administrators said they hope the small Harvard program, if successful, will inspire similar programs at other schools.

"We don't make our impact by pumping out large quantities of people," said Jerome T. Murphy, associate dean at the Ed School. "We make it by training high quality people who can make an impact, and by setting up a precedent program which other schools can emulate."