The creation of new, small schools to expand learning opportunities for students, particularly at the secondary level, is a key component of New York City’s comprehensive education reforms. To assist in this effort, the NYC Leadership Academy offers New School Intensive (NSI), a program that provides leadership development and technical assistance that helps first-year principals opening new, small schools sustain their efforts in building a high-functioning educational environment from scratch.
Developed in close collaboration with the NYC Department of Education’s Office of Portfolio Development, NSI has two phases: a pre-service phase that begins when new schools scheduled to open the following September are announced (usually in January) and an in-service phase that begins once the schools open. During the pre-service phase, NSI offers participants weekly leadership development sessions that help them fine-tune their school proposals, learn about promising practices in the new school movement and address the numerous operational issues associated with a new school launch. During the in-service phase, weekly sessions are focused on competency-based leadership development and coordinated with the school calendar. This enables the leadership development work to draw upon the actual, day-to-day work of the school leader, including making mid-course corrections in organizational design, using student assessment data to drive instructional decisions and staff development and developing systems and structures that support a productive school environment committed to continual improvement.