The University of Texas Collaborative Urban Leadership Project (UTCULP)
The University of Texas Collaborative Urban Leadership Project (UTCULP) is an extension of The University of Texas at Austin Principalship Program’s effort to increase academic achievement by developing 120 effective leaders prepared for urban secondary schools. Through funding from the US Department of Education and partnerships with three high-needs LEAs - Dallas, Houston and Harlandale - serving 14% of all Texas students living in poverty, the UTCULP will:
- Identify the unique needs of each district partner;
- Recruit, identify, select, financially support and prepare at least 120 candidates who have the potential to become effective principals of secondary urban schools;
- Provide ongoing evaluation to ensure candidate growth and program effectiveness;
- Recruit, select, and train a District Site Coordinator and five District Mentors in each partner district; and
- Develop and implement district level strategies to support and retain current effective leaders who can provide follow on and support to future aspiring leaders in the district.
Each district partner will be provided customized services from an institution with a long history of providing excellent leadership development. Once the UTCULP has developed a District Profile, the findings will be used to collaboratively develop district Retention and Capacity Building Plans. The UTCULP team will review on-going evaluation data and revise the UTCULP program as needed. Findings from the project will be disseminated to other school leadership preparation programs across the state and country through documents posted on the UTCULP website, journal articles, and presentations at state and national conferences.