The National Charter Schools Institute is excited to announce a new initiative to inspire, educate and equip charter school leaders to achieve their potential and to lead with excellence. The Aspiring Charter School Leaders Program provides a broad overview of the knowledge and skills necessary to successfully lead a charter school in Michigan. Through participation in this program, you will be connected to school leaders, experts, resources, and organizations that will ensure your school’s success.

This program is designed to meet the unique needs of each participant. We understand that every charter school leader comes with their own background, skills and abilities. Through the use of a participant readiness assessment, we are able to better understand your leadership strengths and the areas in which you could benefit from additional knowledge, training and mentorship. It is our commitment that participation in this program will meet your specific leadership goals and cover important topics areas such as system leadership, instructional leadership, school operations and communications.

Charter school leaders are busy, so carving out time to participate in additional training and leadership development opportunities, while critical, can be difficult. With this in mind, this program is designed to build on the important work that you are already doing in your school. All the activities you will be asked to complete are grounded in real-life work-based experiences and will result in the creation of an online portfolio of practical resources that you can continue to use on the job.

One of the most exciting aspects of the program is that you will be assigned a mentor who is an experienced school leader. You will have someone to encourage and challenge you as you take this journey of leadership development. As you communicate with your mentor, on a regular basis, you will have the opportunity to ask critical questions, brainstorm innovative ideas and work on solving important problems.

The Institute invites you to apply for this competitive and rewarding year-long program. The Institute is currently accepting six applicants for the 2021-2022 cohort of aspiring leaders. To be eligible to apply for this outstanding program, you must be employed in a Michigan charter school in 2021-22 and have the support of school leadership and board of directors. As part of the application process you will submit a letter of support from the school in which you are, or will be, employed. Title II funds can be used to help finance your participation in the ACSLP.

If you are ready to improve your ability to lead and achieve outstanding results for Michigan kids, please take the next step and complete the combined ACSLP participant readiness assessment and application. All participant readiness assessments/applications are due by Wednesday, April 30, 2021. Selected applicants will be notified by Friday, May 19^th, 2021 and the ACSLP will commence on Monday, July 5^th, 2021.

For questions about the Aspiring Leaders Program, please contact Mark Weinberg at MWeinberg@CharterInstitute.org or call (989) 317-3510.