Ready to Lead: Rutgers Graduate Program is Preparing Camden’s Next Generation of School Principals

For Immediate Release

CAMDEN --  Some might say that Janis Kauffman works in a “tough” neighborhood:  Camden’s Centerville section. Ask Kauffman, though, and she’ll report that she has a dream job as principal of  the Sumner School.

She credits her success in making a difference at Sumner School to an innovative Rutgers–Camden graduate program that is preparing – and motivating – the next generation of school leaders in the City of Camden and across southern New Jersey.

Developed in partnership with the Camden School District, the Educational Policy and Leadership Concentration with the master in public administration (MPA) program at Rutgers–Camden draws upon and deepens the talent pool within the city schools in order to develop the district’s future administrators. 

“I love being principal. It’s something I’ve always wanted,” says Kauffman, who has taught in Camden since 1974.  She became principal at Sumner – a handsome older building that houses 360 students in grades pre-K through five – in March of 2008, after completing a pilot version of the two-year, 42-credit program.

The current class of aspiring principals has 16 men and women (selected from 120 applicants) and will graduate in 2010. 

“Building leadership capacity is one of the most critical elements in transforming schools and sustaining high levels of excellence and innovation,” notes Gloria Bonilla-Santiago, director of the Rutgers–Camden Center for Strategic Urban Community Leadership. The center developed the Educational Policy and Leadership Concentration Program with the university’s Department of Public Policy and Administration, where Bonilla-Santiago is a Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor of Urban Studies.

“The Department of Public Policy and Administration is very pleased to have (this) partnership with the Camden school district,” says Robyne Turner, chair of the Rutgers graduate department. “The Camden teachers bring an important and insightful perspective to our classes. In turn, we believe we are providing…a unique degree program that will not only serve their personal goals of professional advancement, but also provide them with a public policy education that will be useful to them as teachers in an urban school district.”

Bonilla-Santiago notes that while “educational leadership programs are traditionally housed within Schools of Education,” the innovative Rutgers–Camden program “provides a unique mix of academic experiences in instructional as well as managerial leadership.”

Unlike a classroom teacher, a principal must interact regularly with the larger community, as well as “vendors, lunchroom aides, other administrators, and people trying to sell you insurance,” says Kauffman, adding that the Rutgers MPA program helped to provide a foundation in financial management and other skills.

Also invaluable: The connections, collaborations, and support among classmates.

“We learn from each other,” says Jorge Calixto, who teaches history and is the social studies chair at Hatch Middle School. He is enrolled in the cohort that will complete the program in 2010.

“We’re taking what we’re learning and putting it in practice in our classrooms and sharing it with our colleagues,” Calixto says. “We’re not coming back and keeping it to ourselves.”

Janna Johnson, a guidance counselor at Bonsall Family School, agrees. “The program is teaching me to be innovative, to be creative, and to think outside the box to better serve students,” she says.

Like Calixto, Johnson prizes the relationships with her fellow students.

“Being a member of the cohort, being able to work with such a diverse group of educators, is a learning experience in itself,” she says. Being in the MPA program while working full-time “is a lot on my plate,” Johnson adds. “But it’s worth it.”

Likewise, Nancy Ruiz, a technology teacher at Wiggins School, says it is “challenging for me that we work full-time and go to school…but (she and her classmates) are like a little educational family. We support each other.”

Ruiz says she appreciates the opportunity to someday “transform a school” by becoming a principal. And Calixto points out that while public attention has focused on basic skills and other testing for students, the Rutgers–Camden program focuses on better supervision and support for teachers – another way to obtain better educational outcomes.

“A school,” he says, “definitely needs somebody in the driver’s seat.”

According to Bonilla-Santiago, 17 students completed the two-year pilot program with cumulative GPAs of 3.5 (out of a possible 4.0) and above and simultaneously fulfilled the requirements for principal certification in New Jersey.

“All of these students successfully passed the School Leaders Licensure Assessment,” she says. “Moreover, almost 100% of the graduates received promotions to school leadership positions and are currently working in Camden schools or district level posts as principals, assistant principals or supervisors.”

The master of public policy and administration program at the Camden Campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is the only program in the metro Philadelphia region to hold accreditation by NASPAA (the National Association of School of Public Affairs and Administration).  In addition to the Educational Policy and Leadership Concentration, the Rutgers–Camden MPA program also offers tracks in Public Management and International Service and Development. 

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