High School Leadership Initiative

The High School Leadership Initiative (HSLI) was initiated in the spring of 2007. The purpose of HSLI is to develop and support courageous high school principals willing to examine and implement best practices that address educational equity and result in optimal student learning. "HSLI is designed to develop school-wide leadership capacity by building the leadership skills of principals and strengthening their ability to nurture teacher leadership," said Nina Moore, CAPP's HSLI project director.

CAPP provides to each of the 11 grantee schools an annual $50,000 grant, a partner to provide on-site support, and professional development activities for the principals and their school leadership teams.

CAPP selected SRI International to conduct an in-depth external evaluation of HSLI to identify the lessons and impact of this project as well as to inform the continuous improvement of the Initiative. SRI's first report of HSLI is available here. SRI's initial findings focus on four major areas: systematizing leadership, navigating the dilemmas of leadership, expanding ideas and resources, and student outcome trends. The most consistent and powerful finding is the critical importance of the HSLI partner. All of the principals reported that having a knowledgeable, non-evaluative external partner who responds to their and their schools' needs is the single most important component of HSLI. Over the next two years, the evaluation will focus on change in the schools and sustainability of the leadership practices implemented during the grant.

The HSLI grant recipients are:

1. Baldwin Park High School (Baldwin Park USD)
2. Caruthers High School (Caruthers USD)
3. Dinuba High School (Dinuba USD)
4. Florin High School (Elk Grove USD)
5. John H. Francis Polytechnic High School (Los Angeles USD)
6. Morse High School (San Diego USD)
7. Oxnard High School (Oxnard UHSD)
8. Soledad High School (Soledad USD)
9. Southwest High School (Sweetwater UHSD)
10. Valley High School (Elk Grove USD)
11. William C. Overfelt High School (Eastside Union USD)