Fry Foundation Highlights CUEL Contributions to Principal Preparation and Supervision in City of Chicago

Since 2007, CUEL has benefited from the financial and collegial support of the Lloyd E. Foundation of Chicago to build capacity in areas such as data infrastructure, high school leadership, and leader professional development. In its 2023 Annual Report, marking 40 years of grantmaking in Chicago, The Fry Foundation particularly celebrates CUEL’s diverse contributions to the City’s nationally recognized principal pipeline initiatives. Two contributions are particularly highlighted. First, the Center regularly provides data and consultation to UIC’s award-winning principal preparation program to support its participation in CPS’ Chicago Leadership Collaborative, as well as advancing its internal continuous improvement agenda. Second, as part of a growing research-practice partnership with the Chicago Public Schools, known as C2, CUEL has engaged with the leaders of CPS’ 17 Network offices to help them better develop school principals as instructional leaders. As the report notes, “CUEL guides the network chiefs away from purely administrative roles toward leader development roles with their principals and their schools’ instructional leadership teams.” The report credits CUEL with helping to increase the number of principals who view their Network Chiefs as an asset to their practice as school leaders. Access Fry Foundation’s 2023 Annual Report here.