Research suggests highly effective principals raise the achievement of a typical student by 2-7 months of learning in a single school year, and ineffective principals decrease achievement by the same amount.   

That’s why The Mind Trust, a nonprofit expanding access to high-quality schools for Indianapolis students, partnered with the Relay Graduate School of Education to sponsor Relay’s National Principal Academy Fellowship (NPAF). To date, the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation has awarded $1,756,000 to support this initiative. 

The program has equipped more than 100 school leaders in Indianapolis with the skills necessary to better support their teachers and ultimately help their students thrive. With the availability of high-quality leadership development initiatives like NPAF, Joe White, Senior Vice President of School Support at The Mind Trust from 2016 to 2021, has high hopes for the future: 

“My belief is that Indianapolis can be a beacon of light for the rest of the country in demonstrating what it means to create high quality options for students regardless of their background, their race or their income.” 

Additional Posts

How We’re Addressing Indiana’s Unmet Need for Opioid Addiction Treatment

Claire Fiddian-Green is the President and CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. Opioid addiction is taking an undeniable toll on Hoosiers struggling with addiction, their families, and Indiana employers and communities. In an ideal world, we could keep people from becoming addicted to prescription pain medicine or using heroin in the first place through […]

The Opioid Crisis Needs Our Attention Now, More Than Ever

With so many COVID-19 related challenges before us, we cannot lose sight of the people in our lives and in our communities struggling with addiction. The opioid crisis, and substance use disorder more broadly, need our attention now more than ever.