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

Tobacco 21 and the Military—Old Enough to Fight but Not Old Enough to Smoke?

Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death nationwide. In Indiana, which has among the highest smoking rates in the U.S., an estimated 11,000 people die each year from smoking. While smoking-related illnesses generally occur in older ages, smoking starts […]

Indianapolis Has Made Tremendous Progress When it Comes to K-12 Education Outcomes, but We Have Much More Work To Do

This week, teachers, school leaders, community organizations, philanthropic organizations, policymakers, and parents joined The Mind Trust for an evening of celebration and recognition of the progress Indianapolis has made in education over the past nearly two decades. The energy in the room was high but the message was clear: we have made tremendous progress when […]