New York City is about to start paying the bill, which could amount to $20 million a year, for the Aspiring Principals Program – a component of what is known as the Leadership Academy. Mayor Bloomberg & Co. created it a few years ago to produce brave new school principals, or “change agents,” using corporate-style training.

Inauspiciously, one-third of the program’s graduates have not gone on to head schools, and a dozen grads earned failing grades on new report cards. And – get this – courtesy of the New York Post:

About half of the schools headed by Leadership Academy principals last year received grades of C, D or F in school report cards last week. The 12 failing schools being led by academy grads represent one quarter of all F schools in the system and put the principals at risk of being ousted.
Some grads are heading schools where they have been harshly criticized by teachers and parents who cite their lack of experience and, ironically, leadership skills.

Once upon a time I attended an academically successful and (very) financially cost-effective parochial school run by Dominican nuns, who were good at recognizing and empowering the best Principal Leader in their ranks. They would not have been able to comprehend, nor would have sanctioned, the pouring of millions into the education of “change-agent” principals.