National Principal Supervisors Academy
A fellowship program that enables system-level leaders to effectively lead change across multiple schools through the coaching and development of school-based leaders.
Program Participants
The National Principal Supervisors Academy (NPSA) is for principal supervisors and other system-level instructional leaders (e.g., Instructional Superintendents, Chief Academic Officers, Head of Leadership Development, etc.) Participants work at a variety of PK-12 settings, including traditional school districts, independent schools, and charter management organizations across the U.S.
Program Focus
In highly effective school systems, principal supervisors play an essential role in improving instructional leadership across a network of schools. In this program, participants will dive deeply into areas such as:
- Centering Equity: Strengthening awareness and strategies to systematically increase opportunity and remove barriers for historically underserved students.
- Data Informed Instruction: Leading principal teams in effective lesson internalization and response to student learning needs
- Instructional and Strategic Planning: Establishing aligned priorities and highest leverage actions to take with their principals to drive meaningful improvement across schools
- Coaching: Building skills to effectively coach principals to be more effective instructional leaders
Program Experience
The National Principal Supervisors Academy is a one-year program consisting of a 9-day hybrid (in-person and virtual) summer intensive followed by three hybrid multi-day intersessions throughout the year. Based on a cohort model, leaders learn alongside their colleagues from across the country, including participation in Learning Teams and submission of job-embedded assessments. Participants will benefit from:
- Expert faculty: Learn from experienced practitioners who have demonstrated effectiveness in the field.
- Feedback: Receive regular feedback on video assessments from experienced, Relay trained coaches who have demonstrated success as effective principal supervisors.
- A network of peers: Solve problems alongside other high-performing peers facing similar challenges.
About Partnership
What makes a great partnership? Learn about more about what kind of organizations we work with and how we support them in Supporting Conditions and Infrastructure.
Or, look for answers to any general questions you may have on our FAQs page.
Program Schedule
The National Principal Supervisor Academy launches alongside the National Principal Academy Fellowship for the summer intensive, enabling cross-over and alignment within district teams. NPSA participants will have the option of attending the summer intensive in either June or July. The time commitment and the content are the same for each cohort.
Summer Intensive
Option 1: June Cohort | Denver, CO
June 7-9, 2023
Orientation and one 4-hour (half-day) session | Virtual
June 12-16, 2023
5 days | In-person
June 21 or 22, 2023
3 hours live practice & feedback | Virtual
Option 2: July Cohort | Atlanta, GA
July 12-14, 2023
Orientation and 4-hour (half-day) session | Virtual
July 17-21, 2023
5 days | In-person
July 25 or 26, 2023
3 hours live practice & feedback | Virtual
Intersessions
Oct. 12-13, 2023
2 days | In-person (Denver, CO)
Additional optional virtual sessions
Jan. 22 - Feb. 1, 2024
Between 4-6 sessions | Virtual
May 9 - 10, 2024
2 days | In-person (Atlanta, GA)
Additional optional virtual sessions
Program Cost
$16,500 per participant
The program fee covers:
- High-quality instructional professional development from experienced leaders
- All course materials, licensing fees, and online access to electronic versions of resources
- Hotel rooms
- Breakfast, lunch, and snacks
Deadlines
Partner organizations should request seats for their leaders by the following deadlines. Seats are filled on a first-come-first-served basis and may fill up quickly.
Seat Request Form Opens: January 2nd, 2023
Seat Request Submission Deadline: May 1st, 2023
For more deadlines and details on requesting seats, see The Partnership Process.
For general questions about Leadership Programs, see our FAQs.
Relay’s leadership programs were really a turning point in my career path. While I thought I was a strong leader before, Relay gave me specific tools and language to use that supported my work in ways that made it more effective and efficient.
- Jeanine Zitta
Jeanine Zitta's Story
"Relay’s leadership programs were really a turning point in my career path. While I thought I was a strong leader before, Relay gave me specific tools and language to use that supported my work in ways that made it more effective and efficient. By taking this work back to my schools, we were able to really ground ourselves in common work that transcended school environments and allowed me to support across the district. The leaders I supported found their own common language to use when working with teachers and students, and leaders were growing in their coaching abilities at an exponential pace. We got deeper and deeper into our work and became our own subset of experts supporting one another in this very difficult work of leading schools.
During Relay sessions (and even beyond), I found myself connecting with leaders from all over the world with similar values and passion for student growth and teacher effectiveness, that I was learning not only from the facilitators, but also from colleagues. Staying connected with the teachings and participants of Relay is a way that I stay current in the work of school leadership, and a way to always have a partner in the conversation that I know will push me to be better for those I lead."
Jeanine Zitta, Network Superintendent, St. Louis Public Schools
National Principal Supervisor Academy 2017
Leverage Leadership Institute, Cohort 4, 2018
Partnering with Relay
Learn more about how to partner, including important application dates and how we support you. This page is relevant to past partners, but especially those who are new to Relay.
Ready to request seats?
If you’re already a partner of Relay, sign up your staff for programs: