Empowering Community School Directors

• Completed interviews with CSDs to understand the challenges of the work, the relationship between CSDs and the NYCDOE, and knowledge and skills that the CSDs hoped to gain from training;
• Led a three-day training, which included sessions on increasing CSDs’ personal and interpersonal leadership skills, building cohesion and connection among program participants, and equipping CSDs with skills to lead complex change in challenging environments; and
• Surveyed the program participants for feedback.

Coro met with the NYCDOE to reflect on the experience of the three-day training, discuss what worked well and what could be improved, review evaluation data, and explore interest in additional training opportunities. Of the CSD participants, nearly 76% said the adaptive leadership session was “effective” or “very effective” and nearly 90% said the session on interpersonal leadership styles was “effective” or “very effective.” NYCDOE staff also was mostly pleased with the survey results and the quality and depth of the training, but did raise areas for improvement, such as pretraining logistical planning and better navigating of NYCDOE guidelines and restrictions.

Co-Funding and Additional Funds Leveraged: Coro received additional funding from Deutsche Bank ($15,000), James and Judith K. Dimon Foundation ($15,000), Ford Foundation ($15,000), and Wallace Foundation ($15,000).