Hire A Black Principal To Improve Student Achievement
Tamara Littlejohn has been a Chicago Public Schools principal for a decade. As a Black woman in that role, she’s part of a small minority.
“I really do this work because I want to make sure that, No. 1, the children have somebody who looks like them,” she said. As a child, Littlejohn’s mother was her role model, having served as both a Chicago Public Schools teacher and an assistant principal.
“I saw just, like, the dedication and love that she had for her school community,” Littlejohn said.
Fifteen years ago, Littlejohn received an opportunity from the national nonprofit New Leaders to train to become a school administrator like her mother. Since 2001, the organization has developed teachers into administrators through its principal preparation program, Aspiring Principals. Littlejoh...