FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, January 4, 2022
CONTACTS: Patricia Lamiell, patricia.lamiell@tc.columbia.edu; 973-449-7086, Rebecca Smith, R&J Strategic Communications, rsmith@randjsc.com; 908-801-1158
New York, NY – Teachers College, Columbia University, has announced that the Cahn Fellows Programs for Distinguished Principals, founded at the College in 2002, will become an independent organization with nonprofit 501(c) (3) status.
The mission of the new organization, which will now be called the Cahn Fellows Programs, remains the same: to improve large urban public-school systems nationally by providing distinguished school leaders with advanced professional development and recognition in order to increase leadership skills, retention in education and student outcomes.
The move was prompted by the rapid growth and increasing popularity of the program, which was originally created to serve New York City principals, but currently draws annual cohorts from nine U.S. cities.
“The decision for the Cahn Fellows organization to become independent truly reflects the program’s spectacular success,” said Teachers College President Thomas Bailey, who noted that faculty members at the College will continue to work with Cahn Fellows principals. “We are proud of that work and pleased that the partnership with Teachers College will continue,” he said.
Charles Cahn, Cahn Fellows Founder and Board Chair, said that the move to become independent reflects the kind of adaptive thinking that Cahn Fellow principals absorb in the program.
“Much of what we reinforce for our Fellows is that great leadership is about responding flexibly to change and creating a culture that enables everyone to thrive,” Cahn said. “Teachers College was the ideal place to launch and grow the program. While our Cahn Fellows will continue to work directly with the College’s superb leadership faculty, we now have acquired the critical mass and in-house expertise to flourish on our own.”
Cahn, a former Senior Vice President of Research Services and of Fixed Income Investment Management at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Inc., founded the Cahn Fellows after an officer at the New York Community Trust told him, “If you find a school that’s working well, there’s a good principal running it” and noted that no program existed to help good principals get even better.
The program – a 12-month experience for working principals who remain in their jobs, emphasizes knowledge, action research and experiential learning. Participants work with Teachers College faculty members, including: Ellie Drago-Severson, author of Tell Me So I Can Hear You: A Developmental Approach to Feedback for Educators; Carolyn Riehl, an authority on leadership and organizational dynamics in education, policy and the management of instruction; Jeffrey Young, former Superintendent of Schools in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Brian K. Perkins, a consultant to school districts in the United States, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.
The Cahn Fellows experience includes an annual principals’ retreat in Gettysburg, where principals draw on leadership examples that provide a lens of leadership decisions and outcomes. At the conclusion of the year-long program, participants complete a project focused on meeting a particular real-world challenge in their own schools. In the coming years, the organization plans to start alumni programming to expand the impact of its work and to strengthen the network of Cahn Fellows who have completed the program. Alumni who completed the program through 2021 will continue to have opportunities to engage with Teachers College. Plans are also in the works to launch a program for principals with high potential but less experience in order to sustain them at a critical risk point in their careers.
Since its launch, the program has served 453 Cahn Fellows and 454 Cahn Allies (administrators and teachers who aspire to become principals) in New York City, Denver, Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, Chicago, Charlotte, Newark, Dallas and San Antonio. With Los Angeles joining this year, The Cahn Fellows Programs will be serving four of the largest school districts in the United States.
The program’s stellar alumni include: New York City Department of Education Chancellor David Banks; former NYC Department of Education Chancellor Meisha Porter; Janice K. Jackson, Chief Executive Officer of HOPE Chicago, a newly-established organization committed to providing college scholarships and support to Chicago students and their families, and former Chief Executive Officer, Chicago Public Schools; and many who have both chosen a significant role in Partner City district leadership as well as remaining as principals.
The Cahn Fellows have been highly praised by past New York City schools’ chancellors. Carmen Fariña served on its Board until being named Chancellor.
“So often the job of a leader is to be constantly reacting, but you want people who have the time to think and digest what they’ve done, and that’s what I think the Cahn Fellows Program does, said Fariña in an interview in 2016. “It helps the best of the best get better.”
Jackson has cited the impact the Cahn experience made on her and the school she was then leading as the reason for Chicago’s embrace of the program under her leadership: “My Cahn project was about multi-tiered systems of support,” she said. “We implemented that at George Westinghouse College Prep in Chicago. The result of our project was that the school went from being a Level Three school, which is the lowest in the district, to a Level One in one year.”
About Teachers College, Columbia University
Founded in 1887, Teachers College, Columbia University, the first and largest graduate school of education in the United States, is perennially ranked among the nation’s best. In striving to create a smarter, healthier and more equitable world, Teachers College engages in research and prepares professionals in its three main areas of expertise—education, health and psychology—to work with public and private entities in local, national and global communities and inform public policy. Students choose from more than 100 separate programs to earn graduate degrees, which are conferred by Columbia University. While it is closely affiliated with Columbia University and collaborates with it on many programs, the College is an independent, autonomous institution with a separate, independent governing board, president, and financial endowment.
About The Cahn Fellows Programs
Founded in 2002, The Cahn Fellows Programs is the country’s premier organization specifically designed to support the growth of exemplary school leaders in large metropolitan school districts. For almost 20 years, CFP has enabled Fellows to become more effective school principals and administrators by training them to incorporate best practices and leadership strategies which leverage and augment school leaders’ talents and help them to achieve better and more effective staff and student engagement and achievement, while promoting enhanced personal and professional growth.