Obstacles and opportunities:

Corrie Stone-Johnson, associate professor from the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, is partnering with the Buffalo Public Schools to address the development of a principal pipeline, which will guarantee that more individuals from minority backgrounds are recruited into leadership programs and supported throughout their development. The collaboration is part of the UB Graduate School of Education Faculty in Residence Program.

When districts and universities partner to provide aspiring principals with the tools and support they need, the result will be a pipeline of principals prepared to improve teaching quality and ultimately student achievement. “Most pipeline research doesn’t specifically address how to ensure that educators from minority backgrounds rise to leadership positions for the sake of diversifying school leadership and influencing the achievement of students of color,” said Stone-Johnson.

Stone-Johnson’s research will attempt to shed more light on understanding the importance of minority leadership as it relates to student success. The project will examine whether there a difference in family-school relationships between schools led by principals of color and schools led by white principals and what these differences look like. “In the Buffalo Public Schools, where minority students continue to underperform compared to their non-minority peers,” said Stone-Johnson, “this issue is critical.”

The Faculty in Residence Program is an initiative designed to engage GSE faculty and local community-based educational institutions in site-based, mutually beneficial research-based projects. Projects must demonstrate clear benefits to the community and may include a wide-range of researchable topics.