VCU School of Education Receives $1 Million from Altria to Support School Improvement

By Mike Frontiero
VCU School of Education

The School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University has received a $1 million gift from Altria Group, Inc., to improve the preparation and support of school leaders and to expand education partnerships in the Richmond area.

The gift will allow the VCU School of Education’s Center for School Improvement to expand its services, infrastructure, and community partnerships. CSI partners with school, district, state and national leaders to build organizational instructional capacity to increase student achievement and school accountability based on rigorous research and best practices.

“We have seen the data that show the importance of school and system leadership in improving schools,” said Jennifer H. Hunter, vice president of Corporate Affairs at Altria Client Services.  “We are pleased that the VCU School of Education shares that view of leadership and is committed to working collaboratively with community partners.”

One such partnership is Bridging Richmond, a collaboration of local educators, and business and civic leaders working to ensure all students in Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico succeed academically and enter meaningful careers.

VCU coordinates the partnership and is one of four new national demonstration sites that competed to expand on the success of Strive, a partnership established in 2006 to improve and enhance the birth-to-career educational pipeline in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. They are supported by Living Cities and the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities.

“This gift comes at a critical time when school divisions are facing severe budget cuts,” said VCU School of Education Dean Beverly J. Warren. “It will allow us to expand our services to them.”

The gift also will support a partnership between the VCU School of Education and the University of Richmond’s Center for Leadership in Education called EduLead, which offers professional development opportunities, leadership training and support to school divisions. It combines resources from the two programs to provide training to help school leaders hone their leadership abilities, share their visions and mentor other leaders in the field.

The grant will help the partnership’s efforts to improve the effectiveness of current school leaders in a standards-based environment and to enhance the capabilities of existing strong and talented leaders who are critical to the academic success of schools.

In addition, EduLead will expand its work to prepare and support new principals and building level leaders in academically challenged schools in its partner school divisions of Richmond, Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico.

“EduLead provides much needed opportunities for area school divisions, and we are grateful that Altria continues to support this program,” said Jim Narduzzi, dean of the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Richmond.