PHILADELPHIA - The University of Pennsylvania's Center for Educational Leadership has received a $4.9 million grant from the Annenberg Foundation to launch the Distributed Leadership Initiative, a four-year collaboration with the Philadelphia School District to promote shared leadership at the individual school level.

The Center is part of Penn's Graduate School of Education.

"Like many districts, Philadelphia has made educational leadership a significant part of its improvement plans," Center Executive Director John DeFlaminis said.  "Distributed leadership is an effort to create more leaders in complex urban schools to improve instruction and advance student achievement."

The Initiative will train more than 80 teachers in 16 schools to be instructional leaders and work collectively with principals. These distributed leadership teams will establish building-level learning communities that pool resources to identify and employ best instructional practices, foster analysis of student data and encourage further professional development.

The Center will create a leadership development center to support distributed leadership schools and aid in disseminating effective practices.

"Philadelphia's future depends on the quality of our schools," Penn President Amy Gutmann said.  "It's very exciting for Penn to partner with the Philadelphia School District and the Annenberg Foundation on something as important as improving leadership."

Additional information about Penn's Graduate School of Education is available at www.gse.upenn.edu.  Information about Penn's Center for Educational Leadership can be found at www.gse.upenn.edu/pcel.

The Annenberg Foundation, www.annenbergfoundation.org, is a private foundation established in 1989.  It exists to advance the public well-being through improved communication.  As the principal means of achieving its goal, the Foundation encourages the development of more effective ways to share ideas and knowledge.