Chicago Public Schools announced the launch of Great Expectations – a new mentoring and professional development program for CPS administrators who are African American males or Hispanic males or females. Great Expectations is designed to empower leaders with additional professional development and mentorship opportunities with the goal of increasing diversity at the highest levels of leadership.  CPS assistant principals, principals, deputy network chiefs and network chiefs are eligible to participate, and programming will begin in May. The goal of Great Expectations is to empower school and district leaders from underrepresented groups to take on greater responsibility at their schools and within the district.

The program will be divided into two cohorts – one specifically serving African American males and one serving Hispanic staff so that programming can be uniquely tailored to each group. Each cohort will accept up to 15 participants a year. Participants will attend monthly classroom programming and one-on-one mentoring sessions, and they will receive ongoing support from program facilitators. Participants will also take part in a peer-to-peer professional learning community that will increase communication and collaboration among staff.  Applications for the program’s African American leaders cohort will launch today, and applications for the Hispanic leaders cohort will open on February 28; Programming for both cohorts will begin in May.