Acting U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Jim Shelton will visit Capitol Middle School Thursday in Baton Rouge, La., and "shadow" Principal Viola Jackson as part of the U.S. Department of Education's "ED Goes Back to School Principal Shadow Week."
Shelton will accompany Principal Jackson as she makes her rounds through Capitol Middle, a Diplomas Now school operating in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System. Diplomas Now is a school turnaround model that unites three non-profit organizations (Johns Hopkins University's Center for Social Organization of Schools/Talent Development, City Year, and Communities in Schools) to work with the nation's most-challenged middle and high schools to increase the number of students who graduate from high school. Diplomas Now was among 15 winners of the Department's 2010 Investing in Innovation (i3) validation grants.
During Principal Shadow Week, top U.S. education officials will be following exemplary school principals in order to learn from them, as they exercise their role as instructional leaders and manage the day-to-day operation of their schools.