This Ohio University Leadership (OULP) cohort involves a group of superintendents who meet on a regular basis to listen to and engage in discussion with experts regarding selected topics that are relevant and timely to the operation of their districts. The participants also share solutions with each other regarding pressing district-wide issues.

The overall, bottom-line, objective of the cohort is to help the superintendents to be able to provide leadership focused upon successful student learning. The cohort is rather self-directed in that the superintendents provide an enormous amount of input regarding the topics, speakers, dates, and locations for the seminars.

Some of the recent seminar topics have included:  (1) leadership and effective approaches to change, (2) learning, teaching, and observation/evaluation,

(3) low performing schools and issues of economics, disabilities, gender, and race,

(4) measurements of student growth,

(5) relations between school improvement plans and achievement needs of students,

(6) school-community communications and engagement,

(7) school finance issues,

(8) staff selection,

(9) state and federal legislation, particularly HB’s 1 & 94, and the ESEA, Reauthorization Act/No Child Left Behind, and

(10) special education matters from the perspective of a superintendent.