Empowerment Schools are premised on the fundamental belief that decisions about how to educate students should be made as close as possible to those who work with them – the principals in collaboration with the school community. Such key decisions include broader authority over educational programming and curriculum, greater discretion over budgets, a significant role in selecting and evaluating the dedicated administrative team that supports principals and the chance to decide what customized professional development principals want for themselves and their staff.

One of the core principles of the Empowerment Schools initiative is that we do not want to spend money on the school’s behalf, but rather, we want principals in collaboration with their school community to determine how the school’s budget should be spent. The cost of joining the Empowerment Schools and all of the related support and advocacy is roughly the cost of a paraprofessional. We are committed to continue advocating for increased devolvement of funds from the central organization to the classroom to further empower principals and the school community.

Today, principals in 500 New York City public schools have the freedom and flexibility that comes with being empowered and have been using it to improve the educational opportunities for their students. To learn more, please see the Empowerment Schools brochure under Key Documents in the right-hand sidebar of this page.

To learn about more about the Empowerment Support Organization's services, click here.