We are forming new cohorts of practicing (new, mid-career, and veteran) and aspiring superintendents for the Courageous Journey™ Superintendent Endorsement program (CJ). Our first cohorts have completed and others are well on their way.

Now is the time to consider this opportunity to earn a distinguishing credential in the superintendency while bringing new value to your work as a district leader.

Now is the time to join over a hundred school leaders in Michigan in learning, sharing, and shaping purposeful, informed, and strategic practices for improved results in your district. 

Now is the time to make your personal journey as a district leader more impactful and rewarding as part of a learning community of practicing and aspiring superintendents who work together to live the principles of personal growth, transformational leadership, data informed decision making, and systemic change.

Now is your time – to invest in your own growth as a leader and bring the benefits of best practice in the superintendency to your district.

Read on below, click on the links, and when you are ready, follow this link to the CJ Notice of Interest and Application.

Courageous Journey is a program for superintendents and aspiring superintendents who want to leverage their own best practices with those of colleagues, experts, and researchers in the field. The program was inspired by the work of some of the most impactful superintendents in Michigan and the most current understanding and guidance about the art and science of district level leadership through national and international informed sources. Click here to view an overview presentation.

Courageous Journey is about doing the work of district leadership from the superintendent position. It is about:

• Building capacity with transformational and distributed leadership practices
• Making strategic decisions based on relevant information and data
• Digging deeper for better understanding of student needs
• Practicing strategic intent through environmental and future scans
• Engaging, inspiring, and enlisting stakeholders to coalesce around shared vision and purpose
• Using systems approaches to adapt and refine district programs, processes, and practices
• Utilizing the six sources of influence to transform the district for better student results

Through Courageous Journey, district leaders share their best work and access timely resources in ways that, both, respond to the current needs and inform the future vision for their districts. Participants can earn a provisional or continuing superintendent specialty endorsement or an enhanced endorsement in the superintendency.

Being a member of Courageous Journey requires a commitment:

• to purposefully and systematically apply best practices in the superintendency
• to document your best work against the standards of district level leadership
• to share openly and authentically with other CJ colleagues
• to guide and document the story of systemic change and adaptation for your district
• to open yourself to intentional personal growth as a district leader

Click here to view the CJ Framework.

Courageous Journey cohorts meet through the MASA Fall and Winter Conferences and/or special sessions planned three years in advance. Additionally, CJ participants engage with CJ faculty and cohort colleagues through a variety of means throughout their time in the program. Finally, CJ endorsed graduates become a member of the CJ Guild through which they can continue to collaborate, access best practice resources, and give back to the professional learning community of superintendents.

Visit www.courageousjourney.org for more information.