Charter network principal fellowships and residencies are leadership apprenticeships that charter networks run for their own future principals.
You train under a mentor principal for a fixed term and prepare to lead a school in that network — at Achievement First, while holding a leader position at one of its schools.
The two published examples set the scale: Achievement First's Principal Fellowship is typically an 18-month program starting each July, and KIPP's Principal-in-Residence is a two-year program.
This guide covers selection, pay and placement.
What is a principal-in-residence or principal fellowship?
A principal-in-residence or principal fellowship at a charter network is apprenticeship-style school leadership training run by the employer itself.
The published design is a fixed term spent training under an experienced principal to lead a school in that network.
The two clearest published examples fix the shape.
KIPP's Principal-in-Residence (PIR) program is a two-year program that prepares aspiring principals to lead a KIPP school under the mentorship of an experienced principal.
Achievement First's Principal Fellowship is typically an 18-month program, beginning each July, in which fellows hold leader positions at Achievement First schools under mentor principals.
Two elements repeat across both designs: a mentor principal you train beside, and a fixed term — two years at KIPP, typically an 18-month program at Achievement First.
Achievement First adds the third element its page spells out: fellows hold leader positions at AF schools while they train.
The job you are training for is instructional leadership with whole-school accountability.
Achievement First describes its principals as responsible for overall vision and management, leading academic and culture initiatives, overseeing professional development for all instructional staff, and coaching a portfolio of teachers and deans.
Development does not stop at appointment, either.
All new KIPP principals and new principal managers take part in 18-month leadership cohorts, and KIPP leaders can also work with a KIPP Foundation leadership coach each school year.
So the full pipeline runs from fellow or resident, through a first principalship, into structured on-the-job development — that is the promotion path this page maps.
For the role itself at network and standalone schools alike, the charter school principal career guide covers the work, the two governing structures and the routes in.
Which charter networks run leadership pipelines?
The networks whose own leadership-development pages sit behind this guide's facts are KIPP and Achievement First.
KIPP's Principal-in-Residence runs two years under a mentor principal, and every new KIPP principal and principal manager then enters an 18-month leadership cohort.
KIPP says its leadership model follows a 70-20-10 framework: 70 percent experiences, 20 percent relationships and 10 percent coursework and training.
At Achievement First, the fellowship's leader positions sit inside a structure deliberately built around the principal's instructional job.
Achievement First says its operations team handles everything not directly related to instruction or student behavior — from the school budget to data and the front office — to relieve the principal of non-instructional obligations.
Other networks shape leadership differently, and the published facts differ with them.
Uncommon Schools uses a dual leadership model that pairs a Principal with a Director of Operations at each school.
Its Home Office provides network-wide functions such as finance, IT, real estate and staff recruitment.
What our research did not find is a named principal-fellowship program on the Uncommon pages we read, so if you have seen an "Uncommon Schools principal fellow" role discussed, the network's own careers pages are the source of truth for what is enrolling now.
The same caution covers Success Academy, IDEA Public Schools and YES Prep: this guide's research found no principal-fellowship or residency program described on the network pages it read, so read each network's careers site before you plan around one.
Network pipelines are not the only track, either.
Independent fellowships and preparation providers run parallel routes, and the charter school leadership programs guide catalogs those — the BES founding fellowship, New Leaders and Relay — with the details each provider publishes.
Who gets selected and how?
Selection is where the published designs part ways.
Achievement First's fellows hold leader positions at AF schools while they train, and New Leaders built its National Aspiring Principals Fellowship for full-time teachers.
KIPP's page describes a program for aspiring principals; it does not state whether applicants must already work in a KIPP school.
How you apply follows the employer structure.
At KIPP, applications for leadership roles are managed by the individual KIPP regions, which are the employers — so the region where you want to work is where your application goes.
What the published pages do not give is a selection rubric.
The KIPP and Achievement First pages this research read describe program design and mentorship, not the years of experience or internal roles each screens for, so put those questions to the network's talent team directly.
The calendar is the one published signal: Achievement First's Principal Fellowship begins each July, and a program that starts in July recruits before it.
If you teach in a network school now, ask how your region runs the pipeline — your principal or the region's talent team can tell you whether the next cohort is recruiting.
If you teach elsewhere, New Leaders describes its fellowship as designed to prepare full-time teachers for the principal role — an external route to a principalship rather than into one network's bench.
Are you paid and placed afterward?
Pay is where you have to do your own homework, because the network pages this research read do not publish fellowship stipend or salary figures.
What the facts do establish is the employment shape: Achievement First's fellows hold leader positions at AF schools for the fellowship's 18 months, so the program is a working role in a school, not a leave of absence.
The compensation attached to those leader positions is the network's own policy, and the pages we read in October 2026 stated no figure.
Treat any stipend or salary number you see for a network fellowship, anywhere, as unconfirmed until the network's own careers page or your offer letter states it.
Placement is the other half of the trade.
The programs are designed to end in a principalship: KIPP describes its Principal-in-Residence as preparing aspiring principals to lead a KIPP school, and Achievement First describes its fellowship as supporting future school leaders as they prepare to become a principal.
What our research did not verify is a contractual placement commitment — a guaranteed school, a required term of service after the program, or what happens if no principal seat opens where you are.
Those terms live in each program's enrollment materials, so get them answered in writing before you accept a seat.
For sector context, NCES's 2020-21 National Teacher and Principal Survey found charter school principals averaged 6.4 total years of experience as a principal, against 7.0 at traditional public schools.
In the same survey, 43.2% of charter principals had been at their current school for less than 3 years.
After appointment, development continues: KIPP's 18-month leadership cohorts and its Foundation coaching cover the first years in the chair.
No published fellowship pay in our research
Fellowship vs traditional principal program
The difference comes down to who runs the program and what you hold at the end.
A network fellowship is employer-run training for a job in that network: KIPP's two-year residency prepares you to lead a KIPP school, and Achievement First's fellowship develops future school leaders inside AF schools under mentor principals.
A traditional principal-preparation program is built for the license instead.
New Leaders' National Aspiring Principals Fellowship shows how that side works: it is an online principal certification and master's degree program designed to prepare full-time teachers for the principal role.
New Leaders lists it as a state-approved preparation program meeting educational requirements in states such as Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California and Colorado.
The two are different instruments, and depending on the state and the job you may need both.
The fellowship trains you for a specific job in a specific network, while a state-approved program is the kind that satisfies a state's educational requirements for administrator licensure where a license is required.
Which credential you actually need is state law, not network policy.
BLS states that most states require public school principals to be licensed as school administrators, and whether that reaches a charter principal depends on each state's charter law.
The networks' own framing of how leaders learn is telling, too: KIPP describes its leadership model as 70-20-10 — 70 percent experiences, 20 percent relationships and 10 percent coursework and training.
That puts field experience at the center of how KIPP develops its leaders, with coursework in a supporting role.
The practical read: if you know the network you want to lead in, its fellowship is the promotion path; if the state you will work in requires a license, check that the program you choose sits on that state's approved list.
Where the licensure question lands, confirm it with your state education agency — the charter school principal career guide covers that rule and the rest of the routes in.
Licensure is state law