Charter School Leadership Programs and Principal Fellowships

The three charter networks whose leadership pages this guide read — KIPP, Achievement First and Great Hearts — all run programs that develop school leaders.

KIPP and Achievement First grow their aspiring principals inside their own schools, under experienced principals; Great Hearts' courses serve developing leaders across classical schools.

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.

Support continues after appointment.

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.

KIPP describes its leadership model as 70-20-10: 70 percent experiences, 20 percent relationships and 10 percent coursework and training.

Applications for KIPP leadership roles are managed by the individual KIPP regions, which are the employers.

The practical read: apply to the region where you want to work, since the region manages leadership applications as the employer.

Achievement First's Principal Fellowship is typically an 18-month program starting each July, in which fellows hold leader positions at Achievement First schools under mentor principals.

Great Hearts, a classical charter network, develops leaders through its Institute's APEX Program for School Leadership — a series of short courses for Teacher-Leaders, Rising Leaders (deans and instructional coaches among them) and Academy Leaders in classical schools.

The three named here are the networks whose leadership pages this guide read, not a survey of every network, and each network's own careers page is the authority on what it is enrolling now.

For the shape of the job these tracks prepare you for, the charter school principal career guide covers the role itself, network and freestanding schools alike.

Outside the networks, independent organizations run fellowships.

Two stand apart in shape: the Building Excellent Schools Fellowship trains you to found and lead a new public charter school, while New Leaders' fellowship prepares full-time teachers for the principal role.

The Building Excellent Schools (BES) Fellowship is a four- or five-year process to found a public charter school.

It runs in three stages: one or two years of pre-authorization training — 300+ hours, 20+ school studies and at least two extended residencies — followed by three years of post-authorization launch support.

BES states its bar for entry: a bachelor's degree, at least 8 years of professional experience including instructional work, at least 2 years supervising adults in a PreK-12 setting, and a commitment to lead the school in the proposed community for at least 10 years.

That last requirement tells you what the fellowship is for: BES asks its Fellows to commit to lead the school they open in the proposed community for at least 10 years.

That commitment makes the fellowship a training program and a career route at once — the founding-a-school-as-a-career framing the school founder career guide covers in full.

New Leaders' National Aspiring Principals Fellowship 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.

That state list is the part to read carefully, because administrator licensure is state law.

BLS says most states require public school principals to be licensed as school administrators.

Whether such a requirement reaches a charter principal depends on each state's charter law — confirm the rule with your state education agency before you plan around a program's approval list.

Relay Graduate School of Education is a nonprofit graduate school chartered by the New York State Board of Regents in 2011.

It is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (reaffirmed 2017) and by CAEP, which granted full accreditation to its initial and advanced programs in 2020.

Its leadership work spans the school-leadership ladder.

The Leverage Leadership Institute runs one-day workshops for leaders who coach teachers: instructional coaches, assistant principals, department chairs and principals.

Relay also runs year-long fellowships for principals and principal supervisors.

Our research confirmed the shape of these offerings but not the current names, dates, admission requirements or prices of Relay's principal fellowships — those details change, and Relay's own program pages are the authority on what is enrolling now.

If you have seen a specific Relay principal fellowship named on another site, check it against Relay's pages before you apply.

Of the programs in this guide, BES is the one whose published figures describe the fellowship itself — what a Fellow may receive during training.

Relay's published figures, covered below, are tuition for its degrees.

BES's fellowship job application states that Fellows may receive a $100,000 fellowship grant in the first training year, plus healthcare reimbursement of up to $6,000 individual or $8,000 family, and up to $5,000 in moving expenses.

BES describes it as a grant during the first training year; the program materials we read publish no salary or stipend figure.

Our research did not confirm a cost, fee or stipend for the network tracks at KIPP, Achievement First or Great Hearts, so check with each network directly before you budget.

Relay publishes tuition for its degree programs, and the figures our research verified cover its teaching degrees, not its leadership fellowships: for students entering Relay in 2026-27, tuition is $850 per credit, and most 32-credit MAT programs total $27,200.

For the leadership fellowships, check Relay's own pages.

The research for this guide did not read a New Leaders tuition or aid figure, so check with New Leaders directly before you budget.

Career information, not legal advice: administrator licensure is state law, so confirm the rules that apply to your school and state with your state education agency.