Debbie Davis, director of the Arkansas Leadership Academy, is participating in an eight-month leadership forum run by KIPP, a charter school network.

KIPP, which stands for Knowledge is Power Program, invited Davis to represent one of seven educator-training programs taking part in the forum designed to introduce public school administrators to the KIPP school leadership development model.

"The Arkansas Leadership Academy was honored to be invited and represent leadership development for our state in this collaborative learning opportunity," Davis said. "KIPP has assembled a cohort of leaders who are using innovative strategies to accelerate student and adult learning, close the achievement gap, and develop strong leaders for our schools. I look forward to sharing the good work happening in our state and discovering new strategies to further strengthen the academy's programs of leadership development in order to benefit school leaders in our state."

The Arkansas Leadership Academy based in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas is a nationally recognized statewide partnership of universities; professional associations; educational cooperatives; the Arkansas departments of education, higher education and workforce education; the Arkansas Educational Television Network; Tyson Foods; Walmart Stores; two superintendent representatives; the governor's office; and the Arkansas Board of Education. Davis, former principal of Bayyari Elementary School in Springdale and Eureka Springs Elementary School, was named director of the leadership academy in 2008. The leadership academy offers institutes for teachers, principals, superintendents and school teams to develop human resources and model and advocate collaboration, support, shared decision-making, team-learning, risk-taking and problem-solving.

KIPP was founded in Houston in 1994 and, in Arkansas, operates schools in Helena-West Helena and Blytheville. The KIPP network includes 109 open-enrollment, college-preparatory public charter schools serving 32,000 students in 20 states and Washington, D.C.

Officials from 15 school districts, including some of the largest in the nation such as Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles, will join representatives of the educator-training programs and representatives of four charter-management organizations for three interactive summits. The first summit took place in March in Houston; the other two are scheduled for June and October.

"This is the first time that a dozen or more large, urban school districts have participated in a leadership institute run by a charter school network," according to a news release from KIPP. "The KIPP Leadership Design Fellowship will give participants an in-depth look at KIPP's principal selection, training and development model, as well as exploring other innovative leadership models around the country."

The goal of the institute is to encourage participating organizations to learn from each other, as well as to share KIPP's best practices and experience, the release said.

The U.S. Department of Education provided a grant to fund the summits.

KIPP's leadership training focuses on identifying and strengthening 14 key areas of competency to help school leaders capitalize on strengths of their staffs, identify areas of growth, effectively manage others, build relationships and drive results in their schools.