Contreras to attend exec-training program

PROVIDENCE – Sharon Contreras, the city school department’s chief academic officer, is among 14 educators nationwide selected for the 2010 Broad Superintendent Academy in Los Angeles.
The academy is a 10-month executive-management training program run by The Broad Center to prepare prominent leaders from education, military, business, nonprofit and government sectors to lead urban public school systems.
Contreras, who is currently completing her Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has led a number of academic-reform initiatives in Providence, including aligning instruction, assessment and professional development to a teacher-developed, standards-based curriculum and developing a performance-based graduation policy and system. Previously, she served as a teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent in Rockford, Ill.
Rhode Island Commissioner of Education Deborah A. Gist and Providence Superintendent Thomas M. Brady are also graduates of The Broad Superintendents Academy.
Only 2 percent of this year’s applicants nationwide were accepted into the program. •