A leadership-training program at Chicago Public Schools is among 16 finalists for an award from Harvard University.

CPS was the only school district represented among the finalists, announced yesterday. In selecting the district's New Leaders for New Schools program, judges praised it for its "aim to enhance academic performance in public schools."

"If we're going to educate our next generation of leaders, we need to do it well," says Kate Hoagland, spokeswoman for Harvard's Ash Institute. "This program does that."

The institute's Innovations in American Government Awards honor the novelty, effectiveness and significance of government-administered or -authorized programs. Judges look for whether programs can be replicated in other areas of the country.

New Leaders, already operating in other U.S. cities, helps prepare certified teachers with at least two years of experience in the classroom to take leadership roles at Chicago schools. From 2001 through 2007, 92 percent of teachers who completed the program became principals or assistant principals, according to officials.

The program, started in 2000, boasts significant gains in academic performance at schools with principals who participated in New Leaders.

Schools with those principals have achieved average gains of 6.6 percentage points in mathematics and 5 percentage points in English each year, according to the program. Also, five schools with New Leader principals who kept graduation data show that they graduated students at higher rates than the district average.

Allison Wagner, managing director of New Leaders in Chicago, says the program begins with a rigorous selection process. First, candidates must demonstrate that they meet basic criteria with essays and other application materials. Then, the interviews begin.

By the third round of screening, applicants who make it that far go through simulated nine-hour days as principals.

"They meet an angry parent, an apathetic teacher, a frustrated student," Wagner says. "You only have 14 months to get these teachers ready for the principalship. There are just certain attributes and skills that they have to come in with."

Successful applicants spend the first five weeks of their training focused on theoretical leadership coaching.

"Honestly, it's a principal boot camp," Wagner says. "We take them away from their families from the end of June through July."

The rest of the program is spent at a Chicago school, training under a mentoring principal and a leadership coach from the program.

In Chicago, less than five percent of the 332 teachers who applied last year earned a spot.

It's a high bar, but lower than that of Harvard's Ash Institute. Of about 600 original program applicants, only one of 16 finalists will earn the Innovation award, worth $100,000 in past years.

Other Chicago programs, including the 311 directory, crime-reporting technology and an adoption partnership, have won during the award program's 22 years.

This year's finalists will present before a national selection committee on May 27, at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.