04 Oct2016
By Sarah Pistella
The month of October is known for colorful trees, last-minute election campaigning, and ubiquitous pumpkin-spice flavoring. But it’s also National Principals Month, a time designated to recognize school leaders in your programs, in your neighborhood, and around the country. Please join AACTE in celebrating their leadership and partnership on behalf of student and teacher development!
National Principals Month gives us the opportunity to honor and reflect on the contributions of principals and the importance of preparing them well. Marked by national and state resolutions, formal awards and recognitions, and other official acknowledgments, this celebration allows us to say “thank you” to principals across the nation.
30 Sep2016
By Angela Maynard Sewall
When we are faced with changes in standards or other expectations for our programs, we often worry about their impact on our work. But sometimes revisions are needed to improve our processes and outcomes, informed by our ever-growing body of research and experience with partners in the field. How can new rules or laws enhance rather than upend our work?
Please join me October 5 at 1:00 p.m. EDT for a free webinar, How Accrediting Organizations and Standards Can Improve Principal Quality, made possible with support from The Wallace Foundation. Panelists will discuss their varied viewpoints on these parameters for improvement and lessons they’ve learned in national and state agencies, PK-12 districts, and higher education.
09 Sep2016
By Angela Maynard Sewall
On Tuesday, September 13, AACTE will host the second free webinar in its series on partnerships for principal and supervisor preparation. Please join us 12:30–1:30 p.m. EDT for “Successful University–District Partnerships to Prepare School Principals.”
This event will feature participants in two of The Wallace Foundation’s Principal Pipeline Initiative districts, Hillsborough County Public Schools (FL) and Tulsa Public Schools (OK), and two partner universities in Florida, Saint Leo University and the University of South Florida. Because the Tulsa district is working within a slightly different framework to assist principals via role and structural changes, its participation lends an “outside” voice to this webinar.
11 Aug2016
By Angela Maynard Sewall
On Wednesday, August 17, AACTE will present the first webinar in a new series called “Raising the Bar and Enhancing Partnerships for Principal and Supervisor Preparation.” This event will look at how colleges of education can engage with state legislators and agencies responsible for standards implementation, program approval, licensure, professional development, and school improvement.
19 May2016
By Keyonna Summers
This article originally appeared in the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) News Center and is reposted with permission.
Urban Leadership Development graduates Diana Gomez, left, Dawn King and Benjamin Feinstein. (Josh Hawkins/UNLV Photo Services)
Diana Gomez always felt a pull toward a teaching career.
Even as a child, her heart was happiest when she was supervising her sisters’ and cousins’ cursive writing and math lessons, recess sessions, and lunch duty during games of “school.” She spent 5 years post-college exploring an accounting career, but the passion for her first love — education — remained.
Gomez returned to school to obtain her teaching credential, moved to Las Vegas because of vast job openings, and might have been content to teach first grade forever. But one fateful day, a mentor, whose “growing our own” mantra had encouraged Gomez to spend the last several years moving up the ranks, urged her to attend an informational meeting about the University of Nevada Las Vegas Urban Leadership Development (ULD) program.
10 May2016
By Rodrick Lucero
The National Policy Board for Education Administration (NPBEA) seeks comment by May 22 on new draft standards for leadership preparation programs. Once approved, these preparation standards will replace the Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC) standards and be used to guide the educational leadership program design, accreditation review, and state approval of preparation programs for principals and superintendents.
The proposed National Educational Leadership Preparation (NELP) Standards specify what novice leaders should know and be able to do, at the building and district level, after completing a high-quality educational leadership preparation program. The new draft aligns the standards for preparation programs with the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL) approved by NPBEA last fall. Formerly known as the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) standards, the PSEL standards articulate the knowledge and skills expected of school leaders broadly.
05 Apr2016
By Amanda Lester
Facilitator Angela Sewall talks with participants in the Wallace-sponsored preconference event
Prior to the start of the 68th Annual Meeting, AACTE hosted a daylong workshop titled “Preparing Tomorrow’s Leaders Through School-University Partnerships Educational Leaders Preconference,” sponsored by The Wallace Foundation. The event was attended by more than 125 PK-12 and higher education leaders from across the nation, including school-university partners who attended together with the goal of strengthening their collaboration in principal preparation programs.
The event agenda featured a series of presentations and interactive PK-24 “table talk” discussions, focused on examining aspects of clinical practice and effective partnerships to advance principal preparation. Participants explored topics such as these:
29 Mar2016
By Kristin McCabe
The National Policy Board for Education Administration (NPBEA) has officially assumed leadership for the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL) 2015, a revision of the former Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) standards. The standards were formerly owned by the Council of Chief State School Officers, which worked with NPBEA to update the document last year with extensive public input.
"Leaders in higher education and principals at all levels of the K-12 continuum engaged in a thoughtful, deliberative process based on the reality of the contemporary principal’s work," said JoAnn Bartoletti, NPBEA president and executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. "Our consensus is that the new standards are aspirational, reflect the complexity of school leadership, and filter the principal’s work through a lens of student-centered practice. They recognize the importance of cultural responsiveness in the context of a role that addresses the needs of each student."
28 Mar2016
By Jerrica Thurman
The Wallace Foundation this month announced a major new initiative to support the redesign of higher education-based programs for preparing school leaders. Investing $47 million over 5 years, the University Preparation Program Initiative will bring together selected institutions and school districts to share best practices and develop more effective principal training.
The initiative will fund improvements to principal preparation programs at up to six universities in partnership with high-need districts. It will also invest in research on effective partnerships, course work, and clinical experiences, and it will engage states in reviews of pertinent policies in support of the work. The selected universities and their district partners will be announced in the fall.
05 Jan2016
By Angela Maynard Sewall
Please join AACTE next week for a free webinar led by participants in the Wallace Foundation’s Principal Pipeline Initiative, who will discuss lessons from their urban districts on how to sustain and expand successful models for principal preparation and development.
The online event, to be held Wednesday, January 13, at 12:00 p.m. EST, is the final webinar in a series sponsored by the Wallace Foundation to showcase the work of the initiative. Earlier installments addressed laying the foundation for change, building partnerships among districts and institutions of higher education, and revising process and practice to enhance districts’ and principals’ commitment to professional development and improvement. (To access recordings of the earlier webinars in the series, click here. Member login is required to view the archive.)
07 Dec2015
By Guneev Sharma
Did you miss the latest installment in the Principal Pipeline Initiative webinar series, “Assessing and Enhancing Commitment”? Don’t fret: We’ve posted the recording to our Resource Library, along with other archived content from this fall’s series, sponsored by the Wallace Foundation.
Presenters in this third webinar in the free series included participants in the pipeline initiative: Debra Morris of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Michelle Young of the University Council for Educational Administration and the University of Virginia, and Jevelyn Bonner-Reed of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (NC). These panelists discussed their experiences and concerns related to planning, implementation, data collection, preassessment protocols, mentoring, and assessment as well as the impact of the district and partner activities on student learning, principal quality, and school improvement.
17 Nov2015
By Amanda Lester
On November 3, the Wallace Foundation hosted a policy briefing in Washington, DC, to highlight findings from its recently released report, Developing Excellent School Principals to Advance Teaching and Learning: Considerations for State Policy. Commissioned by the Wallace Foundation and authored by Paul Manna, professor of government and policy at the College of William and Mary (VA), the report addresses the question What can state policy makers do to help ensure that schools have excellent principals who advance teaching and learning in their schools?
During the briefing, Manna presented findings from the report with a focus on the changing role of the principalship, the principal’s position as multiplier of effective teaching and leadership practice, and the impact of state policy making on principal effectiveness. Wallace Foundation President Will Miller underscored these perspectives in his introductory remarks: “There’s growing recognition that principals should no longer mainly be thought of as managers of buildings and bus schedules,” he said. “Indeed, effective leaders are their schools’ chief improvement officers—strengthening instruction, building a culture of high achievement, and supporting teachers and other educators to boost student performance.”
03 Nov2015
By Angela Maynard Sewall
What are the assessment and evaluation challenges related to the development of great principals? A free webinar next week will explore the assessment of progress, the benefit of standards, and outcomes that have led to change and greater focus on the preparation and professional development of school leaders in the Wallace Foundation’s Principal Pipeline Initiative.
On Thursday, November 12, the third webinar in AACTE’s series on the initiative will feature the following participants:
03 Nov2015
By Susan Korach
While the impact of partnerships is not yet fully understood, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that school districts that partner with local principal training providers are more likely to leverage programmatic changes that result in principals who are better equipped to lead schools to improve student performance.
— Cheryl King, Quality Measures: Partnership Effectiveness Continuum (2014)
Last month, I had the privilege of joining colleagues from around the country to present an AACTE webinar about building school-university partnerships to support stronger preparation of school leaders. A recording of the webinar is now available here.
27 Oct2015
By Kristin McCabe
Last week, the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA) voted unanimously to approve revised standards for education leaders. The 2015 Professional Standards for Educational Leaders, formerly known as the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) standards, are currently available in summary form and will be published officially next month.
The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), which owns the standards’ copyright, worked closely with other members of NPBEA to refresh the ISLLC standards, which were first published in 1996 and last updated in 2008. The revision was supported by a grant from the Wallace Foundation and informed by multiple public comment periods and focus groups, culminating in an NPBEA working group charged with finalizing the standards based on feedback from more than 1,000 principals, superintendents, and others in the field.
