Leading the way: The role of professional development for school leaders

The teacher’s impact on student achievement is well known. However, there is a growing and compelling consensus among researchers that school leadership is the second most important factor — after classroom instruction — impacting student achievement. Furthermore, the teacher’s impact, while vital, is limited to the classroom level. The school leader impacts achievement at the building and district level.

Given their scope of influence, school leaders need a range of support to effectively fulfill their roles. Yet routinely, leaders are charged with supporting everyone else. Superintendents and principals are expected, if not required, to endorse and encourage staff professional development. But when was the last time these school leaders participated in professional development for their own growth?

On the slight chance that they did participate, how useful was the training? Often, principals can only be out of their building for a set number of days by law throughout the school year. So, any professional development they participate in had better be top notch.

What constitutes high-quality professional development for instructional leaders?

Based on Adult Learning Theory

Superior professional development is based on adult learning theory, including a range of interactive techniques shown to be most effective in adult professional learning. These comprise computer-assisted exercises, simulations, role-playing scenarios, small group discussions, and case studies requiring participants to expand their understanding of key leadership concepts; to increase capacity; to promote success for principals and other school leaders; and to focus on the improvement of instruction. These activities work in a variety of ways to accommodate different cognitive styles, and allow for customized learning paths.

Focused on Practice and Application

Meaningful professional development is grounded in proven theory, but focused on application. How often have we heard the need for K-12 students to be able to apply their knowledge in order to compete in the 21st century? The days of rote memorization and concentration on subject matter alone are gone. Yet how much professional development for school leaders truly features a meaningful application piece?

Taught by Credible Faculty

School leaders are professionals who deserve to be supported by other professionals who have been in their shoes. The faculty’s role is not to teach the content but, rather, to tease out the content from the participants — facilitating their growth rather than telling them the answers. Credible faculty can also provide meaningful feedback regarding participant situations and challenge participants to take their leadership to the next level.

Directly Related to Participant Needs

School leaders must confront the worldwide context as well as face up to their own professional situation — becoming more and more reflective about their own strengths and weaknesses as leaders. They must also use data to differentiate instruction, effectively coach teachers and staff, incorporate new policies and initiatives (e.g., Common Core State Standards), think strategically, resolve ethical dilemmas and distribute leadership in order to get things done.

There are fundamental elements of instructional leadership. Supporting a novice principal, superintendent, or other school leader with these elements will look vastly different from supporting a more experienced leader. Likewise, supporting a middle school principal in Topeka will look different from supporting a high school principal in New Orleans.

Any worthy professional development program can effectively accommodate the various needs of its participants, keeping the content and structure at the appropriate level as well as tailoring the program to local contexts and needs as appropriate.

Capacity-building

Participants must own their learning and be able to share it effectively and meaningfully with others in their building. Only then can real, sustainable change take place. Quality professional development builds local capabilities so that when participants complete the program, they can share their learning with others.

What high-quality professional development programs exist?

The National Institute for School Leadership (NISL) was created, not only to develop school leaders who can drive their schools to high performance, but also to build school and district capacity to leverage and sustain instructional improvements. NISL piloted its Executive Development Program in 2004, began implementation in 2005, and is now one of the most widely used school leadership programs in the United States with almost 6,000 graduates in 15 states.

The NISL program is based on five years of research and design related to the most effective executive leadership programs worldwide in business, the military, medicine and other enterprises.  NISL courses resulted from an exhaustive search of the research on instructional leadership and practice in education, and the NISL units were informed by the work of the best and brightest in the country. The Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Broad Foundation, New Schools Venture Fund, the Stupski Foundation, and the National Center on Education and the Economy together contributed over $11 million to fund the original research and development. NISL is steeped in professional knowledge, enriched management practices, and improved instruction aimed at higher student achievement for all students.

The program’s major focus areas include:

• Instructional leadership,
• Strategic thinking
• Team building and coaching
• Professional learning communities driving for results, applying student data, and aligning the elements of a standards-based system.

These concepts are taught applying a range of highly interactive techniques shown to be most effective in adult professional learning. Each of the two major program phases concludes with a computer-assisted simulation that draws together and helps integrate the major themes of NISL.

The NISL program consists of online coursework, face-to-face interaction, and personal reflection and application — including completion of an Action Learning Project to improve instruction in the schools/district. Nearly all of the NISL facilitators have been successful principals, and many have also been superintendents across the nation

Evidence for NISL’s effectiveness is well documented. For example, an independent and scientifically rigorous study (conducted by Old Dominion University) confirms that Pennsylvania schools led by principals trained by NISL have significantly higher proficiency rates in mathematics and reading/English language arts. Researchers concluded that at schools led by NISL-trained principals, over 1,000 more students achieved proficiency than at comparison schools.

Four states have incorporated NISL’s Executive Development Program into their statewide leadership development systems. In addition, NISL has conducted training in districts in 11 other states. NISL clients have recognized the power of NISL to help turn around chronically low-performing schools and to increase learning at high-poverty schools. In turn, NISL has also conducted training in districts going from good to great.

Are you ready to lead the way?

As a school leader, you have an enormous opportunity to create meaningful change in the lives of your staff and students. That opportunity is coupled with a tremendous responsibility to lead well. You cannot do it alone. You know the importance of providing quality professional development to your staff. It’s time to provide it for yourself as well. Only then can you truly lead the way.