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5218067-1053737-617220-836295Executive SummaryAspiring Principals Program 2010-2011Leadership matters. In fact, having an effective campus principal leading a school is second in impact on student achievement only to having an effective teacher in the classroom. (“How Leadership Influences Student Learning” by Leithwood, Seashore Louis, Anderson and Wahlstrom) In order to realize our vision of graduating students who are college- and workforce-ready, the Dallas ISD must have highly effective principals serving as instructional and transformational leaders on our campuses.Coupled with this understanding of the critical importance of excellent campus leaders is the fact that almost 30 percent of our current Dallas ISD principals and 20 percent of our current assistant / associate principals are now eligible to retire. (By 2015, the number for current principals eligible to retire increases to almost 40% and to over 30% for current assistants and associate principals.) The reality, in late 2009 when the Aspiring Principals Task Group was formed, was that the Dallas ISD needed a strong internal structure for identifying, recruiting, selecting, developing and preparing principals for Dallas ISD schools.The Aspiring Principals Task Group (APTG), assembled and led by Dr. Donna Micheaux, Dallas ISD Chief Administrative Officer, began meeting in early 2010 to look at options for developing a principal preparation program. The APTG researched several programs, looking closely at the New York City Leadership Academy (NYCLA), an established—since 2003—principal preparation program. The APTG entered into a partnership with the NYCLA, which was recently described by Dr. William Ouchi, Distinguished Professor at UCLA, as doing “the best job of any leadership program in the U.S., bar none.” Through our partnership with the NYCLA, the Dallas Leadership Academy has implemented a fourteen-month Aspiring Principals Program that consists of four parts:Summer I IntensiveResidency YearProfessional DevelopmentSide-by-Side Work with the Mentor PrincipalSummer II Preparation for the RFP Process The APP Fellows engage in rigorous, experiential learning that prepares the aspiring principal for the authentic work of leading a Dallas ISD school.The first cohort of Aspiring Principal Fellows—the class of 2010-2011— consists of 20 Fellows who were selected after participating in an assessment center in March 2010. Assessment activities consisted of participating in an interview, presenting on campus data, creating a writing sample and watching a video clip of a teacher and making coaching suggestions. The 2010-11 APP cohort, formed in May of 2010, consisted of 14 current assistant or associate principals and six teacher leaders. As of September 2010, two of the 14 assistant/associate principals have been selected as principals and four of the teacher leaders have been selected for assistant or associate positions.This first APP cohort has participated in the Summer I Intensive which took place in June 2010. The learning for the APP Fellows during the Summer Intensive is problem-based and active. Fellows receive a school scenario binder which contains student performance data, teacher effectiveness data, information about the physical plant, demographic information, parent, family and community data and more. Fellows engage in activities based on simulations involving the school, such as role-plays with teachers around coaching issues and with parents around typical school situations, data analysis projects, and campus improvement planning.During the residency year, the second and third components of the fourteen-month APP program, the Fellows engage in professional development sessions, including receiving the Cognitive Coaching training required for certification. Additionally, they work with their mentor principals and engage in structured activities centered on their Leading and Learning Log, a tool with which they can record leadership activities based on the performance standards. The final part of the Aspiring Principal Program is Summer II which involves providing support and coaching for the Fellows to effectively compete for principal positions as they go through the RFP process.The Dallas Leadership Academy also partners with the New York City Leadership Academy to provide high quality professional development for the mentor principals. This occurred in September 2010 (two days) and will happen again for two days in January 2011.Linda Darling-Hammond writes in Preparing Principals for a Changing World that school leadership—what it looks like and how it can be developed—has become a “pressing concern that has grown in importance as researchers, policymakers and practitioners have increasingly recognized the role of school leaders in developing high-performing schools and closing the achievement gap.” Darling-Hammond also notes that effective leadership development programs have the following attributes:Clear values about leadership and learning around which the program is coherently organizedStandards-based curriculum emphasizing instructional leadership, organizational development and change managementField-based internships with skilled supervisionCohort groups that create opportunities for collaboration and teamwork in practice-oriented situationsActive instructional strategies that link theory and practice, such as problem-based learningRigorous recruitment and selection of both candidates and facultyStrong partnerships with schools to support quality field-based learningThe Dallas Leadership Academy’s Aspiring Principals Program is based on these best practices. In addition to providing the knowledge, skills and attributes that campus leaders need to succeed as Dallas ISD principals, Darling-Hammond identifies an additional benefit, noting that graduates of highly effective principal preparation programs are “significantly more likely than comparison principals to hold positive beliefs about and feel strongly committed to the principalship”.The mission of the Dallas Leadership Academy’s Aspiring Principals Program is to identify, recruit, select, develop and prepare passionate, committed and highly effective principals for Dallas ISD schools. In doing this legacy work, we understand that “for our own success to be real, it must contribute to the success of others” (Eleanor Roosevelt). ................
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