Professional Readings
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Professional Readings includes reviews of recent publications and highlights of reports on current issues that affect schools. Your contributions are welcome. Send them to principal@osu.edu. Please indicate if we may use your name in the “contributor” credits.
Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium: Standards for School Leaders
Council of Chief State School Officers developed these model standards over 2 years of research, discussion, and collaboration. They “present a common core of knowledge, dispositions, and performances that will help link leadership more forcefully to productive schools and enhanced educational outcomes.”
What the Standards Mean for You
Ohio’s teacher education and licensure standards have been revised, and they cover principals as well as teachers.
The move to standards-based evaluation is already here in the form of proficiency testing and National Board Certification for teachers. Standards for school leaders are the logical next step, and one that many of us welcome.
If the prevailing notion of the principal is a harried, paper-pushing, middle manager, the proposed standards would lift us out of that norm. The authors argue that “effective school leaders are strong educators anchoring their work on central issues of learning and teaching and school improvement.”
Framework for Your Portfolio
If you’re looking to the future—your own employment, professional growth, and job satisfaction—you’ll find this book the ticket to get yourself started.
The book sets forth its purpose with clarity and then moves right to the standards. Each begins with a broad definition followed by statements on relevant knowledge, dispositions, and performances. Here’s a sample:
STANDARD 1
A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by the school community.
- Knowledge the administrator has knowledge and understanding of information sources, data collection, and data analysis strategies
- Dispositions the administrator believes in, values, and is committed to ensuring that students have the knowledge, skills, and valued needed to become successful adults
- Performances the administrator facilitates processes and engages in activities ensuring that assessment data related to student learning are used to develop the school vision and goals
Copies of ISLLC Standards may be ordered from the Council of Chief State School Officers >
