Develop Your Staff
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Professional development activities that have proven effective will be included in Develop Your Staff. Your contributions are welcome. Send them to principal@osu.edu. Please indicate if we may use your name in the “contributor” credits.
Principal Portfolios for Leadership and Learning, Part 1
As a group, we school principals are practical, task-oriented individuals with short attention spans and no time.
We’re so busy taking care of everyone else’s needs, including our teachers’ professional growth, that we usually neglect our own learning.
With new performance assessment for principals—based on standards and demonstrated in a portfolio—we have an unprecedented opportunity to grow in learning and leadership.
Know the Proposed Standards
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.
- Advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth.
- Ensuring management of the organization, operations, and resources for a safe, efficient, and effective learning environment.
- Collaborating with families and community, responding to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources.
- Acting with integrity, fairness, and ethics.
- Understanding, responding to, and influencing the larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context.
Source: Interstate School Leaders Licensure Standards
Start Your Portfolio
Your portfolio should have six sections one based on each standard.
Within each section, you should include relevant written artifacts as evidence, or documentation. Examples:
Memos
Letters
Manuals
Student performance data
Hunt-and-Gather Work
This is a busy time of year, I know. For now, label six file folders to store artifacts based on each of the standards.
Begin organizing relevant documents from your current files or as they come across your desk.
See Part 2 for information on selecting those documents that provide the richest evidence of each standard.
Later, you will write reflections on what you have learned and how you will use the information and experience for continued improvement.
See Teacher Portfolios to Guide and Support Professional Work for more about portfolio development.
See also Portfolio Workshop: Focused Reflection Protocol.
