This month the PO focuses on the heart and soul of our mission, Standard 2 from the ISLLC standards, “A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth.” Over the years administrators have been responsible for finding the best “sit and get” professional development they can find to make their staffs happy, to boost morale, to learn new applications, and to fill allocated professional learning time. As one author notes, “The Principal is the principle staff developer!” The administrator then is charged with helping the staff to build a collaborative learning community that stays focused on continuous improvement of learning for students. The National Staff Development Council has been the national leader in helping educators implement meaningful professional development. It has published revised standards that encourage paying attention to the context of the school, the processes that will be implemented and the content that will be addressed. In the absence of such rigorous standards, it too often happens that an administrator calls a professional development provider and says, “What can you do for my staff in 2 hours?” If you are providing optimal professional development, the question becomes, “What learning do we as a staff need in order to achieve our goals that have been derived out of an analysis of our contextual data.”

The National Staff Development Council has issued a bold ultimatum entitled, “A Declaration of Professional Learning.” Part of the language of this bold document states “all educators are endowed with a desire for Professional Competence and Mutual Support, that among these are professional respect, the challenge of Worthy Goals, and the Everyday Experience of Genuine Teamwork and Professional Learning instituted in pursuit of high levels for all Students.” It further states, “…(we) solemnly publish and declare That Educators’ Professional Learning advance their professional judgment, improve their Teaching Practice, and strengthen Leadership among Administrators and Teachers for the benefit of all Students no matter what the Students’ place of residence nor their race nor their family income.” For the full text of this bold document, go to www.nsdc.org/connect/declaration.cfm