Leadership Development
Instructional leadership is central to the work of the International Center. Leadership does not reside in a single position, but reflects the attributes, skills, and attitudes of the many staff members who take action and improve through effective learning communities. Successful schools abound with models of distributed and shared leadership. Without the passionate people to initiate and support change, any reform effort will quickly lose momentum. Leaders must respond to change appropriately and show others the way. They must lead school stakeholders on challenging journeys that the school community would not otherwise take.
The International Center can provide support for leadership development as you work through your plans to lead change and develop leadership density within your organization. The following are four resources as part of our leadership initiative.
- Our Annual National Leadership Academy is a great opportunity for you to build leadership density within your organization. At the Academy, you will:
- Work with practitioners from our most successful and most rapidly improving schools and districts
- Discuss case studies from high performing schools to understand how to execute best practices grounded in practical solutions
- Become knowledgeable about team leadership
- Building a vision and implementing strategy
- Empowerment
- Managing change
- Obtain tools to grow as an instructional leader yourself
- The International Center can provide a One-Day Leadership Summit for you and your staff. The purpose of the Leadership Summit is to create awareness of why and how the role of leadership in education is changing. This district or schoolwide professional development activity will address the fact that ALL faculty are leaders. By growing leadership through the approach of top-down support for bottom-up reform, a culture of change and empowerment begins to emerge. When school improvement goals become a schoolwide focus, the support system that is put in place is strong and student achievement becomes the highest priority.
- During the 2008-2009 school year we will be working with a select number of schools/districts on a year-long leadership development activity. This activity will begin with a series of surveys and interviews to determine where your organization is in terms of leadership development. The next step is to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment and data collection and analysis. A consultant will also provide four professional development days in the following areas:
- Where Are We Now - A Look at Current Leadership Conditions
- Ownership of Vision and Mission - ALL Faculty Are Leaders
- Instructional Leadership for Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships
- Data-driven Decision Making to Improve Student Performance
- The International Center also provides a more extensive year-long leadership activity, which includes all of the items in #3 above and continuous monthly coaching from a Senior Consultant. Coaching allows for enhanced leadership sustainability and opportunities to empower more people to implement change.