background

							                                                                                    Attachment A

                 Background: A New Framework for Leadership Standards

In recent years, the role of the education leader has become widely recognized as critically
important to effective schools and educational improvement. Effective educational leaders are
second only to teachers among school related factors in their impact on student learning.
Surveys of teachers routinely cite the role of effective leaders in establishing positive,
collaborative, and learning centered schools.

Over the past three years, Department staff have reviewed the research, analyzed emerging
national (e.g., Educational Leadership Policy Standards: ISLCC 2008) and state (e.g., Kentucky,
Georgia, Alabama,) models, and worked with leaders and other stakeholders from across the
Commonwealth as well as nationally to draft new standards for education leaders that are
differentiated by key leadership role and career stage, and are designed to be teachable,
actionable, and measurable. They will be used by leadership preparation programs, individuals
pursuing other routes to licensure, the Department, and the field.

Our initial emphasis has been to develop draft performance indicators for individuals seeking
Initial principal licensure (novice stage), which should be in final form later this summer. Their
development has been an iterative process that has included input from national, state, and
district level stakeholders:

National level:
    Blended the state’s ongoing standards development work/timeline with other Wallace-
       related projects starting in October 2007.
    National panel reviews standards and meets with various stakeholders to discuss strategic
       work to use new standards for leadership as foundation for a Cohesive Leadership
       System (CLS) in November 2008. Additional written feedback provided by national
       panel members.
    Southern Regional Education Board provided analysis of standards and initial principal
       performance indicators in February 2009.

State level:
University/Alternative Program Partners
     Contract awarded to UMass Amherst Center for Education Policy (CEP) to initiate
        development of new Standards for principals and superintendents; Phase One completed
        in February 2007 with creation of three tiers of development for the role of principal,
        based on career continuum.
     Fall 2007 focus groups were conducted by CEP and Department; web-based survey
        developed and conducted by CEP; feedback solicited from administrator professional
        associations and other constituencies
     Dr. Robert Starratt, Boston College Administrator Preparation Program, written feedback
        on fourth standard on reflective leaders, August 2008.
     ESE begins discussions with several public and private universities/colleges and
        alternative providers with administrator preparation programs about piloting proposed



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         standards and performance indicators in their program components (curricula, practicum,
         assignments, etc.) in August 2008.
        ESE presents latest version of proposed standards in context of the CLS in November and
         December 2008 (provosts, presidents, deans, MACTE/ COMTEC/MAECTE).
        ESE conducts facilitated focus groups with most administrator preparation program
         providers to obtain feedback on proposed standards and Initial license principal
         performance indicators.

State Committees:
    Early drafts shared with Educational Personnel Advisory Council (EPAC) in March
       2007. Feedback solicited from multiple sources.
    Update of standards development and leadership initiatives was presented to EPAC in
       June 2008
    Education Leadership Alliance reviewed standards and provided input in January 2009.
    Key stakeholder group drafted definition of leadership and identified core values and
       dispositions for leadership standards in April 2009.

District partnership level:
    ESE and partners Boston and Springfield district-based principal preparation programs
        begin work on developmental pilot of proposed standard focused on instructional
        leadership in Oct. 2007.

Work is also underway on performance indicators for experienced principals and both novice
and experienced superintendents. Subsequent development work will be necessary to develop
performance indicators for other administrative licenses, including: school business
administrator, special education administrator, and supervisor director. These efforts have
received significant support from the Wallace Foundation, first with a grant of $2 million as one
of 15 participating states, and more recently with a grant of $6 million over three years as one of
five states at the forefront of these efforts.

The draft performance indicators for the novice leader, at the point of Initial licensure are
explicitly designed to be more teachable, actionable and measurable than our previous one-size
fits all administrator standards. As such, they can be used to guide preparation program redesign
of curricula, activities and provide a focus on particular high-impact practices and behaviors
during internships. They also readily lend themselves to criteria for a uniform core performance
assessment that will be used to determine readiness for initial licensure for all candidates. Such
an assessment—already called for in the current regulations but yet to be developed—will enable
a new, higher level of rigor and create consistency across programs and among alternate routes to
principal licensure.1

The policy standards are also intended to be the bedrock of a Cohesive Leadership System (CLS)
that knits key stages of an educational leader’s career into a coherent continuum. By explicitly
articulating a new Leadership Career Continuum, with clear performance expectations at each
stage of the leader’s development, they will eventually guide the identification, recruitment,

1
 Current regulations allow three routes to principal licensure: 1) college/university or alternative preparation
program; 2) panel review, or 3) apprenticeship/internship.


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preparation, mentoring, and assessment of a new generation of education leaders for the
Commonwealth. (See Continuum Graphic below.) Such leaders are urgently needed to help
guide collaborative innovation and improvement in our schools and help lead the way to
increased academic achievement for all our students.

The real value and power of these proposed standards will be in how effectively they are
translated into real changes in programs and practice. This will take time and a long-term
commitment. As we continue to develop and refine the performance indicators for each role at
each developmental stage, our challenges will include

      staying focused on only the most powerful standards that will shape requirements for
       licensure and not allow this work to devolve into endless lists;

      getting the performance indicators right, while recognizing that this work is part of a
       leading edge national movement that continues to evolve its research and practice base.
       In this regard, it will be essential to adopt a process that will permit mid-course
       corrections as research and data illumine which performance indicators are most
       powerfully linked to effectiveness.

Adopting the four Standards for Education Leaders are the first step in the development process.
They will establish the basis for a new performance-based system for preparing, developing, and
assessing school and district leaders that can also inform the development of more outcome-
focused approaches to teacher development. It will be a system that emphasizes strong
leadership for the instructional and programmatic changes that are needed to achieve
significantly improved student performance in all schools and districts in the Commonwealth.




                         Vision of Successful Student

                         Vision of Successful Novice School Leader

                        Leadership Standards/ Indicators




        Career Continuum for Massachusetts School Leaders


            NOVICE                    EXPERIENCED                       MASTERY




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