The Academy's curriculum focus includes the following learning strands:
1. Vision of Learning:
This strand focuses on understanding the goals of education and the importance of embracing a compelling vision for education. The focus of this module is helping our participants move from “managing” school to “leading” schools that focus on teaching and learning. This module will cover an analysis of John Bransford’s learning theory, How People Learn. Specific topics to be addressed include, Assessing Student Performance, Structuring Curriculum and Instruction, and Instructional Strategies.
2. Creating a Culture of Learning:
This module focuses on how instructional leaders can work effectively with teachers and others in their school community (such as parents) to propel student learning. This module emphasizes the importance of creating a learning community within the school. Principals gain experience in classroom observation of teachers, coaching and mentoring teachers, and developing a school culture that supports systematic feedback and ongoing teacher development based on student work and data. Principals learn about strategies to engage parents and the broader community in supporting their school’s vision and the instructional programs.
3. The Leader as Learner:
This module focuses on the individual leadership challenges of each participant. Participants learn about their own personal leadership styles and set individual goals to support their growth and development as school leaders. These goals are tied to their school improvement efforts. Specific leadership skills are highlighted, such as the art of negotiation, decision-making, and using technology to become more efficient and effective. Time is spent analyzing dilemmas that often confront principals as they make tough decisions.
4. Political, Social, and Community Contexts of Learning:
Schools cannot improve in a vacuum. They are embedded in a larger community context. This module will familiarize participants with district, state and federal policies and financial arrangements that are central to understanding education today. Principals must be able to work within these contexts to propel learning and teaching. At the same time, they must be familiar with a wide array of school designs and systems to make informed choices about their own schools.
5. Leading Change for Learning:
This strand helps the participants understand the process of change that must be embraced in their mission of propelling teaching and learning. This process is primarily about strategizing. The participants learn how to motivate and organize others toward the goal of improved student achievement. In this strand each principal embarks on a strategic planning process for his/her school. This process entails an in-depth assessment of the participant’s school, reviewing all available data to highlight strengths, weakness, threats and opportunities. Participants develop specific strategic goals for their schools and mechanisms for addressing these goals through the strategic planning process. The objective of this strand is for each participant to develop specific school improvement strategies based on data that is used to define needs, set goals, plan interventions, manage the change process, and evaluate progress.
6. Mentoring Others in Learning and Leading:
This module provides these principals with an overview of mentoring as a central ingredient in leadership development. The participants in this cohort provide the opportunity to assess and develop their ability to move from leadership development theory to practice using the principles of adult learning. This requires that these principals shift from merely transferring knowledge to facilitating a learning relationship. This phase of the program teaches the principals how to work with other adults in the school to assure learning is occurring.
posted by AcrosticGuy @ 9:05 AM
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