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June 15, 2002
Getting Administrators up to Speed
By Susan Brooks-Young
What kinds of projects are being developed to help school leaders guide with technology? We take a look at three model programs from across the nation.
Administrative support is a key factor in the success of any kind of school reform, particularly reform dealing with the integration of technology into instruction. The release of the Technology Standards for School Administrators in fall 2001, and grant and award opportunities increasingly targeting administrative training in this area (see "Apply for an Administrator's Grant"), underscore growing concerns that school leaders improve their professional practice through training in the use of digital-age tools. This article provides a sampling of three programs launched within the last year designed to meet the complex professional development needs of principals and district-level leaders. Two of these initiatives focus specifically on increasing administrators' technology and leadership skills while the third makes use of technology to deliver administrator training on a variety of topics.
Leadership for Reinventing Schools
Alaska Staff Development Network
What: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a grant of $691,184 to the Alaska Council of School Administrators.
Why: The grant is being used to plan and implement statewide, administrator-driven training for systemic reform and technology integration; and, more generally, to enhance the leadership skills of Alaska's public and private school principals and superintendents.
Timeline: Participants attend a five-day summer institute and an annual principals conference in the fall. Additional training on integrating handheld technology may be arranged on-site. Distance learning collaborations are ongoing.
How: Training includes both face-to-face and distance learning sessions designed to help leaders acquire the skills needed to implement an education system aligned with Alaska's state standards and Quality Schools Initiative. Last summer's institute for school and district planning teams focused on developing or refining multiple assessments, effective instructional tools, meaningful reporting methods, and community-based communication. A variety of online courses have been developed, including several where participants spend two days with the instructor and then continue via e-mail, chat rooms, and a Web site.
An interesting element of this project is the inclusion of training for the use of handheld devices in day-to-day activities. Through a partnership with Palm, free training is offered on-site and at conferences statewide, and handhelds are made available at a significantly reduced price. The two-tiered training focuses first on personal use (i.e., using the address book and calendar) and then on methods to integrate student information system databases into Palms for ready access to medical, schedule, and discipline documentation.
To learn more about this project, contact the Alaska Staff Development Network at asdn@ptialaska.net.
LEADing the Future
The Michigan Gates Project
What: The state of Michigan has received a $6 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and matching funds from the state's five major professional associations.
Why: This project aims to provide professional development to 4,000 principals and superintendents in public and private schools over a three-year period. This initiative is unique in that it takes advantage of professional development time already scheduled for administrators by integrating the initial training as a series of concurrent sessions during state conferences school leaders regularly attend.
The goal for LEADing the Future is to help school administrators optimize their effectiveness as strategic, instructional, organizational, and public leaders. More specifically, goals include articulating a broader vision of leadership, focusing on infrastructure and sustainability, and fostering sharing, lessons learned, and context-rich learning.
Timeline: The initial training is eight hours in length. Subsequent training is available both online and at regional workshops. The minimum time requirement for follow-up activities is still being developed. Participants may continue their attendance throughout the three-year grant period online and at locations throughout the state.
How: Using the National Leadership Standards and the Technology Standards for School Administrators as a foundation, the project will develop and provide both face-to-face and online instruction as well as special sessions during professional association events.
The grant brings together key groups, including professional associations for public and private school administrators and various other education alliances and university-funded projects. Representatives of these groups comprise an overall advisory board and implementation team responsible for the nitty-gritty tasks of organization, promotion, participant recruitment, and activity facilitation. The challenge is to identify burning issues leaders face and develop meaningful sessions and workshops using case studies that will assist them in meeting these challenges. Technology use is integrated throughout.
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| The Michigan Project collects data up front from participating principals through the TAGLIT self-assessment tool. |
Additional data is being collected through the Taking a Good Look at Instructional Technology self-assessment instrument. All participating principals and 80 percent of their staff are required to complete the survey, which provides critical information to the planning team about the current use of instructional technology at their schools. TAGLIT includes specific surveys for elementary and secondary administrators and targets leadership issues including planning, hardware and software acquisition, technology support, and funding.
Regardless of topic, sessions will be based on case studies that emphasize best practices in leadership using technology to access data and other resources to make informed decisions. Two areas that have already been identified as being front-burner issues are using data to make good instructional decisions and improving personal proficiency and productivity. In addition, a support network consisting of moderated online chats, discussion groups, and e-mailing lists is planned.
Approximately 100 administrators have been invited to take part in a one-day field test to provide input for the future direction of the project. After reviewing materials and session content, teams of participants will collaborate online to share ideas and provide feedback on what activities work for them and what might require modification.
Both formative (information gathered along the way to monitor progress) and summative (a final report of the impact of the program) evaluations will be used to assess the quality of the experiences offered to participants and to determine how well technology is being used to enhance leadership practices.
For further information, contact Marion Ginopolis, director, Michigan Gates Project, mariong@mivu.org.
Ventures in Leadership
Garrison Union Free School District, Garrison, N.Y.
What: Joining forces last year were Dr. Ellen Bergman, superintendent of Garrison UFSD, and Dr. Christine E. Pawelski, director of the Global Institute, which focuses on developing partnerships between universities, school districts, and other professional groups to support innovative education initiatives worldwide. This collaboration resulted in a $35,000 Ventures in Leadership grant through the Wallace-Reader's Digest LEADERS Count initiative. Also in collaboration with New York higher education institutions, the group is developing a professional support program for current and aspiring school administrators at all levels. The specific focus is to promote differentiated instruction for all students, particularly those with challenging physical, medical, or learning disabilities.
Why: Garrison, N.Y., lies about 50 miles north of New York City on the banks of the Hudson River. The K-8 school district is small, serving 293 students. At first glance this may seem an ideal educational setting; however, in such a small, isolated school district, Garrison's administrators encounter many challenges in finding and accessing the resources they need to improve instructional programs. This experience is typical in similar settings, both rural and suburban, where, in addition to restricted access to training resources, isolation and limited time lead to frustration and high turnover rates among administrators.
Timeline: Materials are being developed in the spring of 2002 and field-testing will take place in one school district during the 2002-2003 school year.
How: Using actual case studies of students enrolled in participating school districts, training will be delivered through CD-ROM material about individual student situations and needs. This will be combined with a Web site to provide discussion forums and online access to experts through message boards as participants work together to solve problems and make decisions about customizing instruction for each child. An exciting feature of the project is that it uses the perspectives of local communities combined with distance learning to enable administrators to share information. Some activities, such as online chats, are synchronous, requiring all participants to be online at the same time, while others may be completed at the administrator's convenience.
Participants will use the student case study information and online collaboration to develop strategies for making curriculum available to targeted children. Evaluation will focus on both the process of development and the success of the plan for each student. As soon as the program is ready for general release, Bergman and Pawelski hope to share information about it through regional best-practices workshops throughout New York state, national conferences such as the Council for Exceptional Children, as well as through local university courses for aspiring administrators.
For additional information, contact Dr. Bergman at ebergman@garrison.lhric.org.
Susan Brooks-Young is the author of Making Technology Standards Work for You: A Guide for School Administrators.
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