Multi-phase professional learning structure: summer institute, school-year follow-ups, annual reunions, and pre-program needs assessment

Design · All designs
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 associational), q1 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description

The Academy's design runs "for three and a half days in August, followed by three additional full-day follow-up sessions later in the school year, plus annual two-day follow-up seminars ("reunions") for prior Academy participants." Sessions are highly interactive and customized: prior to the Academy, participants are asked what their biggest issues are and what they want addressed, informing coverage of current topics such as transition planning.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

• Pre-program collection of participant issues to customize content
• Ongoing sponsorship to fund follow-up sessions and reunions across years

Constraints

• Designed for a small cohort; annual attendance averages between 15 and 20 participants

Target Learners

• Experienced special education directors

Learning Goals

• Updating legal and leadership knowledge
• Sustaining peer support networks over time

Claims

• In a recent survey, 100 percent of polled Academy graduates said they would recommend participation to a colleague [+W] — satisfaction, not a test of the structure
• Academy graduates report feeling more empowered and staying on the job longer [+W]

Patterns Used

• Professional Development: a summer institute with school-year follow-up sessions and annual reunions, customised from participants' own issues

Related Designs

Examples

• Special Education Leadership Academy (Massachusetts): the Massachusetts academy for special education directors this structure describes

Key Sources

• Academy Breaks the Isolation of Special Education Directors. (2014). WestEd R&D Alert, Vol. 14, No. 3. https://www.wested.org

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	design
id	multi-phase-leadership-academy-structure
title	Multi-phase professional learning structure: summer institute, school-year follow-ups, annual reunions, and pre-program needs assessment
description	The Academy's design runs "for three and a half days in August, followed by three additional full-day follow-up sessions later in the school year, plus annual two-day follow-up seminars ("reunions") for prior Academy...
status	review
generated	by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-09
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources	1 — academy-breaks-the-isolation-of-special-education-directors-2014

Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.