Require participants to complete an individual leadership project with a planning template and protected work time¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The Academy requires participants to complete individual projects and gives them dedicated time for this work, such as designing a year-long professional development program for paraprofessionals or expanding a co-teaching model districtwide. Organizers "provide them with a project-planning template, a process to use, and time to talk with us and each other about what their project is going to look like."

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Program organizers must supply a project-planning template, a process, and structured time for participants to plan and discuss their projects

Constraints¶

• Such projects are described as difficult or impossible for directors to tackle amid day-to-day job demands without the program's dedicated time

Target Learners¶

• Experienced district-level special education administrators

Target Learning Goals¶

• Applying leadership learning to a concrete district improvement project

Related Strategies¶

• Implement BARR through sequenced multi-year professional development plus dedicated weekly coaching exceeding 200 hours per year
• Phased SIM professional development plan: initial planning days, monthly site PD and coaching, monthly leadership-team sessions, and annual program-specific training with coaching
• Four ecosystem recommendations: experiment with currency forms, protect time for inquiry, include everyone in team learning, and invest in adaptive platforms

Examples¶

• Special Education Leadership Academy (Massachusetts): the academy in which participants complete the project

Key Sources¶

• Academy Breaks the Isolation of Special Education Directors. (2014). WestEd R&D Alert, Vol. 14, No. 3. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED559625