Education Week - September 24, 2014 - 6

New Leader Standards Emphasize
Factors Both in and Outside School
By Denisa R. Superville
A newly updated set of standards
for school leaders-the first extensive
review of the guidelines in six
years-heavily emphasizes instructional
leadership and focuses on the
role of principals and other administrators
in addressing factors outside
of the classroom that impact student
achievement.
The draft standards, known as the
Interstate School Leaders Licensure
Consortium Standards-or isllc-
describe what principals, assistant
principals, superintendents, and
other district heads should know, and
the critical competencies they should
demonstrate, in order to run schools
and school systems that graduate
students who are ready for college
and the workforce.
Spearheaded by the Council of
Chief State School Officers and
the National Policy Board for Educational
Administration, the "refreshed"
standards released last
week are meant to ensure that "the
current roles of leaders as well as
the current research are reflected,"
said Michelle D. Young, the executive
director of the University
Council for Educational Administration.
Ms. Young, a professor of
educational leadership and policy
at the University of Virginia, in
Charlottesville, also serves on the
National Leadership Preparation
Standards Committee.
The isllc standards undergird
educational, state, and district
school leadership policies and form
the basis for preparation programs,
professional development, and
evaluations. In addition to the isllc
standards, the ccsso and the npbea
are working on the first-ever set of
guidelines for principal supervisors,
and are reviewing leadership preparation
and accreditation standards.
The end goal of the simultaneous reviews
is to create a fully aligned set
of expectations and duties that span
the leadership pipeline. The group
will also publish a toolkit to help administrators
use the standards.
More Complex Jobs
isllc standards, first released in
1996, were last updated in 2008. In
the years since, the duties, responsibilities,
and expectations of school
leaders, especially those of principals,
have become more complex. To a
large degree, those changes were propelled
by state and federal policies,
such as waivers from some provisions
of the federal No Child Left Behind
Act, the Race to the Top competitivegrant
program, various initiatives
focused on principal and teacher effectiveness,
tougher assessments, and
stricter graduation requirements.
"The primary goal of these standards
is to articulate what effective
leadership looks like in a transformed
public education system,"
according to the draft of the standards
that was released last week
for public comment. "The standards
envision public schools that empower
every learner to take ownership
of his or her learning, that
emphasize the learning of content
and application of knowledge and
skill to real-world problems, that
value the differences each learner
brings to the learning experience,
and that leverage rapidly changing
learning environments to maximize
learning."
The revised standards have increased
to 11 from six. They include
the broad categories from the 2008
version: vision, mission and goals,
teaching and learning, managing
organizational systems and safety,
collaborating with families and
stakeholders, ethics and integrity,
and the educational system. But the
new version is also cognizant of the
volumes of empirical research and
the tremendous emphasis in recent
years on the social factors that affect
education-such as growing up in
poverty or speaking a primary language
other than English.
In essence, school leaders are responsible
not just for the stewardship
of students' intellectual growth,
but also for ensuring that students
are safe, that their cultures and languages
are not marginalized, and
that there are social supports available
to students, according to Janice
Poda, the strategic-initiative director
of the ccsso, and others interviewed
for this article. To that end, categories
such as "community of care for
students," "communities of engagement
for families," and "equity and
cultural responsiveness" are highly
visible in the new standards.
The revised standards are "very explicit
about the complexity of the job
and all the things that school leaders
are dealing with, today, in 2014, and
moving forward," said Jacquelyn Kay
Wilson, the director of the Delaware
Academy for School Leadership at
the University of Delaware, in Newark,
and a co-chairwoman of the committee
that oversaw the revision of
the isllc standards.
Unpacking Expectations
In the previous version of the standards,
instructional leadership was
addressed mainly in a single section.
Now, it is incorporated into three
categories: instructional capacity,
instruction, and curriculum and assessment.
Each category delineates
the functions that a principal or
school leader should engage in. For
example, under instructional capacity,
school leaders are expected to recruit
and hire effective teachers, ensure
staff development, and provide
"human, financial, and technological"
resources to help the staff.
"What we have tried to do in
this version of the isllc standards
is to really begin to unpack what
the expectations [are] for practice
in a way that principals can have
a much better sense of what they
should be [doing] with their time,"
Ms. Young said.
Four other categories address
the care of teachers and students.
In "communities of engagement
for families," school leaders are expected
to create a culture that takes
into account the "cultural, social,
and intellectual diversity" of the
schools and to build positive relationships
with families. In "equity
and cultural responsiveness," school
leaders are expected to address issues
of "student marginalization;
deficit-based schooling; and limiting
assumptions about gender, race,
class, and special status," as well as
promote cultural understanding.
"We have been talking a lot more
about personalizing learning in order
to help all students learn and to address
the achievement gaps that we
have in different groups of students,"
said Ms. Poda, "and so the beginning
of that is to think about understanding
what those needs are, understanding
the different cultures that
students come from, and the next
step would be to provide the kind
of instruction they need in order to
learn at higher rates."
Ultimately, Ms. Poda said, the
standards are about improving student
achievement.
Academic researchers and representatives
from practitioner organizations-such
as those representing
secondary and primary school
principals and school administrators-participated
in developing the
6 | EDUCATION WEEK | September 24, 2014 | www.edweek.org
standards. The committees reviewed
research, state laws, and policies, and
surveyed principals and others in the
field, Ms. Poda said.
The standards are not mandatory.
Some states adopt them as written,
while others tinker with them to fit
their states' vision. Forty-five states
and the District of Columbia adopted
or adapted the last set of isllc standards.
The others-Alaska, Colorado,
New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas-
created their own.
That is still an improvement, especially
considering that there were
no standards before 1996, according
to Jody Spiro, the director of educational
leadership at the New York
City-based Wallace Foundation. The
Wallace Foundation has donated $1
million to the ccsso for the overall
revision efforts. (The foundation
also supports coverage of leadership,
arts education, and expanded- and
extended-learning time in Education
Week.)
Ms. Spiro said she was pleased
with the comprehensive nature of
the process, which involved every
major stakeholder group-from researchers,
policymakers, practitioners,
and the public, which for the
first time will be able to comment
and provide feedback through a
survey before the standards are adopted.
The public comment period
will continue through Oct. 10, and
the final standards are expected to
be released early next year.
Scan this tag with
your smartphone for
a link to the proposed
Interstate School Leaders
Licensure Consortium Standards.
www.edweek.org/links
BEYOND ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP
While the revised school leaders' standards focus heavily
on instructional and ethical leadership, they also lay out in
greater specificity an expanded role for principals and others in
improving school climate, engaging the school community, and
recognizing and embracing cultural diversity. Here are two of the
expanded areas, as they appear in the draft document:
Standard 5: Community of Care for Students
An educational leader promotes the success and well-being of every student
by promoting the development of an inclusive school climate characterized by
supportive relationships and a personalized culture of care.
FUNCTIONS:
A. Ensures the formation of a culture defined by trust
B. Ensures that each student is known, valued, and respected
C. Ensures that students are enmeshed in a safe, secure, emotionally
protective, and healthy environment
D. Ensures that each student has an abundance of academic and social
support
E. Ensures that each student is an active member of the school
Standard 10: Equity and Cultural Responsiveness
An educational leader promotes the success and well-being of every student
by ensuring the development of an equitable and culturally responsive school.
FUNCTIONS:
A. Ensures equity of access to social capital and institutional support
B. Fosters schools as affirming and inclusive places
C. Advocates for children, families, and caregivers
D. Attacks issues of student marginalization; deficit-based schooling; and
limiting assumptions about gender, race, class, and special status
E. Promotes the ability of students to participate in multiple cultural
environments
F. Promotes understanding, appreciation, and use of diverse cultural,
ecological, social, political, and intellectual resources
SOURCE: 2014 ISLLC Standards, draft for public comment
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Education Week - September 24, 2014

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