Ongoing Development and Support for Principals and Other Leaders


Principals and other education leaders should be provided with the resources needed to be truly effective. State and federal policymakers must ensure there is a coherent and comprehensive system to support principal and leadership development.


Defining High Quality Professional Development High quality professional development:


1. Is standards-based. 2. Is evidenced-based. 3. Examines personal and professional practice. 4. Employs coaching and support. 5. Provides for differentiated opportunities.


A Blu pr t f r Rfor


e in o e m:Teacher and Leader Innovation Fund ACSA appreciates the support of President Obama as part of the Blu prin


e t for Re mto for


develop innovative approaches to the recruitment, retention and ongoing support for highly effective teachers and leaders. ACSA believes the federal and state government should define broad goals that are researched-based, for the use of innovation funds. Once broad goals are established, ACSA believes the federal and state government must allow local school districts to develop their vision and plans to meet local needs that improve quality teaching and leadership. ACSA believes competitive funding should be in addition to, but not the primary source of, federal funds to truly sustain ongoing quality professional development and support for teachers and leaders. This is particularly important given the inequities of small versus large school districts to have the capacity to write and receive competitive grant funding so that students in all types of districts benefit from the development of exceptional teachers and leaders.


The Role of Institutions of Higher Education


The federal and state government should expect that institutions of higher education (IHEs) will keep current on the latest federal and state reforms to improve student academic achievement. To that end we make the following recommendations:


 IHEs should be expected to incorporate common core standards and national and state assessments as well as accountability systems into their practices and programs. This is particularly important to support teachers and administrators as the expectations continue to rise to close the achievement gap and ensure higher student outcomes overall.


 ACSA believes that there should be greater accountability on the part of IHEs to provide models of effective instructional practices that guide teachers to change instructional strategies to meet the needs of students.


 Additional support is also needed for all teachers in working with high need pupils. Examples include English learners in a science class or special education students in a mainstreamed mathematics class.


 IHEs should be expected to imbed into their program how to use student data to inform instruction and how to differentiate instructional strategies to help close the achievement gap.


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