New School Leadership Program (NSLP) | University of Colorado - Colorado Springs
Program Summary
Introduction
The New School Leadership Program (NSLP) is composed of three metropolitan and eight rural school districts located in southern Colorado with support from two university partners. The Program goal is to substantially improve how school districts develop and support leaders for high-needs schools, so that these schools in turn influence student learning, parent satisfaction, and staffing stability in significant and measurable ways.
The Program is designed to address the need for career-long leadership development and in doing so provides training and support for three distinct professional groups: teachers who have been identified as prospective principals; principals who are just beginning their administrative careers; and experienced principals desiring to increase their professional effectiveness of their schools. Fifty-nine prospective principals and forty-two active principals have completed the program thus far.
Theory of Change
The NSLP believes that positive, constructive, and purposeful change occurs when (1) leaders work in collaborative learning teams to address issues impacting student achievement; (2) leaders are provided with and/or taught to develop mental models which can guide and clarify their thinking and practices; (3) leaders have easy access to relevant and high quality research conducted on student achievement; (4) leaders are provided the resources (time, consultants, strategies, etc.) to address the issues that most significantly serve as roadblocks to increased student achievement; (5) leaders have the skills, opportunities, and resources to access and use data for the purposes of increased results; and (6) leaders have a means for monitoring and evaluating the impact of their work.
Every one of the above conditions is a component of the New School Leadership Program. It is our expectation that by creating these conditions for participants, the learning and experiences can be transferred into action and change at the building level and ultimately impact student learning.
Definition of Leadership
Leadership is the activity of influencing people to strive willingly for group goals (George Terry, Principles of Management, 1960).
Mission Statement
NSLP supports success for all students through high-impact leadership development.
Costs
Costs vary widely. All costs in the first three years of the grant were paid by the Department of Education. During the fourth no-cost extension year, participating districts are contributing to the costs of the program.
Strand I Costs (Prospective Principals): Training costs, supplies/materials, travel, honorariums for expert presenters, stipends/substitute costs for teacher participants, stipends for mentoring principals
Strand II Costs (Beginning Principals): Training costs, supplies/materials, travel, honorariums for expert presenters, stipend cost for personalized expert guides
Strand III Costs (Experienced Principals): Training costs, supplies/materials, travel, honorariums for expert presenters, transcribers/editors for annual case studies, stipends for participating principals.
Licensure
No licensure requirements are fulfilled by participating in the New School Leadership Program. Up to 6 hours of graduate credit is available for successful completion of the year’s program.
Standards
The NSLP is based on the Interstate School Leadership Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) standards.
Measuring K-12 Student Success
Initially, the New School Leadership Program intended to use Just 4 the Kids data to compare student achievement data of the participating schools with schools in their same demographic categories. As it turned out, there were not enough schools in the database to do this comparative analysis. As a result, the Program has collected longitudinal data on student achievement for each of our participating schools and we will make observations, although we recognize that we cannot draw conclusions regarding cause/effect.
Contact
Anne O'Rourke, Program Coordinator
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway
Colorado Springs CO, 80933-7150
Phone: 719.262.3199 | Fax: 719.262.3301 | Email: aorourke@newschoolleadership.org
More Information
View all links for the New School Leadership Program
Disclaimer
e-Lead provides information on professional-development programs for school leaders that have submitted detailed information and that also meet certain standards-based criteria. Programs listed at the e-Lead website are not endorsed by either the Institute for Educational Leadership or Temple University's Laboratory for Student Success.