School Leadership Executive Institute (SLEI) | South Carolina Department of Education
Program Summary
Introduction
The South Carolina School Leadership Executive Institute (SLEI) is a world-class initiative designed to give participants the insights, knowledge, and competencies to lead South Carolina schools to success. In partnership with the internationally renowned Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), the South Carolina Department of Education has developed and implemented a rigorous, two-year institute for principals. The curriculum focuses on enhancing principals' skills in three areas: leadership, management, and educational best practices. The quarterly, three-day sessions rotate between the CCL, Greensboro campus and sites in South Carolina. Each SLEI cohort has between 25 and 30 educators from diverse backgrounds and schools. These cohorts develop a strong sense of comraderie and a strong network of expertise and support.
Theory of Change
Positive, enduring change must be planned and nutured. This kind of change requires strong leaders that understand the need for systemic, positive change, while at the same time recognize the extreme difficultly of implementing change. We believe that if you are not consciously trying to get better, you are getting worse. We believe that good is the enemy of great. Change is inevitable in this era of high-stakes accountability. Those school leaders who don't see the need for constant improvement will inevitably fail our children. Building participant’s' knowledge base, leadership skills and capacity for and dealing with and leading change all focused on improving student and school performance is our task. We believe very strongly that the principal is the single most important change agent in the education system. Michael Fullan talks about "reculturing" schools and education systems. He says, "Reculturing is a contact sport that involves hard, labor-intensive work. It takes time and indeed never ends." (Leading in a Culture of Change, p.44). Our job is to help principals learn how to reculture their schools, to look for new ideas, to restructure old ideas, and to practice "strategic abandonment" when necessary. We give SLEI participants the strength, endurance, and knowledge to react to this "contact sport."
Definition of Leadership
Leadership is "...the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations" (Kouzes and Posner, The Leadership Challenge, 30). Leadership moves people and organizations from from compliance-based to commitment-driven.
Mission Statement
To give SLEI participants the insights, knowledge, and competencies to lead South Carolina Schools to success.
Costs
The per-participant cost is approximately $3000. This includes tuition, travel, lodging and materials. The State Department of Education pays the program costs and provides a staff to administer the program.
Licensure
This program does not fulfill any licensure requirement. However, it has been approved as a source of renewal credit for the state’s administrative certificate.
Standards
SLEI instruction is aligned with state and nationally recognized standards. The SLEI curriculum design and delivery is nested in these state and national standards including statewide performance standards for principals (PADEPP), the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) and the Educational Leadership Consortium Council (ELCC).
Measuring K-12 Student Success
Program success is based on student and school performance on the South Carolina school report card. Student performance on standardized tests is the basis for the school report cards.
Contact
Mark Bounds, Director
Office of School Leadership
South Carolina State Department of Education
1429 Senate Street, Room 1112
Columbia SC, 29201
Phone: 803.734.8558 | Fax: 803.734.5486 | Email: MBounds@sde.state.sc.us
More Information
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.