Learning, Empowering, Assessing, Developing (LEAD) Fairfax | Wallace Foundation and Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools
Read more (Summary | Full Description) about LEAD Fairfax here at e-Lead.
Program Description
In 1999, the newly established Career Development section of FCPS Human Resources began researching best practices in leadership development and succession planning. Staff members attended national conferences sponsored by organizations such as Linkage, Gallup, and the Institute for Educational Leadership. Additionally, staff visited with consultants at the Center for Creative Leadership and North Carolina's Principal's Institute. Using their findings, Career Development staff members created the Learning, Empowering, Assessing, and Developing (LEAD) Fairfax initiative. Fifteen schools were recommended by our district's cluster directors and Human Resources' Career Development section for participation in the 2000-01 pilot. In 2001, our district drafted and submitted a proposal to Wallace-Readers Digest. In 2002, our district was awarded a Leaders Count grant from the Wallace Foundation.
Going into the 2005-2006 school year, LEAD Fairfax has grown to 28 active learning cohorts and has trained more than 2,000 educational leaders, teachers, support staff, students, and community members.
Change is a process, not an event, which begins with acquiring new knowledge, broadening beliefs, and in turn, demonstrating new behaviors. Before change can occur in a school district, it must first resonate with the people in the district. Our theory of change starts with self, moves to the school site, and then impacts our school system for the improved achievement of all students. In year 1, our professional development sessions focus on self; in year 2, we will focus on building leadership capacity at each site, and in year 3, we will focus on impacting our school system.
LEAD Fairfax promotes systemic reform of educational leadership. It is designed to better enable education leaders to impact student achievement, especially for the economically disadvantaged. Critical attributes of LEAD Fairfax include: individual leadership develop plans; cohort learning experiences; partnering with national organizations such as ASCD, Gallup, Linkage, NASSP, and the Center for Creative Leadership; and placement of administrative and pre-service interns in selected school sites with experienced mentor principals.
Virginia Standard(s) Addressed
Planning and Assessment (ISLLC standard 3)Instructional Leadership (ISLLC standard 1)
Safety & Organizational Management for Learning (ISLLC standards 2 & 3)
Communication & Community Relations (ISLLC standard 4)
Professionalism (ISLLC standards 5 & 6)
Program Goals and Objectives
The program goals are: 1. attraction and placement of a diverse pool of division leaders. 2. strengthening division leaders' abilities to lead people and lead learning 3. creating systemic support conditions for division leadership.Program Format
- Cohorts
- Discussion and Reflection
- Journals
- Assessment of Individual Learning Styles and Needs
- Individual Leadership Development Planning
- Training of trainers
- Participant use of technology
- Web-based delivery
- Cadres/Teams
- Mentors
- Multiple Learning Formats
- Case study
- Action Research
- Hands-On, Experiential Learning
LEAD Fairfax instruction is based on the framework, Self-Site-SystemT structure. This structure provides a framework for discussing the current state of the LEAD professional development program as well as its future possibilities. The scaffolding of the LEAD professional development plan begins with year one's Personal Mastery/Leading People strand. This strand strengthens leader reflection of self, especially as style, philosophy, strengths, and communication impact the energy and engagement of students, staff, community, and district leadership. Year two, the Leading Learning strand, builds on those understandings and skills to focus and intensify the leadership on high student achievement for all students and the continual growth of the school site as a learning community. Year three, the Leading Systems strand, creates opportunities and experiences to develop advanced leadership skills by involving school leaders in the solving of district-wide or system challenges.
Developing management skills is not a direct focus of LEAD Fairfax. Through collaborative learning in our cohort structure, participants discuss strategies to solve day-to-day operational/management issues and concerns.
Target Audience
- Principals
- Assistant principals
- Aspiring principals
- Aspiring administrators
- Teacher leaders
- Support staff leaders
- At-promise students
- Other: superintendents, assistant superintendents, community leaders, central office staff
- The grant is focused on economically disadvantaged student populations. LEAD Fairfax works with principals and teams from 82 schools in our district whose free-and-reduced meals population is 20% or greater. These 82 schools have a combined student population of more than 70,000, which if taken separately, would make this aggregate the third largest school system within the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Self-Selection and/or Identification Through School Division
No/yes.Duration of Program
The number of sessions varies by cohort. The LEAD program is continuous throughout the year. Learning cohorts begin their programs at different times throughout the year, but typically last a full-year. The number of sessions varies by cohort, but LEAD Fairfax held approximately 130 professional development sessions in the 2004-2005 year.Outcomes Measured
LEAD Fairfax program developers and project evaluators worked collaboratively to develop 13 evaluations questions focusing on the areas of recruitment and selection, training and development, and support conditions for leadership. The evaluation process determines the quality and relevance of the leadership training and its perceived and actual impacts on student achievement. Objective and independent evaluations are completed through the Office of Program Evaluation. The office provides ongoing analytical reports to the LEAD Fairfax core team and its participants as well as provides annual evaluation reports to the Superintendent, the School Board, and The Wallace Foundation. In addition, annual tracking of school test scores, pre-post and follow-up training surveys of interns and school cohort participants, as well as case studies of selected interns and principals (including interviews and observations) are completed.
According to the Office of Program Evaluation, LEAD Fairfax has adopted a more rigorous process to recruit and select potential leaders from cohort schools and from across the district. This improved selection approach has resulted in a large, more diverse, and multi-layered pool of school-based leader candidates. African Americans represent the greatest increase over the past two years in leadership appointments among minority groups. Over 80 percent of the administrative interns to date have been promoted to assistant principals and nearly half of the first cohort of interns has been promoted to the principalship.
Program Evaluation
- End-of-session participant evaluation
- Analysis of participant's portfolio of home-school (-division) project
Contact Information
Andrew M. Cole, Director
LEAD Fairfax
Dunn Loring Center
First Floor
2334 Gallows Rd
Dunn Loring, VA 22027
703-204-4018
702-204-3861 Fax
leadfairfax@fcps.edu
http://www.leadfairfax.org/