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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
| LEADERSHIP FOR EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT FOUNDATION
The Council offers several opportunities for professional growth and development. Following is a summary for your reference. See Calendar of Events for dates & locations. Aspiring Superintendent Programs Educational Leadership Workshop (6 hours per session) This one-day workshop is offered in April in five locations including Long Island, Westchester, Albany, Canton, and Rochester. The program targets administrators seeking a career as a superintendent and have been nominated by a superintendent of schools or a university professor. Candidates are identified for possessing leadership qualities that are an integral part of the superintendency. Topics covered include: the superintendency as a career; the educational and financial leadership roles specific to the superintendency; the superintendent and school board relationship; professional and personal challenges associated with the job; the resume, credentials and interview, and the rewards of being a school leader. Pathways to the Superintendency (6 hours per session) Offered in early December in Albany, this one-day program is for those seriously considering following a career path to the superintendency within the next few years. It concentrates on four general themes within the role: change as a constant, human relations as essential, skillful management of resources as a priority, and personal and professional well-being as a need. The workshop also includes how to select a superintendency that is the right fit, perspectives and experiences from current practicing school leaders, and information from district superintendents and search consultants on conducting a successful job search. Programs for Cabinet Members (6 hours per session) The Council is committed to offering a variety of programs to our Cabinet members. Cabinet members are deputy or assistant superintendents for curriculum and instruction. The Council holds pre-conference workshops on instructional issues during our Fall and Mid-Winter Conferences. We also offer a one-day workshop each spring with nationally-known experts that offer high quality programs. New Superintendents Institute (6 hours per session) The New Superintendents Institute is a year-long seminar series tailored to making the transition to the superintendency successful. Participants may opt to attend individual workshops or all five workshops in the series. A certificate is awarded upon completion of three of five seminars. The New Superintendent Orientation is held in July and August, prior to the start of the school year, and offers an introduction to Council and Foundation staff and services, the Commissioner of Education and key SED staff. Topics during these sessions include school board relationships, budget development, the State’s assessment program and reporting requirements, and the superintendent’s role as an advocate for the school district and students. The New Superintendents Success Seminar series continues with sessions in September, December and January. They feature opportunities to meet with veteran superintendents in open roundtable discussions to gain information about issues they have faced: the legislative scene in Albany, Regents issues and strategies to engage in problem-solving with theirpeers. Topics include superintendent evaluations, financial and instructional leadership, ethics, communication strategies, and personnel management. Participants play a significant part in developing each seminar’s agenda. New Superintendents are strongly encouraged to attend the Institute. Early Career Superintendent (52 hours) This seminar series supports and encourages superintendents to expand their leadership potential and capacity through a sustained, cohort-based 10-month program. It is an integrated, developmental experience that builds on superintendents’ knowledge and wealth of experience. The program offers opportunities to learn how to frame and reflect upon their own experiences, to learn with their peers, experienced superintendents, and educational experts through ongoing intensive activities. It combines self-directed learning with team support and experienced guidance. The program consists of four one-day sessions followed by a two and a half day summer institute. The series is being offered in collaboration with Bank Street College and Putnam-Northern Westchester BOCES. The Summer Institute at Harvard (15 hours, 2 ½ day session) The Summer Institute at Harvard is offered every July on the Harvard Campus for 30 school superintendents. The program has been offered for the past 13 years and provides an opportunity for superintendents to exchange ideas with Harvard University professors and highly respected education researchers. Over the years the speakers have included Dr. Roland Barth, Dr. Howard Gardner, Dr. Richard Elmore, and Dr.Thomas Payzant. The program provides the advantage of presenters from multiple divisions of Harvard’s Graduate School, including the School of Education, the Business School, and the School of Government. Dimensions of Leadership Dimensions of Leadership, based on leadership theory and practice, is for all superintendents and assistant superintendents regardless of experience and district size. It encompasses four one-day workshops over a period of two years and examines the issues faced by school leaders and incorporates the knowledge, skills and experiences of both the faculty and program participants. It provides a rare opportunity to reflect on professional practice and build collaborative networks. The curriculum is based on Bohlman and Deal’s Four Frames of Leadership. Each session focuses on one of the four frames including political, symbolic, structural, and human resource leadership. Theme: Structural Leadership (6 hours) Theme: Political Leadership (6 hours) Theme: Symbolic Leadership (6 hours) Theme: Dimensions V - Integrating the Frames for Successful Practice (6 hours) Based on Bohlman and Deal’s recent work with the frames for leadership and management, Dimensions V provides participants the advantage of viewing the full culture and life of the organization using the mix of frames as references that often coincide. In this way, leaders can decide between various options for leading and managing the organization. Using a series of case studies, the offering will ask participants to look through and discuss multiple frames as the means of developing strategies that would have the highest prediction of success. This offering is the opportunity to capstone one’s completion of the four Dimensions workshops or as a refresher for superintendents who completed the Dimensions program in previous years. Systemic Instructional Leadership (6 hours per session, two sessions) This two-session offering will discuss common characteristics of high performing schools and school districts and the roles building and district leaders can play in moving any district to higher performance by adults and students. The development and use of Professional Learning Communities (PLC) will be highlighted, including analysis of a district’s practices that has moved to PLC-based staff and program development. The analysis will provide insights into the successful strategies for full implementation that any district can use as well as noting and discussing the difficult points in the process. Superintendent-School Board Relations and Team Governance (6 hours for a full-day session) This one day session will provide superintendents with time-tested successful practices for developing and maintaining strong, positive relationships and team governance practices with their Boards of Education. The session will discuss characteristics of effective Boards and ways to deal with the most common difficulties of dysfunctional Boards, and Board-Superintendent relationships. Participants will have opportunities to analyze their specific relationship and share the successful practices they use as well as difficulties they have had or are experiencing with their Board. Materials will include checklists for effective Board-Superintendent leadership and governance, case studies for discussion purposes, and short readings about best practices for Board-Superintendent relationships. SuperTalks SuperTalks is a simple yet powerful concept that grew out of informal discussions by the Superintendents Academy Faculty while attending the Mid-Winter Conference. It is built upon the “book talk” model where a group of superintendents selects a book or collection they wish to read pertaining to aspects of leadership. They establish a schedule of meetings to discuss what they have read and to consider how they can apply what they have learned. In a very real sense they become a community of learners, focused on their own leadership skills and trade practice. The customized approach of SuperTalks provides a unique professional development opportunity for you and your colleagues to work as a cohort, shaping the experience based upon your interests. To enhance the dialogue, the Academy will providea facilitator to keep the conversation active and to provide case studies designed to deepen understanding for participants. Case studies will be constructed around the major themes from the book(s) being On-Line Professional Development This offering is designed to provide busy superintendents great flexibility by allowing them to choose the most convenient time to spend on coursework based on their schedule. The course itself, The Leadership Imperative: Focusing on Critical Issues, asks participating superintendents to select a relevant and critical issue that they anticipate dealing with in the future or are currently involved with in a real way. Using the readings as the basis for analyzing their issue, they will be asked to develop a plan of action to address it in a proactive way. Throughout the course, participants will share their work and look for common leadership themes which emerge from the readings, on-line discussions and “on-the-job” experiences. In short, participants will become an active community of learners. The option for interested participants to meet in person will be provided during The Council’s Fall and Mid-Winter Conferences. Leadership for Student Achievement (30 hours) Leadership for Student Achievement is geared specifically towards strengthening district leadership teams focused on improving student achievement. The program has been offered for three years and is open to teams throughout New York State. The program consists of five, one-day sessions, held in both New York City and Syracuse. The program is led by nationally-renowned experts in the areas of school culture, curriculum, assessment, data analysis and professional development. Teams have a unique opportunity for open discussion, reflection, gaining insight from experts and other school districts. Team members have ranged from teachers, teacher leaders, board members, assistant principals,principals, assistant superintendents, and superintendents. Balanced Leadership: Balanced Leadership: School Leadership That Works TM is based on the work of the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL). The program is a series of four, two-day professional development sessions for school administrators (superintendents, assistant superintendents, and principals) delivered over the course of one year. The consortium is based on McREL’s research on school-level leadership, which identifies research-based leadership responsibilities and practices, as well as extensive reviews of theoretical literature on leadership, focus of change, magnitude of change, and purposeful community—the components of McREL’s Balanced Leadership Framework; the existing research on high-quality professional development and the emerging research on professional development for school leaders; and the four types of knowledge identified in McREL’s knowledge taxonomy: (a) Why (experiential), (b) What (declarative), (c) When (contextual), The ultimate outcome reflects what school leaders will know and be able to do as a result of their participation in the consortium including the use of research-based practices to choose the right focus for change initiatives, leading change, and developing a purposeful community in order to improve student achievement, and the personal and collective capacity to sustain continuous improvement. The program will be offered by The Council’s trained faculty. If you wish to develop a consortium, please contact The Council.
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