Professional Standards for Teachers and School Leaders: A Key to School Improvement

American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE) National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) . inspire staff to pursue new, creative approaches for improving schools and promoting .. collaboration in urban elementary schools: Key roles and strategies of principals and literacy.
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Demonstrate leadership in professional practice, through applying critical inquiry and problem solving. Promote, participate in and support ongoing professional learning linked to student progress. Demonstrate leadership through engaging with staff and sharing knowledge about effective teaching and learning in the context of the New Zealand curriculum documents.

Promote and support the gaining of worthwhile qualifications and successful transitions to tertiary education or employment for all students. Ensure that the review and design of school programmes is informed by school-based and external evidence.

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Foster a professional learning community within which staff members are encouraged to be reflective practitioners engaging with research, and feedback on their professional practice. Ensure the use of best practices for assessment, and analyse and act upon evidence on student learning to maximise learning for all students. Exhibit leadership that results in the effective day-to-day operation of the school. Operate effective systems within board policy and in accordance with legislative requirements. Provide the board with timely and accurate information and advice on student learning and school operation.

Effectively manage finance, property, health and safety systems. Effectively manage personnel with a focus on maximising the effectiveness of all staff members. Work with the board to facilitate strategic decision-making. Actively foster professional relationships with, and between colleagues, and with government agencies and others with expertise in the wider education community. Ensure regular interaction with parents and the school community on student progress and other school-related matters. Regardless of the setting, these leaders know that teachers need the expertise to understand how their students learn and how to help them make the next steps in their learning.

Professional standards for area school principals

Leadership that enables teachers to practise in a culture of professional learning and growth, where they work with others to develop and share expertise, creates the best conditions in which young Australians can thrive and achieve. In practice, this involves:. Both Standards recognise that high-quality school leadership is the practice of positively influencing individual and collective teaching expertise in a professional learning culture to secure a strong rate of progress for all learners.

High-quality school leadership can be demonstrated by individuals at all levels of a school, including those in formal leadership positions, such as assistant principals or curriculum leaders, and those without a formally defined role. Effective school leaders are the people in schools who create the conditions for others to understand their impact on student outcomes and continually improve their teaching practice. They can do this as individuals but they have greater influence when operating within cohesive leadership teams, and when they draw on both the Teacher Standards and Principal Standard in developing the required skills and attributes.

Principals are school leaders with a distinct leadership role that is broad, complex and evolving. This breadth and complexity is captured in the descriptions of behaviours at increasing levels of proficiency across five Professional Practices in the Leadership Profiles Profiles:. Principals have significant responsibility for ensuring high-quality teaching and learning and continuous progress for all learners.

Effective principals use their educational expertise and management skills to create a school culture in which staff are able to focus on understanding their impact and improving their practice, so that all learners make progress and achieve. It is designed as a guide to help jurisdictions, principals and other school leaders enhance current approaches to develop and strengthen school leadership across the nation and is presented in two sections. Recognises leadership emerges and develops when a range of opportunities to lead and high- quality professional learning experiences are provided.

Outlines how to prepare individuals for this position and provide ongoing development following appointment to the role. Collectively, the guidelines support a coherent and strategic approach to the development of school leadership across Australia and an equitable, standards-based professional learning experience for school leaders at all levels. Establishing these priorities is the first important step in finding and developing future leaders.

Ongoing review will ensure they retain relevance and currency as circumstances change. The world that young Australians are being prepared for is advancing at an ever-increasing rate, so leadership in schools needs to keep pace. Strategic priorities should be communicated to all members of the jurisdiction, network or school to elevate the importance of leadership development, increase its profile and ensure that leaders are prepared for the future. An effective leadership development strategy focuses on increasing the quantity, quality and diversity of future leaders for all school leadership roles and in all geographical locations, from rural and remote to metropolitan.

Diversity in leadership teams correlates with improved performance and contributes to increased innovation and more creative approaches to problem-solving. Embedding strategies to find future leaders in under- represented groups — including women, people with a disability and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples — within systemic identification processes will achieve greater equality and improve diversity.

These strategies should support individuals to retain their cultural identity and value the contribution it makes to leadership. Successful implementation of a leadership strategy depends on culture. Culture describes the way that people behave and significantly influences who will step up and lead, whether in an informal or formal capacity. Deliberately developing a culture that encourages every individual to consider themselves as a leader and participate in leadership activities is critical.

Early development of a leadership identity increases the likelihood of an individual taking up a leadership position in the future. Supportive and regular opportunities to engage in leadership should be provided in a safe-to-fail environment, so more teachers form a view that they can and, more importantly, want to lead.

Viewing talent from a broad perspective and creating a diverse and extensive pool of people interested in all levels of school leadership is integral to growing leadership capacity across a jurisdiction or school. This approach reflects contemporary practice and recognises that leadership attributes are not fixed, but can be developed over time with targeted professional learning experiences and the proper support.

This strengthens leadership and ensures all those with aspirations to lead in the future are supported to set targeted development goals and develop from early in their careers. The Principal Standard and the Teacher Standards at the Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher stages detail what effective school leaders should know, understand and do at a range of career stages. Both recognise the breadth and complexity of school leadership, and are important resources when considering the leadership capabilities required at different career stages and across different contexts.

Although leadership is multi-faceted and includes a strong focus on management, there are other capabilities that are also particularly important. Leading teaching and learning effectively is crucial to the future success of any school leader. Potential leaders should be provided with support to develop the pedagogical expertise this requires, as well as the skills needed to lift the performance of colleagues, from early in their career.

High-performing leaders consistently demonstrate sophisticated personal and interpersonal qualities, including:. They apply these qualities and skills to understand and respond to culture and community, develop strong relationships, inspire and challenge others, and manage difficult situations and conversations. The development of future leaders should emphasise the growth of these skills over time and from early in their careers.

High-quality professional learning matched to capability and school and community context is important for developing the behaviour of future school leaders.

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By providing opportunities to lead, professional learning and time to act on feedback can be provided in context. Learning should take place in a culture where individuals are expected to be reflective and active learners, and where there are performance and development processes that provide them with frequent, constructive feedback and support to improve their leadership. The Charter and the Framework describe the culture and processes for effective collaboration and professional growth.

These should be implemented in all Australian schools. Effective leadership development is a career-long process that involves a range of professional learning activities. Extended experiences that involve learning within the context of work allow individuals to practise and refine their skills in real situations and receive ongoing feedback. These experiences contribute most effectively to sustained behaviour change and should be factored into the ongoing development of future leaders. Other experiences that focus primarily on acquiring new knowledge must be balanced with opportunities to translate that knowledge into practice.

When diverse and extensive professional learning experiences are complemented with access to relevant and timely advice and support from colleagues, mentors and coaches, growth is accelerated.

Improving professional practice

Networks foster social capital across the jurisdiction or school, and provide structures for individuals to seek help from others. Establishing networks should be deliberate and a core element of professional learning. The pathways to leadership are varied and principals play an important role in supporting teachers on their journey.

This role is outlined in the Principal Standard, which sets the expectation that principals will support all staff to build their leadership capacity. This begins with principals understanding their position as a role model for emerging leaders and aspiring principals. The role of principal brings enormous reward and satisfaction, and it is important colleagues have the opportunity to see the role in the best light possible. When principals, along with their leadership team, understand and value their role in leadership development, they are key enablers to finding and developing future leaders.

They should be supported to prioritise the development of leadership within and beyond their schools, and build the capacity to carry out this important work.

Cambridge school leader and teacher standards

To make sure this happens, current principals and school leaders should be provided with targeted professional learning experiences to build knowledge and skills in leadership development strategies, and the expectation for leadership development should be built into their performance and development goals. Effective jurisdictions and schools make the most of their workforce and give successful leaders scope to use their expertise to lead professional and organisational development.

Explicit,formalised roles for expert current and retired principals, as well as other school leaders, should be established to support a shared responsibility for the development of future leaders. Examples of these are: Principals who engage and develop potential leaders are more effective in attracting and retaining individuals to leadership positions.

This involves using leadership knowledge and expertise to structure professional conversations with future leaders.

Leading for impact

The positive effects of targeted, purposeful and systematic coaching on career development are well recognised, with those who receive coaching more likely to set goals for their development, seek ideas for improvement, act on feedback from colleagues and supervisors, and improve their performance.

Coaching is a skill and comprehensive training should be provided to help principals develop the capacity to do it effectively. It is important that leadership development activities are evaluated for impact and that findings are used to inform future strategic directions. Successful jurisdictions and schools are increasingly using data and metrics to track and report on leadership development achievements, and to inform decision-making on future actions and investments. By collectively identifying and articulating the objectives of leadership development strategies before implementation, jurisdictions and schools can identify appropriate metrics and measurement methods, track progress over time, and assess success.

Building on success and addressing areas for development as a key focus for ongoing review and implementation will improve provision of leadership development. By providing regular and diverse opportunities to engage in leadership, those individuals with a particular aptitude and interest in principalship will emerge. It is important that these emerging leaders are identified and provided with clear career pathways, strong preparatory experiences, and ongoing support.


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Clear career pathways through middle and senior leadership positions help retain emerging leaders in the profession and motivate them to pursue future leadership opportunities. When formal leadership roles are fully integrated with and underpinned by broader professional learning and performance and development processes, emerging leaders have the necessary structures to reflect on their progress along the career pathway.

Informal leadership roles also provide platforms for developing aspiring principals. When a range of formal and informal methods and data are used to identify potential principals, it offers a more comprehensive picture of their leadership potential. A key resource in this process should be the expertise of serving principals, and jurisdictions and employers should support them to understand their critical role in the principal preparation process and develop the necessary knowledge and skills to recognise potential. Implementing purposeful strategies and using multiple, objective methods helps to find eligible candidates who may not have identified themselves as a potential principal and increases equality and diversity within the aspirant pool.

Educational research continues to shape new thinking for what works best for learners, technological advances are shaping educational directions, and the cultural diversity of school communities is increasing. As a result, the role of school principal in Australia is complex and evolving. By developing a disposition for learning, a broad range of skills, and the confidence and aptitude to apply them with impact, aspiring and new principals will be better prepared to keep pace with trends and new research, and respond effectively to culturally diverse communities.

This helps to develop principals who are agile, informed and successful in the role. The aim of principal preparation must be to ensure a supply of suitably qualified and skilled applicants to meet demand. Preparation should be comprehensive, aligned to the expectations set out in the Principal Standard, and ensure quality professional learning experiences are available to all those ready to undertake them so that aspiring principals are ready to step into principalship and begin their ongoing development in the role.

Summary of key messages

Formal leadership preparation programs provide a discrete, time-bound experience that can be factored into a full-time workload, and an opportunity for participants to step out of their role and reflect on their next step along the professional pathway. They should accommodate the existing knowledge and skills of participants, using this as the starting point for learning. Principal preparation programs should allow participants to apply theory in the context of their work and demonstrate transfer of learning into current or future contexts.

Evaluating your Principal Preparation Programs: A Practical Guide sets out an evidence-based approach to assessing the impact of such initiatives. The guide supports the evaluation of impact of principal preparation programs and can assist with the continual improvement of provision. Programs are just one approach to principal preparation. Internships, shadowing and acting principal roles, where substantial support is provided, also offer valuable principal preparation experiences that provide the opportunity for highly relevant, job-embedded professional learning.

Formal and explicit processes to assess readiness for the principal role that are based on demonstrated leadership, rather than age, length of time in the profession or progression through formal leadership positions, support the professional development of aspiring principals.


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These processes might include the achievement of a qualification, credential or certification. Recruitment and selection to principalship needs to attract a diverse range of applicants who meet the expectations set out in the Principal Standard and the needs of a school. Innovative approaches to recruitment that go beyond the traditional written application and interview provide a more comprehensive assessment of leadership capacity. Approaches should include processes to target applicants from under-represented groups to achieve the broadest possible pool of suitable potential candidates.

Ensuring members of the recruitment and selection panel are equipped with the necessary knowledge and understanding to evaluate each applicant objectively and contribute to an informed selection is equally important. This requires training for panel members in key areas, including the expectations set out in the Principal Standard and awareness of unconscious bias.

The recruitment and selection panel needs high-quality information about each candidate, which is gathered through well-designed and targeted recruitment activities.