LM April 2024

about the first five years of a principal, the first thing that you need to focus on is relationships and really building that culture. They really can’t focus on the systems domain or the learning domain because they don’t have relationships. They haven’t established trust with the stakeholders. We really spent a lot of time on culture. We also had a meeting where we discussed the cycle of inquiry and how we were going to set that up for the year. We had a couple meetings in the fall where we were sitting around just talking about the evaluation instrument. They would really process with each other collectively and, again, I think it came from a position of support more than anything punitive. I’d also say this tool is robust and comprehensive, but we can all take it slow. Let’s do the parts that we really feel like we need right now. As part of a pilot, that’s the beautiful thing. You just do what you need at that time and what your people need. Q: What are the first steps superintendents should take if they want to adopt the School Leader Evaluation Plan? JL: There are a couple of things to keep in mind. First and foremost, there is a one-day academy that we have been offering in collaboration with IASA about the plan—3967 is the number. We plan on continuing to offer that academy this next year. If people are interested in getting up to speed on the plan, or interested in introducing it to their building leaders, that is a good option. The other thing to keep in mind here is the Performance Evaluation Advisory Council made the decision to basically bless the School Leader Evaluation Plan as the default model for the state. With that happening, it required us to look at the training that school leaders need to evaluate principals moving forward as well as assistant principals. So, districts do not have to adopt the plan. Let me make that very clear. If you’re very satisfied with what you’re doing, or looking at something else that meets the statutory requirements of being standards and research base, that is perfectly acceptable. With that being said, the evaluator train ing for principal and assistant principal evaluation in the state of Illinois will be based on the School Leader Evaluation Plan. There is now a new two-day training—the academy number for that is 4050. Starting July 1, anybody that needs either Initial Principal Evaluator training or Retraining is going to be required to take this two-day 4050 training. It is in person for the foreseeable future. Anybody that’s needing either the Initial or the Retraining can do that. You don’t have to speed up the timeline or do it immediately in order to use the plan. You can really adopt

the plan at any time free and clear of the training, if you so choose. That can just happen as part of your normal certification cycle. If you need it now before you’re through, or if you want to do it as soon as you’re in your new certification cycle, you can do that. If you have any questions or are curious about how that directly impacts you, the IPA, IASA and regional superintendents can help you with sorting through those specific certification issues. A couple other quick things that I’ll reference here. One is the fact that here at IPA we have been working hard, not just to make an evaluation plan available, but also a significant number of resources and supports that are available for district leaders to be able to support leadership development. The other thing when it comes to implementation of the plan is it’s robust and that’s probably a polite way of saying it. In fact, it can be a little bit overwhelming at first. However, you don’t have to take it all as it is. You can take the parts and pieces that are most important to you and look to adopt that slowly. The other thing to keep in mind here is, after you’re through that first cycle in that first year, this thing has a bit of perpetual momentum that works for itself. As people have their cycle of inquiry built, and they’re in that process the second year, it flows very nicely from the first year. If done successfully, this plan can not only help with the development and growth of the school leader, but also the growth and development of the learning organization that the leader leads. Q: Dr. Dugan, any final thoughts? KD: I’m thinking about impact. The impact we have seen over the last three years, especially the last two years, people are jumping on board and saying yes, this is what I’ve been looking for. We’ve heard from school leaders this plan is so much clearer about my school improvement plan and goals in in how to actualize them. I would close with that that we are seeing some impressive things when it comes to impact. JL: I want to give a special shout out to Dr. Sue Holmes, our Deputy Executive Director for Professional Learning. I also want to mention Dr. Linda Marrs-Morford, who was one of the primary offer authors of the tool. We wouldn’t be where we are today without her.

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LM April 2024