Executive Summary

Building on the demonstrated will to strengthen school leadership in Arizona, the proposed work focuses on creating a comprehensive, statewide infrastructure for education leadership development. This infrastructure will encompass the continuum from recruitment and preparation through continuous improvement and expert practice. Led by a broadly representative group called AZ LEADS³, it will knit together existing piecemeal efforts—offered by entities ranging from state or local agencies to universities, school districts, business groups, education organizations, and specialized networks—into a coherent, well-articulated system that becomes much more than the sum of its parts. This system will be owned by its multi-level participants who take shared responsibility for its success.

The work proposed here will provide the linchpin that enables the state to jump-start its efforts to create a statewide leadership system—one that aligns and enhances existing state and local programs and, critically, institutionalizes a leadership development structure that will long outlast its present-day founders.

Under girding this system-building effort are three "breakthrough ideas." The first is the commitment to institutionalize, not simply address, leadership development. This implies corralling all players around a long-term vision—an effort that sidelines politics in favor of shared responsibility for building leadership capacity and creating supportive conditions for leaders that lead to solid results for students.

The second is implementing incentives for accomplished leaders (Circle of Honor). People in any field gain inspiration and lessons by studying its masters. A system of incentives that identifies and publicly recognizes highly accomplished education leaders not only validates and motivates the recipients but also provides models of effective practice for others. Too often, aspirants are put off by a perception of administrative jobs as thankless drudgery. Unseen are the shining success stories. The talented should be highlighted and their expertise systematically shared. Conversely, conditions that work against successful education leadership should be systematically changed.

Finally and fundamentally, the system must link leadership to student learning. That means that individual leaders as well as leadership teams need to build specific kinds of knowledge and skills needed to focus professional efforts in their particular schools or districts. They also need to adopt—and be able to foster—attitudes that inspire a professional culture focused on success for every student. Building that kind of leadership requires organizing and implementing a connected system of preparation, professional development, coaching, and online support.

Applied to Arizona, each of these breakthrough ideas creates a previously missing lever for action at every level. Each provides a piece of system infrastructure centered on a common understanding of what quality preK-12 leadership means—improving teaching and student learning. Combined, they will allow a leap forward on the state’s agenda for change.

Strategies for institutionalizing a long-term commitment to leadership development, for example, include—at the state level—adopting leadership standards and incorporating them into teacher and administrator preparation and professional development programs. At the district level, this would mean incorporating those standards into policies and practices, e.g., into differentiated staff development and into coaching for principals. At the school level, it entails developing descriptions and evidence of quality practices tailored to student needs. In the classroom, it means that teachers get the support they need to analyze student data and adjust their instructional strategies accordingly to ensure student success.

Strategies for creating a system of incentives for accomplished leaders include, at the state level, establishing a consensus on what constitutes quality leadership and identifying outstanding leaders and high-leverage incentives. Districts and schools, in turn, work to improve leadership practice through use of exemplars. Similarly, models of effective teaching that are learned from the principal, school peers or online resources inform classroom practice.

A major strategy for linking leadership to student learning is to create a comprehensive system of professional development. The AZ LEADS partners will build this system in the course of providing training and support to the schools and districts in the project. The state-level AZ LEADS partners will, for example, organize professional development activities around leadership standards and student goals. Districts will create professional development plans for administrators and teachers. Schools will make professional development activities part of day-to-day work, so that classroom practice is itself continually analyzed and school teams learn together how to teach more effectively.

The strategies in the Arizona proposal provide immediate action to improve leadership, teaching, and student achievement. As important, the long-term structures, relationship and systems enable the conditions for leaders to improve. This establishes continuity and the sustained support required to develop quality leaders who guide Arizona’s schools to success.