District/School Administration Administration
The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education

Proposed Standards for Education Leaders

At our meetings in October 2008 and May 2009, I provided the Board with an update on the process of drafting new standards for principals, superintendents, and other leadership roles. (The memos dated May 13, 2009 and October 21, 2008 are attached, or may be viewed at: http://www.doe.mass.edu/boe/docs/0509/item3b.html and http://www.doe.mass.edu/boe/docs/1008/item6.html.)

The Department has continued to refine the four overarching standards for education leaders that were presented in the October 2008 and May 2009 memos. At our June 23rd meeting I will seek the Board's approval of the proposed Policy Standards for Principals, Superintendents, and Other Leadership Roles. With the Board's endorsement, we will move forward on a new performance-based approach to administrator preparation and licensure that focuses on the key knowledge, skills, and dispositions that educational leaders need to ensure learning-focused schools.

These policy standards are drawn from the key domains of knowledge, skills, and dispositions that research has determined are essential for effective education leaders at all stages of the career continuum. They will serve as the foundation for the development of role-and-stage specific performance indicators that will be used to inform preparation through the program review process and practice via the development of new performance-based assessments at the initial and professional stages of licensure. This new approach is consistent with the approach adopted in the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium Standards (ISLLC: 2008) and currently being pursued in 38 states .

The four broad leadership policy standards (first presented to the Board in October 2008) are:

1. Learning and Instruction: The education leader promotes the success of all students and staff by cultivating a shared vision that makes powerful teaching and learning the central focus of schooling.

2. Management and Operations: The education leader promotes the success of all students and staff by ensuring management of the organization, operations, and resources for a safe, efficient, and effective learning environment.

3. Family and Community Partnerships: The education leader promotes the success of all students and staff through partnerships with families, community members, and other external stakeholders that support the mission of the school and district.

4. Ethical and Reflective Leadership: The education leader promotes the success of all students and staff by providing ethical, culturally proficient, skilled, and reflective leadership.

I recommend that the Board approve these four policy standards this month. The Department would then use the standards as the basis for the development of:

• amendments to the regulations on educator licensure and preparation program approval (603 CMR 7.00)
• role- and stage-specific performance indicators that would be used to approve leadership preparation programs and to license novice and experienced educational leaders
• performance assessments for novice and experienced leaders, based on the performance indicators, and
• guidelines to be used to strengthen the preparation, recruitment, evaluation, and ongoing professional development of education leaders and their selection as mentors, coaches, and turnaround leaders.

Background and Rationale

With the Board's approval, these policy standards will provide the foundation for preparing the Commonwealth's next generation of education leaders. Developing performance indicators and assessments (the next phase of this work) is a complex undertaking that will require broad-based involvement by stakeholders and experts at both the state and national level. In this regard, the performance indicators will be designed as living documents that will be amenable to further elaboration as the knowledge base on effective leadership evolves and experience and feedback from the field indicate which performance indicators represent the most powerful levers for improving educational outcomes.

As the Board knows, we have received considerable support from the Wallace Foundation for this work and the creation of a new Cohesive Leadership System in Massachusetts. Key elements have already been piloted with our partner districts of Springfield and Boston, and via work with the Massachusetts Leadership Alliance, which includes representatives from the Commonwealth's superintendent, principal and school committee organizations. I am pleased to report that the Wallace Foundation has approved the next payment of its $6 million grant that will focus on scale and sustainability work with our partners, and provide resources for the development of the additional performance indicators discussed above. The Board's endorsement will enable this work to go forward.

Associate Commissioner David Haselkorn will join us at the June 23rd meeting to present the proposed leadership standards and respond to your questions.

To aid the Board in its consideration of these issues, I have attached the following supplementary documents:

	Attachment A: Background--A New Framework for Leadership
	Attachment B: Draft Policy Standard Descriptions
	Attachment C: Questions and Answers
	Attachment D: Implementation Timeline
	Attachment E: May 2009 and October 2008 Board Memos on Education Leadership
	Attachment F: Motion