Expectations for Principal Residency
Please review the expectations for NELA Fellows, Executive Coaches, and Principal Mentors during the Principal Residency for 2015-2016.
The NELA Principal Residency is grounded by the following beliefs about effective leaders.
An effective principal:
• leads by exemplifying the values and behavior they want others to adopt;
• helps make possible what they require others to do;
• establishes agreement on the school’s purpose and goals and then create
processes that help employees learn what they need to meet these goals.
They select, reward, and retain teachers/staff who are willing to work to
achieve school goals;
• is a leader of learning in the school (there is a laser-like focus on academic
achievement and all decisions and resources are aligned to the goal of
improving student outcomes);
• develops the staff and cultivates a culture of continuous, reflective professional
learning (by both individuals and groups/PLCs). Professional learning is
transparent and a collective good so that individuals expect colleagues to look
critically at their practices and groups expect constructive criticism from their
leader;
• cultivates shared leadership so that authority and accountability are linked;
• is a systems-thinker and is able to frame problems and potential problems by
being a reflective practitioner;
• is able to identify leverage points within the system to push change efforts that
improve school outcomes;
• understands, reads, predicts, and prevents challenges to the school climate;
• understands that the purpose of leadership is to improve practice and
performance; and
• uses multiple forms of data to inform all decisions.
The NELA Principal Residency is grounded by the following beliefs about effective leaders.
An effective principal:
• leads by exemplifying the values and behavior they want others to adopt;
• helps make possible what they require others to do;
• establishes agreement on the school’s purpose and goals and then create
processes that help employees learn what they need to meet these goals.
They select, reward, and retain teachers/staff who are willing to work to
achieve school goals;
• is a leader of learning in the school (there is a laser-like focus on academic
achievement and all decisions and resources are aligned to the goal of
improving student outcomes);
• develops the staff and cultivates a culture of continuous, reflective professional
learning (by both individuals and groups/PLCs). Professional learning is
transparent and a collective good so that individuals expect colleagues to look
critically at their practices and groups expect constructive criticism from their
leader;
• cultivates shared leadership so that authority and accountability are linked;
• is a systems-thinker and is able to frame problems and potential problems by
being a reflective practitioner;
• is able to identify leverage points within the system to push change efforts that
improve school outcomes;
• understands, reads, predicts, and prevents challenges to the school climate;
• understands that the purpose of leadership is to improve practice and
performance; and
• uses multiple forms of data to inform all decisions.
