Date: Thursday, November 18
Time: 12:00-1:30 p.m. (PT) / 3:00-4:30 p.m. (ET)
Principal pipeline and supervisory research has been conducted in the context of large, urban school districts, and states/districts are now attempting to apply lessons learned from research at scale to the diverse contexts of schools.
The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) reviewed available principal supervisor research and sought better ways to support superintendents and others who supervise principals as part of their administrative responsibilities. ADE sought a new approach to supporting principal supervisors and turned to REL West for support in developing a principal supervisor professional development program.
This webinar will discuss strategies to create a system of support for principal supervisors based on research related to the evolving role of principal supervisors in supporting principals, as well as share a firsthand experience of how ADE implemented these strategies to create the Supervisors of Principals’ Academy.
Join REL West for a free, 90-minute webinar on strategies to create the most effective system of support for principal supervisors based on research about the evolving role of such supervisors in supporting principals.
What You Will Learn
The webinar will address the following:
- Research on principal supervisors and their impact on school leaders.
- Strategies that state education agencies can use to create a system of support for principal supervisors.
- Arizona Department of Education programming for principal supervisors.
Presenters
Matthew Clifford has spent years researching principal professional development and evaluation efforts at WestEd to improve principal quality, as a means to improving student achievement. He consults with school districts and states to design principal evaluation and support systems, and is a lifelong educator. Dr. Clifford previously worked as a teacher, curriculum director, and professional developer. He has consulted for several years with states participating in REL West’s Educator Effectiveness (EE) Alliance on their leadership development initiatives, and has been providing direct technical assistance to Arizona leaders throughout the 2020/21 school year on the new Arizona Supervisors of Principals’Academy (via EE 5.2.3 coaching).
Reino Makkonen has led REL West’s EE Alliance for almost 10 years. He has two decades of experience studying teacher workforce issues and school and district leadership across Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah. His work involves developing and validating interview, survey, and observation instruments and evaluating educator development programs at WestEd. His recent technical assistance efforts with state and district leaders have focused on developing theories of change for new educator support initiatives, designing implementation and formative evaluation plans to monitor early indicators, and expanding the use and application of research evidence.
Tammie Knights is a principal technical assistance consultant at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) with more than 20 years of education experience. In her current role at AIR, Ms. Knights provides high-quality, intensive capacity-building support to states and districts. Currently, Ms. Knights coaches principals and superintendents in Tennessee and Arizona using multiple tools, including the Leadership Instructional Feedback Tool that focuses on equity in leadership. Ms. Knights recently supported the District of Columbia’s Office of State Superintendent of Education in creating model school leadership standards in the district, as well as a principal hiring guidebook based on the standards.
Sarah Richardson teaches upper division business classes for Northern Arizona University in addition to working for ADE in her dream job as an Educator Recruitment and Retention Specialist in the state she loves so much. Ms. Richardson was born and raised in Arizona and is a proud product of our public schools. She attended Arizona State University, receiving a BS in Business Administration and a M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction. Before entering the education field, Sarah worked in human resources and finance but always knew her heart was in teaching. She has taught grades 7-12 in various roles since 2000 and has been an adjunct professor for 12 years. Sarah has worked in education advocacy at the state and local level, and has extensive public speaking experience- mostly speaking about public education issues and funding.