California Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (CPSEL) Updated Tri-Fold Version
Effective leadership is essential in setting direction, developing people, engaging communities, and creating conditions for successful teaching and learning. But what does that leadership look like?
The recently updated California Professional Standards for Education Leaders (CPSEL) identify what a school or district administrator must know and do in order to demonstrate and sustain effective leadership today.
The standards emphasize equity, access, opportunity, and empowerment for students, educators, and all members of the school community as they work together to ensure that all students graduate ready for college and/or a career. In doing so, the CPSEL serve as a foundation for administrator preparation, induction, professional learning, and evaluation.
The updated CPSEL maintain the same basic footprint of the original standards, emphasizing:
- Development and Implementation of a Shared Vision
- Instructional Leadership
- Management and Learning Environment
- Family and Community Engagement
- Ethics and Integrity
- External Context and Policy
Elements and indicator examples for each of the six standards are included to further define leadership.
This tri-fold version of the CPSEL is a quick-reference resource most helpful when used with the updated Moving Leadership Standards Into Everyday Work: Descriptions of Practice.
Note: CPSEL were adopted by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing in 2014.
Using the Professional Learning Network to Develop Leading Practices for Identification and Recruitment in California
WestEd’s Migrant Education Services team provides technical assistance and support to the California Department of Education (CDE) to cultivate the highest quality identification and recruitment (I&R) practices across the state for the Migrant Education Program.
The goal of the MEP is to ensure that all migratory children and youth reach challenging academic standards and graduate with a high school diploma (or complete a High School Equivalency Diploma) that prepares them for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment.
About the Brief
This is the fourth of six publications in the Professional Learning Network (PLN) profiles series. This profile share how staff members from the 20 subgrantees in California’s MEP attend two years of a professional learning network in which they make progress on areas of focus. Their focus areas are determined locally and based on their own identification and recruitment data.
Each subgrantee is involved in the PLN for two years. In the first year, they learn principles and tools to continue making progress in a problem of practice. In the second year, they either continue to work on the same problem of practice or establish a new one. The goal is that after two years, subgrantees will continue to improve their methods of identification and recruitment of as many eligible children in the MEP.
Further Reading
Read other profiles in the PLN series:
- Identifying Students Closer to Their Qualifying Move Date by Utilizing an Interactive Enrollee Form
- Layered Training to Harness the Power of the Subsequent Qualifying Move
- Maximizing Child Counts: A Collaborative Approach
- Using Data to Revise a Change in Practice
- Continuous Improvement Increases Child Counts and Reshapes the Meaning of Teamwork
Updated Multistate Review of Professional Teaching Standards
This technical brief, prepared by Regional Educational Laboratory West at WestEd, updates A Multistate Review of Professional Teaching Standards by incorporating California’s recently adopted teaching standards alongside those from Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas. This report presents the key findings of the review.
The original review was developed at the request of key education agencies in California to inform the state’s revision of its teaching standards. This review focuses on the structure and target audience of the six states’ teaching standards and on selected content.
A supplemental document for this report is available: Profile of California’s Teaching Standards (PDF).
Information about the regional educational laboratory (REL) system and other REL publications can be found at the National Regional Educational Laboratory Program website.
Finding the Words, Finding the Ways: Exploring Reflective Supervision and Facilitation
Finding the Words, Finding the Ways, developed by the California Center for Infant-Family and Early Childhood Mental Health at the WestEd Center for Prevention and Early Intervention, is designed for professionals responsible for the support, professional development, and oversight of those who work with infants, young children, and their families.
Professional groups and organizations have widely promoted and described the Reflective Supervision Model; however, capturing the essence of this proven practice on the written page has been difficult. This DVD is a response to a widely expressed need to see and hear effective reflective supervision in action.
The unscripted vignettes feature experienced supervisors and practitioners drawn from a variety of infant and early childhood programs. Through improvisation, the participants demonstrate typical supervisory processes, dynamics, and concerns.
Each vignette contains:
- A brief “back story”
- The supervisory session
- The supervisor’s reflection
- The supervisee’s reflection
- The supervisory dilemma
- Turning points in the supervision
- Supervisory skills and strategies
- Themes
An accompanying manual provides an overview of supervision strategies, plus ideas for using the DVD in training settings and as part of professional development activities.
Toolkit for a Workshop on Building a Culture of Data Use
This field-tested workshop toolkit guides facilitators through a set of structured activities to develop an understanding of how to foster a culture of data use in districts and schools.
WestEd researchers Nancy Gerzon and Sarah Guckenburg reviewed current research and identified five essential elements found in districts and schools with effective data-use practices:
- Participating in the flow of information for data use
- Communicating professional expectations for data use
- Providing resources and assistance to make meaning from data
- Providing professional development on data-use knowledge and skills
- Providing leadership to nurture a culture of data use
This guide enables a facilitator to present a conceptual framework aligned with these five elements. It also offers professional development materials to support district and school leaders in engaging their administrators, teacher leaders, and data team members to explore how to establish, maintain, and nurture a culture of data use.
Included are an agenda for a one-day professional development session (or a series of shorter sessions), guiding ideas to scaffold participant learning, and suggestions for participant activities. The handouts offer research reviews, vignettes, tools, and resources that highlight effective practices in each of the five framework elements.
Developing Principals' Instructional Leadership: Systems of Support in Two Math in Common Districts
The five-year Math in Common (MiC) initiative supports a formal network of 10 California school districts as they implement the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSS‑M) across grades K–8.
Many MiC districts are shifting the ways they provide teacher professional development, with teacher learning less frequently offered at central district locations and more frequently provided at the school site, so teachers can better connect their learning to their own daily classroom practice.
Effective site-based learning for math teachers requires strong site-level mathematics instructional leadership. Accordingly, districts must invest as deeply in principals’ learning around the mathematics standards as they do in teachers’ learning. In order to support meaningful change, principals need to prioritize mathematics at their sites and understand what changes teachers are being asked to make to align their instruction with CCSS-M.
This report explores the ways districts are moving to systematically support principals. The report:
- Presents two case studies describing the districts’ contexts and an overview of the principal professional development opportunities provided in each district, including principals’ reactions to these opportunities
- Highlights the common features of these districts’ principal professional learning programs that appear to matter most for building administrators’ instructional leadership capacity specifically in math
Download Other MiC Reports
- Under Construction: Benchmark Assessments and Common Core Math Implementation in Grades K–8
- Classroom Observations: Documenting Shifts in Instruction for Districtwide Improvement
- Taking Stock of Common Core Math Implementation: Supporting Teachers to Shift Instruction – Insights from the Math in Common 2015 Baseline Survey of Teachers and Administrators
- Many Pathways to Student Success in Mathematics: Middle and High School Math Course Sequences and Placement Decisions in the Math in Common Districts
- Bringing the Common Core State Standards to Life Through Site-Located Teacher Learning Structures
- Principals as Instructional Leaders: Harnessing Teacher and Administrator Perceptions from the 2016 Math in Common Annual Surveys
- Three Structures in the Garden Grove Unified School District That Support Implementation of the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics
- Instructional Materials: Who Makes the Choice? Findings from the Annual Survey on Implementing the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics
- Professional Learning Community Facilitators’ Guide to Discussion of “English Language Learners and the New Standards: Developing Language, Content Knowledge, and Analytical Practices in the Classroom”
Math in Common #13: Improving the Dynamics of Classroom Instruction in Response to the Common Core
Math in Common (MiC) is a five-year initiative that supports a network of 10 California school districts as they implement Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSS-M) across grades K–8.
In the results from a 2018 survey of MiC teachers and principals, the MiC team examined teachers’ changing beliefs about the standards and their sense of readiness to implement them. Research indicates that beliefs can serve as indicators for teachers’ instructional choices in the classroom.
MiC researchers looked closely at teachers’ beliefs about the following:
- CCSS-M–aligned instruction
- Administrators’ capacity to lead their sites in implementation
- Several professional development structures that aim to support changes to the dynamics of classroom instruction
Researchers also examined administrators’ feelings about their own preparation to lead CCSS-M implementation at their sites.
Key Takeaways
- Districts have moved toward professional learning supports for teachers and principals that are tied closely to shifts in classroom instruction and teachers’ everyday practices. Often these models are based in classrooms and school sites, instead of offered at the central office. Positive responses from teachers and administrators about their professional learning supports show that this is likely the right professional learning approach to continue.
- Teachers and principals are feeling comfortable and confident with what they’ve learned so far. This is a great indication that they are ready to go deeper and take on new challenges around CCSS-M instruction.
Building Strategic Policymaking Capacity: A CA Analysis for Learning & Engagement (CALE) Collection
A collection of resources developed by the CA Analysis for Learning & Engagement (CALE) project
This resource collection provides education leaders with an in-depth analysis of key policy issues related to teachers and teaching. Designed to inform California education leaders about new research findings on state policy topics, you’ll find perspectives related to professional learning, instructional materials, tools to inform decisions, and more.
Knowledge Briefs
What California Math Teachers Are Saying About Instruction and Professional Learning Today
What California Teachers Are Saying About Their Instructional Materials For English Learner Students
Strong Professional Learning Systems for Math Instruction in California: What Do We Know Today?
Improving California’s Teacher Data System to Better Inform Decisions
Expanding California Districts’ Curriculum-Focused Professional Learning
Videos: CALE Voices from the Field
CORE President Robert Sheffield on California’s new math framework – Part 1, 2, 3 (November 2021)
Looking Ahead with CDE’s Stephanie Gregson (May 2021)
The Tehama County Department of Education Story (December 2020)
The Placer County Office of Education Story (January 2021)
UCLA’s Dr. Kai Mathews on Using New Funds to Prioritize Educator Diversity in California – Part 1, 2, 3
View the full series of knowledge briefs and watch related videos at Building Strategic Policymaking Capacity: A CALE Collection
Budgeting for Educational Equity Podcast S2E5: A New Era of School Business in California: Innovative Thinking About Where We’re Headed—with CASBO CEO Tatia Davenport
Show Notes
In this episode, host Jason Willis sits with Tatia Davenport, Chief Executive Officer of the California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO), for a discussion about the size, scope, and future of school business in California.
Davenport shares learnings from the first comprehensive survey of California school business executives in nearly 25 years. Insights include where professional development is headed, the changing face and vital voice of Chief Business Officials (CBOs), and how school business leaders can work more to advance equity. She offers timely perspectives about some of the persistent challenges California faces in maintaining an effective and efficient public education system—one that delivers on the promise of high-quality education for all.
Key Links
About Our Guest
Tatia Davenport is the CEO of CASBO. Founded in 1928, CASBO is a nonprofit membership organization representing more than 25,000 professionals across 1,100 school districts and 58 counties statewide. With an estimated $108 billion annual budget, California school business officials represent a statewide public education system that serves millions of K–12 students and teachers in classrooms and communities.
Davenport has built a reputation as a respected leader in the field and has a proven track record of success in improving the financial, operational, and management systems of California schools. Previously, she served as CASBO’s Chief Operations Officer and held executive roles with Vision Service Plan (VSP) and E*TRADE Financial.
Supporting New Mexico Local Education Agencies in Strategically Using American Rescue Plan Funds
The New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) was faced with ensuring its local education agencies—comprising 89 school districts and 100 charter schools—had sufficient support to effectively use American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds to meet students’ most pressing needs. NMPED turned to the Region 13 Comprehensive Center in 2021 to help with this critical effort.
Download the impact story to learn more.
This impact story originally appeared on the Comprehensive Center Network website and is published here with permission from the Center.