The School Districts of Fayette County, McDowell County, and Raleigh County, located in rural West Virginia, are implementing a customized and innovative principal leadership development model that was designed to immediately address the target districts’ critical need for highly qualified administrators, have a positive impact on student outcome data, and will be sustainable.

 

The developmental model, entitled Building School Leadership Capacity in Rural WV, is the only school leadership training program in WV that includes training and assessment of the six model standards and assessments for school administrators developed by the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC). The program is specifically designed to develop school leadership capacity in rural high-need school districts at all grade levels. It is a Community of Practice model that includes significant problem-based learning (PBL) activities combined with on-site performance monitoring and feedback, self-reflection, inquiry, and the improvement of practice in a positive, supportive, collegial context. It makes use of technology as a training medium, thereby allowing greater access to participants in the targeted rural, high-need school districts. The model is highly replicable and has a very strong research base to support its effectiveness.

 

 

The goals are to improve the quality of school leaders in the high-need districts involved in the project, improve student academic growth, decrease the principal turnover rate, build a sustained infrastructure for principal development training in the targeted districts, and add to the body of knowledge pertaining to school leadership development theory and practice. 

 

Building School Leadership Capacity in Rural WV is a five-year US Department of Education funded project to specifically address the rapidly diminishing pool of qualified principal candidates in three high-need school districts in southern West Virginia (Raleigh, McDowell, and Fayette). The program fills the need for a coordinated and sustained school-leader training program that not only prepares candidates to be effective school leaders, but also provides on-going support and development for them as they progress through their career.

 

The Leadership Development Program model being implemented was designed by Edwards Educational Services, Inc. in Alexandria, VA. It has been successfully used in school districts around the country and parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia. The model uses a comprehensive Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach that is based on the following conceptual framework: (1) the expectations and demands placed on principals in underperforming schools require the placement of high qualified school leaders with exceptional skills beyond state certification; (2) quality recruitment, preparation, and retention programs based on evidence-based best practices are needed to select and train candidates who will make effective school leaders and will meet the increased expectations of principals at today’s most challenging schools; and (3) ongoing targeted professional development will improve the effectiveness of in-service school principals and will provide the support structures necessary to enable principals and assistant principals to meet their schools’ challenges head-on.