Context and Overview

School Leaders Challenged by Responsibilities and Realities

In one survey of New York administrators nearly 70% of administrators described their job responsibilities as “more than any one person can manage.”

Principals often spend their time reacting to urgent management needs or complying with numerous initiatives, demands and mandates.  Serving parental and community needs, the job responsibilities can extend well beyond the hours of a school day.

As a result, school leaders simply do not have enough time for the kind of systemic and strategic thinking that creates real change.   In addition, many have not been trained to think systemically to solve problems as a part of their everyday practice.

SLN networks convene after school to best maximize the time and the needs of the school leader. This provides the cognitive distance necessary for reflection and problem solving as well as the opportunity for collegial learning and influence.

SLN Builds Leadership Capacity

In SLN’s research-based program, principals experience focused professional community cultures that build the capacity to create like conditions back at school where faculty take collective responsibility for student achievement.

Delivered only by SLN-trained Facilitators, the model provides the structure, time, space, collaboration and skills for school leaders to systemically understand and solve problems of practice related to student achievement.

The program design further develops principals who can recognize key areas in need of improvement and can work strategically monitoring, supporting, and increasing teacher effectiveness. This laser-like focus leads to significant gains in student achievement.

SLN creates real and sustained change for under-served students by aligning action research theory and evidence-based research programatically for principals to:

• Mobilize their school’s professional community of teachers towards specific growth targets, effectively improving teacher practice, thereby increasing student learning.
• Drive cultures of improvement guided by strongly evaluated targeted goals and systems to support and positively impact teacher efficacy and student success.