Maryland Principals' Academy
The Maryland Principals' Academy is a yearlong learning experience that includes a summer residential institute, two follow-up sessions during the year, and on-site visits to participants' schools. The Academy is based on the Maryland Instructional Leadership Framework and is focused on building the instructional leadership capacity of principals. Participants with one to five years of experience as a principal work together to examine and synthesize instructional leadership theories, research, practical tools, and strategies to help them lead their schools.
Academy Outcomes:
1) Build leadership capacity aligned with the Maryland Instructional
Leadership Framework that will accelerate student and adult
learning
2) Examine and synthesize principles and practices that facilitate a
cycle of continuous improvement for student and adult learning
3) Establish and maintain a network of colleagues who will engage in
ongoing dialogue about student achievement
For more Information on the Maryland Principals' Academy
Alumni Workshops
Members of the Division for Leadership Development develop and implement workshops for principals who have participated in the yearlong Maryland Principals' Academy from its initial year of 2001 until the present. Participation is voluntary. The content is based on the Maryland Instructional Leadership Framework and is aligned with the Academy content.
Maryland Principals' Academy Regional Chapters
The purpose of the Maryland Principals' Academy Regional Chapters is to establish professional learning communities based on the Academy goal of building leadership capacity for improved student achievement. These networks of former Principals' Academy participants meet twice a year to continue the learning that takes place in the yearlong Academy program. Participants design and implement these networking experiences to reflect their school-based and district-based learning needs and interests.
Academy Chapter Outcomes:
1) Provide a forum for Maryland Principals' Academy participants
to continue their work together as a professional learning community
2) Continue dialogues about continuous school improvement for
student and adult learning
There are twelve regional chapters representing all 24 jurisdictions.
The Chapters are as follows:
-
Allegany/Garrett Counties
-
Anne Arundel County
-
Baltimore City
-
Baltimore County
-
Calvert/Charles/St. Mary's Counties
-
Caroline/Kent/Queen Anne's/Talbot Counties
-
Carroll/Frederick/Washington Counties
-
Cecil/Harford Counties
-
Dorchester/Somerset/Wicomico/Worcester Counties
-
Howard County
-
Montgomery County
-
Prince George's County
Maryland Assistant Principals’ Institute
The Maryland Assistant Principals’ Institute is designed to increase the instructional leadership capacity of current Maryland assistant principals. The Institute is based on the Maryland Instructional Leadership Framework, and its focus is the improvement of instructional practices through the purposeful observation of instruction. Participants use strategies to determine student learning behaviors as they connect to teacher behaviors, and they practice giving meaningful feedback to teachers in order to improve effective instruction and increase student achievement.
Institute Outcomes:
1) Analyze classroom instruction with a focus on student learning behaviors.
2) Evaluate the effectiveness of instruction based on evidence of student learning.
3) Communicate the cause and effect relationship between teacher behaviors and student learning through specific oral and written feedback to teachers.
International Learning Communities
The Division for Leadership Development has established unique partnerships with a number of entities in an effort to create a variety of international learning communities dedicated to developing instructional leadership worldwide. The newest of these relationships is with the People's Republic of China as a result of a China-U.S. Education Leadership Conference in Beijing. Also the International Leadership Centre Network has accepted the Division as a member, thus enabling the Division to form ongoing relationships with organizations around the world. The Division's longest standing partnerships have been with the World Bank and the British Council. In the fall of 2003, Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) collaborated with Prince George's Community College and South African educators to enhance educational management and instructional expertise in South Africa. These relationships have resulted in substantive collaboration in global leadership development.
The Governor's P-20 Leadership Council of Maryland
The Governor's P-20 Leadership Council of Maryland brings the Maryland State Department of Education, the University System of Maryland, the Maryland Higher Education Commission, the Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation, and the Department of Business and Economic Development together to work on strengthening educational achievement from pre-school through college, and beyond. Also, the Partnership has created programs to encourage students to consider and to prepare for college, and it works at the PreK-12, college and governmental levels to improve teacher quality.
Go To Program
Leadership Learning Series
The Leadership Learning Series are professional development workshops designed to provide Maryland principals, assistant principals, and potential leaders with the skills, strategies, and content needed to be effective instructional leaders who build leadership capacity in their schools. The Leadership Learning Series is derived from the outcomes and evidences in practice found in the Division’s Maryland Instructional Leadership Framework. Leadership Learning Series: Data-Driven Decision Making. Leadership Learning Series: Building a Positive School Culture. Leadership Learning Series: Purposeful Observation of Instruction.
State Aided Educational Institutions Program (SAI)
As allowed under Senate Bill 794, the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) provides annual grants to non-profit organizations that provide enriching educational programs that cannot be replicated in the classroom for Maryland school students and teachers. Collectively these programs are known as the State Aided Educational Institutions Program (SAIs). The organizations provide engaging, hands-on, experiential learning opportunities that support the State’s education goals and priorities as described in Achievement Matters Most. Go to Programs.
Executive Officers' Network
The Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) defines executive officers as those who evaluate and supervise principals. In local systems, these staff members have a variety of titles, such as assistant and associate superintendents and directors. The Division for Leadership Development has established a statewide network of these system leaders so that they can come together to exchange and gain information on critical issues related to school leadership in Maryland. Issues such as leadership succession, the content of professional development, and evaluation criteria are catalysts for the ongoing discussions during network meetings.
PreK-12 Principals’ Advisory Council
The PreK-12 Principals’ Advisory Council meets three times a year for the purposes of (a) advising members of the Leadership Division and the Department on matters of policy, (b) exchanging information on leadership issues, and (c) discussing promising practices in regard to student achievement. One principal from each local jurisdiction serves on the Council, and each member is chosen by the system’s superintendent.
Leadership Development Coordinators' Network
The purpose of the Leadership Development Coordinators' Network is to promote collaboration and support succession initiatives statewide with the ultimate goal of building leadership capacity. The Network is comprised of individuals from each school system in Maryland who are directly responsible for the design and implementation of professional development for aspiring and potential school leaders. Quarterly meetings feature professional development for the network members; exchanges of information about programs for assistant principals, aspiring leaders and principals; and design work for leadership development modules. The content is rooted in the Maryland Instructional Leadership Framework. Maintaining ongoing dialogue about succession issues in every jurisdiction, regardless of demographics, is crucial to developing high quality leadership in the quantity needed to ensure improved achievement for all students in Maryland schools.
Principals Fellowship and Leadership Development Program
The Principals Fellowship and Leadership Development Program was one of the first programs in the country to provide fellowship awards to outstanding principals for the purpose of leading a low-performing school. The program was first piloted in Baltimore City schools; and, then, in 2005, HB995 was passed unanimously. This bill expanded the program to a statewide governance option for superintendents with schools in restructuring. The program won the 2003 Daily Record Innovator of the Year Award given for an innovation that positively affects communities, industries, and businesses.
Maryland Gear Up
The State of Maryland is currently in the second year of a Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) grant. The grant provides early intervention services for low-income students to prepare them to enter and succeed in postsecondary education. Currently, GEAR UP services are provided to approximately 2,300 students in 11 schools located throughout Maryland. Cohort students are in the eighth grade in the 2006-2007 school year.
Six local school systems receive GEAR UP funding as part of the current grant, GEAR UP II: Focus on Mathematics. They are: Allegany County (Westmar and Mt. Savage Middle Schools); Baltimore County (Dundalk and Holabird Middle Schools); Garrett County (Northern and Southern Middle Schools); Prince George's County (G. James Gholson and Walker Mill Middle Schools); Somerset County (Crisfield and Washington High Schools); and Wicomico County (Wicomico Middle School). Each local GEAR UP program designs its activities to meet the needs of its geographical areas and student populations, while focusing on three federal goals: increase student achievement in mathematics; increase the rate of high school graduation and participation in postsecondary education; and increase student and parent knowledge of postsecondary options and preparation.
Two community partnerships support the Maryland GEAR UP program. These include: the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education, a coalition of leading businesses that participate in an Achievement Counts speakers bureau in schools statewide; and the College Preparation Intervention Program, a project designed by the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) to utilize higher education faculty and campus facilities throughout the state to enhance GEAR UP students' achievement.
An initial Maryland GEAR UP grant, which began in 1999, concluded with the graduating class of 2006. In a joint agreement approved between Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) and Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC), $1,460,221 in GEAR UP Scholarship funding was awarded in 2006 to 400 GEAR UP students, with an average award amount of $1,500. Students in the initial grant received a variety of other awards. One, Jennifer George of Southern High School in Oakland (Garrett County), was selected as one of six national scholarship winners at the July, 2006 National GEAR UP Conference.