Bridging the Gap Between Preparation and Practice
By Raven Padgett

NAESP released two major publications Friday during a lively panel discussion between principals and professors about the most effective ways to close the gap between preparation and practice. Watch the Panel Discussion on SchoolTube.

The two publications, Vision 2021: Transformations in Leadership, Learning and Community and the second edition of Leading Learning Communities: Standards for What Principals Should Know and Be Able Do, outline implications for the principalship, define standards for school leadership, and examine the role of K-8 principals in preparing children for the future.

Panelist Jim Grant founder and executive director, Staff Development for Educators; Mary Kay Sommers, NAESP president; Myron Oglesby-Pitts, assistant professor of education, Belmont University; Kris Kurtenbach, Founding Partner, Collaborative Communications Group and Ellen Goldring, professor of education policy and leadership, Vanderbilt University discuss closing the gap between preparation and practice.

NAESP's executive director, Gail Connelly, opened the session and discussed how the two new publications will help shape the preparation and practice of school leadership.

"School leadership has never been more important to supporting the development of the whole child and to improving the performance not just of students but adults," said Connelly. "The standards and strategies in these publications were developed by principals for principals and set a framework for the future as well as practical guidance for today's school leaders and those who are preparing tomorrow's school leaders. Vision 2021 frames a preferred future for schools and school leadership, and the second edition of Leading Learning Communities is a how-to guide to help principals lead learning in that future framework."

Connelly was joined by Gary Martin, executive director of the National Council of Professors of Education Administration, and the panelists were Mary Kay Sommers, NAESP president; Jim Grant, founder and executive director, Staff Development for Educators; Myron Oglesby-Pitts, assistant professor of education, Belmont University; and Ellen Goldring, professor of education policy and leadership, Vanderbilt University.

Copies of both publications will be available to attendees at the opening General Session. All NAESP members will receive a copy of Leading Learning Communities, 2nd edition, in fall 2008 as a special membership benefit.

PALing Around at Convention
By Vanessa St. Gerard

Earlier this week, 12 current and retired principals participated in the PALS Mentor Leadership Immersion Institute that took place in Nashville, Tennessee, during NAESP's convention. The PALS (Peer Assisted Leadership Services) program trains mentors to play a vital role in the future of new principals, their leadership, and their schools by certifying them to become a National Principal Mentor.

The 12 participants represented nine states and three countries, including Canada and Australia. Irene Blackburn, a recently retired principal from Tennessee, said she chose to participate in the PALS program to continue making an impact on the principalship. "Since I just retired ... I feel like I still want to contribute in education and support other principals," she said. "I want to offer support to principals since it's such an important job."

"I see the principalship as kind of a dying breed and [principals] need ... this support to be successful," added Colorado principal Denny Ingram, who has led schools for the past 17 years.

The first day of the training began with a review of NAESP's standards publication, Leading Learning Communities: Standards for What Principals Should Know and Be Able To Do. Participants then discussed the NAESP publication Changing Lives Through the Principalship: A Reflective Guide for School Aspirations.

During the second day, the participants learned how to discover and build on their strengths, and how to provide effective feedback to counsel their protégés. "Counseling skills are an important skill to refine," said Blackburn, who retired after 10 years in the principalship. Participants learned the acronym FACT, which stands for Facilitator, Advisor, Coach, Teachers. "All of those encompass what we do as mentors," Blackburn said.

Principals discuss the value of mentoring.

The entire training process involves much reflection both individually and with the other participants. Day three involved learning how to reflectively listen so that the mentors are able to help their protégés with the issues that arise. Reflective questioning was also reviewed.

The three days of training culminated with each participant receiving a certificate of completion. Participants viewed this training as a true asset to the principalship. "The acquisition and retention of principals will be solidified," Blackburn said.

"If more principals can see the job as doable, then they're going to have more success," added Ingram. "The last three days has been the learning. Now the work begins."

For more insight on the NAESP PALS training program, visit NAESP's blog, the Principals' Office, which chronicled the experience of three principals who participated in PALS training in February. Simply click on the "Mentoring" category.

For more information about PALS, visit www.napes.org/pals.

Redefining the Principalship: Leadership for the Next Generation
By Robert Heath

Presenter Nancy Richmond reads to her audience.

Picture your school's vision; believe in it; paint a picture of it for your faculty; and do it passionately. This is one building block toward redefining the principalship discovered by attendees at a Pre-Convention Workshop presented Friday by veteran educators and authors, Michael Chirichello and Nancy Richmond.

School leaders can no longer be managers. They must be leaders with vision and passion. They must be leaders who inspire others to live and promote the school's vision through collective leadership and the development of trusting, nurturing relationships.

School leaders who are prepared to lead the next generation of students and teachers must find their "voice," create a vision, build trusting relationships, be a competent leader, and nurture potential. Workshop participants began work on personal Professional Leadership Plans through reflection activities and collaborative discussions.

Getting to know your self as a leader and as a person was described as the first step toward becoming a reflective leader. Attendees heard stories about frogs and butterflies, bugs, dreamers, and an emperor who had new clothes to illustrate the power of listening and reflection toward authentic, competent leadership.

Chirichello and Richmond asked attendees to reflect on such questions as

• What evidence do you have that you lead by example?
• Are you authentic?
• Can others watch what you do and listen to what you say and know what you value and believe?

Attendees were encouraged to engage in regularly planned reflective activities throughout their principalships to assess their own capacities and growth, and to use this information in their own continuous leadership skills improvement.

Attendees learned that to develop consistency, congruity, and integrity—qualities found in authentic leaders—they must believe, think, speak, and do. Leaders must always be aware that, "What we do speaks much more clearly, more loudly than what we say…never forget that you are being watched."

Creating Resonance with Style
By Vanessa St. Gerard

The goal for any effective leader is to create resonance in your school building, said former principal Betty Hollas, who led Saturday morning's session, Uncommon Leadership. To accomplish this, Hollas said, principals must use a collection of six different leadership styles—with the right measure at just the right time.

When a leader drives emotions of others positively, the best in everyone is brought out. The effect, Hollas explained, is called resonance. Resonant leaders excel by connecting with others. "You are the E.G.O. in your building," Hollas said, "An Emotional Guide for Others. ... When resonance is going around, you're driving emotions in a positive way, and that's what we want."

Hollas made a point that emotions are contagious, so if a leader or teacher has a negative attitude, it is likely that that negativity will filter throughout the school building, creating a negative climate. "We catch emotions like we catch a cold," Hollas said.

The six leadership styles that Hollas outlined are:

1. Visionary: Inspires by articulating a heartfelt, shared goal; routinely gives performance feedback and suggestions for improvement in terms of that goal.
2. Coaching: Develops people by talking to them to learn their aspirations; routinely gives feedback in those terms and stretches assignments to move toward those goals.
3. Democratic: Develops consensus through participation.
4. Affiliative: Realizes that having fun together is not a waste of time, but builds emotional capital and harmony.
5. Pacesetting: Leads by hard-driving example and expects others to meet the same pace and high performance standards.
6. Commanding: Gives orders and demands immediate compliance; tends to be coercive.

Hollas stressed that leaders should use the last two styles with caution because if used too much or in the long term, they are not effective. Both styles often have a negative impact on climate because they are often poorly executed or misused. It is appropriate to use the pacesetting style to get high-quality results from a competent and motivated group, according to Hollas. As for the commanding style, it is appropriate to use in situations of crisis, to kick-start a change, or with difficult people.

The leadership style with the greatest effect on climate is the visionary style, Hollas explained. However, regardless of the combination of styles you use, you must use them more deliberately in order to be most effective, Hollas said.

The way in which each of the leadership styles corresponds with resonance is as follows:

• Visionary style creates resonance by moving others toward shared dreams;
• Coaching style creates resonance by connecting others to the organization's goals;
• Democratic style creates resonance by valuing the input of others;
• Affiliative style builds resonance by connecting people to one another;
• Pacesetting style builds resonance by meeting challenging and exciting goals; and
• Commanding style creates resonance by soothing fears in an emergency through clear directions given to others.

In closing, Hollas said, "You want to be the person who says we can work together; we can do this."

Podcasts: Is Your School Missing Out?
By Catherine Prentis

The NAESP Technology Center was alive with possibilities Saturday morning as Steve Decker challenged us to become "inspired to try something new or to simply use the technology that you already have."

Why should educators use podcasting? That's simple to this principal. "Because the kids are using this stuff and if they know more than we do, then why would they listen to us?" He references the popularity of YouTube as a reason attendees could understand.

His other reasons to use podcasting:

• Reach a broader audience.
• Get your message out using new technology in order to look current.
• Make you message come alive.
• "Reviewability" for the receiver and the sender.
• Focus your message through editing or for a targeted audience.
• Mass distribution.
• Ability to publish to any Web site.
• Add a personal touch to communication.

Decker also presented some interesting ideas for podcasts, including a virtual school for students who may have to be out for illness or as a way to get your vision out to all stakeholders.

According to Decker, all you need to start a podcast is a computer with a microphone, software, and maybe a mixer for more control. Software includes Garage Band (built into a Mac) or for a PC try Audacity or ipodcast, among many others.

He challenged the audience to let go of fears and learn more about this cutting-edge communication tool that is simple and very portable. He promised the audience they could podcast anywhere. The point is to find out what you and your school might be missing and get current.

To find out more about speaker Steve Decker, visit www.stevedecker.org.

RTI 101
By David M. Hanson

I must admit that I came into Evelyn Johnson's Author Presentation with a very low knowledge base of response to intervention (RTI). Some schools in my state of North Dakota are using this model and it is a growing area of emphasis from our State Department of Public Instruction. I understood the premise of the model but did not have a lot of specific understanding. However, I left this session with a much better understating of how RTI is implemented.

Johnson's PowerPoint presentation highlighted what she found out about RTI when writing her book, RTI: A Practitioner's Guide to Implementing Response to Intervention.

In preparing to write the book, Johnson and her coauthor began looking for model projects. Their goal was to identify best practices of schools using the RTI model. The purpose was of course to identify successful school-based models of RTI. The RTI how-to manual can be found on the National Research Center for Learning Disabilities' Web site, www.nrcld.org. These best practices were a part of the basis for the book.

The discussion of the fidelity of RTI implementation was one of many important topics covered. According to Johnson, research suggests that positive student outcomes can be attributed to one out of three related factors:

1. Fidelity of implementation of the process.
2. Degree to which interventions are empirically supported.
3. Fidelity of implementation of the intervention

Another interesting discussion took place on the idea of using RTI as a method for determining specified learning disability (SLD). Johnson stated that she did not think that the RTI model was ready to serve in that capacity, but that it could some day.

I asked Johnson what would be one of the most important things she would like to emphasize from her presentation. One of the areas that she asked me to share were the resources that can be found on the National Center on Response to Intervention's Web site, www.rti4success.org and the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities' Web site, www.nrcld.org. Both sites offer a lot of information on the RTI model.

Anyone interested in Johnson's PowerPoint presentation from today can contact her at EvelynJohnson@boisestate.edu.

Principals can purchase the book at the National Principals Resource Ceneter Bookstore at the convention or online at http://web.naesp.org/nprc/findII.php?II=RTIPG-OL.