Leadership Development

Why Was the AASA Leadership Development Department Established?
The AASA Leadership Development department was established to address the leadership needs of school leaders through partnerships with AASA state affiliates and established national and regional networks. In addition to the AASA staff, AASA's Focus on Leadership for Learning Committee provides guidance to the department. The department:

• Provides Professional Development Programs focused on a systems approach to the transformation of public education to meet the expectation of universal success for all children.
• Programs include Virtual Seminars, the Executive Consultant Program, the Research Roundtable Program and the Superintendents Knowledge Series.
• Redefining Educational Accountability: Lessons From the White House Garden by Tim Waters and Doug Reeves. This paper suggests that state and federal policymakers visit the White House garden to ponder the implications for a new definition of educational accountability.
• Learn more about The New Superintendents Journal and the New Superintendents E-Journal
• Connects networks of organizations and individuals that share the professional development beliefs and links them with each other and with AASA's work so that they find the mutual support needed in order to maintain and promote shared values and beliefs.
  Programs include the Network of Leadership Networks, the Network of State Urban Networks, the Eastern States Consortium for Learning and School System Excellence, the Western States Benchmarking Consortium and New Network Formation.
• Advocates within the education community for the systemic transformation of public education from a system designed for universal access to one designed for universal success for all children.
• Leads and encourages inquiries into various public education designs that might be appropriate as vehicles to transform public education.
  Programs include the State of the Superintendency Study, 2007 State of the Superintendency Mini-Survey: Aspiring to the Superintendency, Research Roundtables and Benchmarking.

LEAD District Learning Supports Collaborative
The American Association of School Administrators (AASA), Scholastic, and the UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools have formed a unique collaborative aimed at expanding leaders’ knowledge, capacity, and implementation of comprehensive systems of learning supports. This effort supports AASA’s flagship initiative, Educating the Total Child, which is aimed at advocating for an education approach designed to effect real change by addressing key factors that determine children’s academic achievement.

For more information please contact MaryAnn P. Jobe, Ed.D., director, leadership development at mjobe@aasa.org or 703-875-0734.