Alaska School Leader

July 1, 2023 Uncategorized

Science of Reading Leadership Course

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In partnership with NWEA®, the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development (DEED) is offering a joint learning, collaboration, and coaching opportunity that will empower Alaska education leaders to understand effective literacy instruction. The leadership course provides participants with fundamental knowledge in effective standards-aligned and research-based reading instruction and assessment practices for all learners to support their school and district plans in the Science of Reading, as required by the Alaska Reads Act.

Who’s eligible to apply?

Education leaders with responsibility for K–3 literacy instruction.

What’s included?

During eight highly engaging sessions, participants will learn about key elements in the Science of Reading that they should be driving their systems toward.
Each session will include facilitated conversations with other leaders to form a networked learning community.
Participants will engage in their learning through asynchronous learning and the live seminar series.
NWEA will lead optional coaching sessions that provide leaders with opportunities to have more personalized support.

When will this occur?

Applications are open.
Applicants should register for their preferred term (Fall, Winter, Spring).
- Closed – Fall (August 31, 2023 – December 14, 2023)
- Winter (October 26, 2023 – February 29, 2024)
- Spring (January 9, 2024 – April 25, 2024)
The schedule for virtual seminars can be Accessed Here.
Participants will be notified about course acceptance and cohort assignment at least four weeks before the course start date.
APPLY NOW!

What else is offered?

In partnership with University of Alaska (UA), participants can earn three post-secondary professional development credits at the 500 level. Participants must attend the course orientation, actively engage in seven out of the eight live seminar sessions, and complete the end-of-course performance task to be eligible for course credit.
The tuition fee for credit is $125.00.
Credit registration is seperate and will be provided to participants once the cohort begins.

Who do I contact for information?

Adrianne Schwartz Alaska Department of Education and Early Development adrianne.schwartz@alaska.gov

Athena E. Hill NWEA State Professional Learning Lead athena.hill@nwea.org

May 25, 2023 Featured Webinar Series

PLC’s At Work

with Eric Twadell
Dates: October 18, November 8, November 29
Time: 3:45-5:45
Registration: $75/$125 (Level 1/Level 2)
One optional university credit: $164

Build school culture where learning thrives

The Professional Learning Communities at Work® process is increasingly recognized as the most powerful strategy for sustained, substantive school improvement. This webinar series gives you and your team the knowledge and tools to implement this powerful process in your school or district.

Eric Twadell, a longtime educator who has successfully led schools through the PLC process, will work with you over the three sessions to explain the why and the how of building impactful PLCs. The webinar includes time for questions and time for participants to reflect and seek advice.

For those just beginning to explore PLCs, this is an excellent way to build your knowledge base. For those who are already involved in deep implementation, this webinar series is the perfect opportunity to revisit your mission, introduce new team members to the process, and get answers to new questions. This webinar series is aligned to the Solution Tree PLC conference occurring in Anchorage in November. Team members who can not attend the Anchorage conference will benefit from this webinar series.

As you delve deep into the three big ideas of a PLC—focus on learning, build a collaborative culture, and results orientation—you will gain specific, practical, and inspiring strategies for transforming your school or district into a place where all students learn at high levels.

Session Descriptions:

Session One: Focus on Learning
Session Two: Build a Collaborative Culture
Session Three: Results Orientation

Eric Twadell, PhD, is superintendent of Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. He has been a social studies teacher, curriculum director, and assistant superintendent for leadership and organizational development.

Stevenson High School has been described by the United States Department of Education (USDE) as one of the most recognized and celebrated schools in America and is one of only three schools to win the USDE Blue Ribbon Award on four occasions. Stevenson was one of the first comprehensive schools designated a New American High School by USDE as a model of successful school reform and is repeatedly cited as one of America’s top high schools and the “birthplace” of the Professional Learning Communities at Work™ process. As a dedicated PLC practitioner, Dr. Twadell has worked with state departments of education and local schools and districts nationwide to achieve school improvement and reform. An accessible and articulate authority on PLC concepts, Dr. Twadell brings hands-on experience to his presentations and workshops.

May 25, 2023 Featured Webinar Series

Leader Ready: The Roots of School Leadership

with Vince Bustamante and Dr. Tim Cusack
Dates: October 17, 24, November 7, 14
Time: 3:45-5:15
Target Audience: New, aspiring, and veteran teachers, principals and district-level administrators interested in developing leadership skills for the principalship or district administration.
No cost – Sponsored by the Building Education Leaders for Alaska (BELA) Project
One optional university credit: $164

The best way to prepare aspiring leaders is to offer hands-on opportunities to develop the skills they’ll need when they’re in charge. Being a building or central office leader calls for originality, innovation, and the ability to work under pressure. Yet so few assistant principals and other aspiring leaders actually get to develop these competencies in meaningful ways that prepare them to lead a school or district with confidence.

Join Vince Bustamante and Dr. Tim Cusack, the authors of Leader Ready, as they present a framework that walks aspiring school leaders along the path to strong and independent leadership by using a mix of professional knowledge, modeling, coaching, guided experiences, and mastery experiences.

Each 90-minute session will explore a different facet of the “Roots of School Leadership”. Whether a new leader, aspiring leader, or veteran leader this webinar series will provide context and actionable items to better prepare aspiring leaders for a potential role as principal, central office leader or superintendent.

Sessions

Session 1: Raising the Bar on Leadership Standards
Session 2: Creating a Culture for Implementation
Session 3: Planning Guided Leadership Experiences
Session 4: Attaining Mastery Experience

Session 1: Raising the Bar on Leadership Standards

During this session, Tim and Vince will expand on the importance of knowing your leadership standards as the foundation for leadership development. Leadership standards are meant to establish a systematic, rigorous, and practical approach to increasing leadership readiness. They also can be used as a metric to assess a leader’s overall performance. This session will explore how leveraging local or state standards can be the foundation of which we will build a common language of leadership.

Session 2: Creating a Culture for Implementation

To create the right conditions for leadership development, we need to be acutely aware of the current context of our leaders and their understanding of where they are in their leadership development. This session will explore how the skill, will, and thrill of aspiring leaders can be complimented by an environment that is conducive to leadership development.

Session 3:Planning Guided Leadership Experiences

Mentorship and coaching are key to the development of aspiring leaders. This session will explore how to leverage vicarious leadership experiences and design experiences where aspiring leaders gradually assume more leadership responsibilities. Participants will have the opportunity to construct guided leadership experiences that are conducive to the development of leaders in their own schools or districts.

Session 4: Attaining Mastery Experiences

Mastery is often easy to define but more difficult to observe and assess. This workshop will examine the guided leadership experiences and leverage expert noticing to determine when leaders have moved from capacity potential to capacity realization. When aspiring leaders can put theory into practice is when there is true mastery attainment.

Vince Bustamante, M.Ed. is an instructional coach, curriculum content developer, and author who resides in Calgary, Canada. He is the co-author of two bestselling books: Great Teaching by Design and The Assessment Playbook for Distance and Blended Learning. Vince is passionate about implementation, assessment and creating classroom environments that foster deep learning experiences where teachers understand and evaluate their impact. He specializes in working with teachers, leadership teams, schools and school districts as they seek to implement high impact strategies and systems for school improvement.

Tim Cusack, Ph.D has over 30 years of experience in K-12 education and has served school divisions in northern, southern, and central Alberta. Since 1993 his experience includes service as a classroom teacher, department head, assistant principal, principal, and assistant superintendent (learning services). For the past three years he has served as Deputy Chief Superintendent of Edmonton Catholic Schools and is currently the Dean of Education at Concordia University of Edmonton.

Dr. Cusack earned his Doctorate in Education at the University of Portland in 2020. His research centered on understanding the self efficacy of school-based leaders, particularly assistant principals. His research is featured in a forthcoming Corwin publication – Leader Ready: Four Pathways to Prepare Aspiring Leaders (May, 2023). Dr. Cusack’s research interests also include: teacher mentorship, curriculum assessment, leadership development, as well as systems change and school improvement.