Transforming School Leaders Symposium
Principals, regardless of whether they are new to the role, transitioning schools, or are veteran leaders, have many challenges to navigate, from establishing and maintaining school culture and fostering teacher collaboration to serving as a lead learner at their schools. Investing in principals’ learning regardless of their experience level is critical to school success, leading to increases in in both leaders’ own job performance and satisfaction, and student results.
Symposium Overview
This symposium, facilitated by Paul Fleming, Chief Learning Officer at Learning Forward and featuring presenters Jim McIntyre, Dean of the College of Education at Belmont University, and Jackie Owens Wilson, executive director of the National Policy Board for Educational Administration, will support principal supervisors, superintendents, and other district leaders by providing strategies for supporting school leaders’ skills, knowledge, growth, and development. Attendees will learn to support principals to lead their own learning, develop one-on-one and team coaching skills, and create a culture of collaboration and learning in their schools.
Participants in this symposium will:
- Understand the mindset of transformative school leaders and examine research on the impact of school leadership.
- Support leaders to create a culture of collaboration in their schools based on a compelling and shared vision for adult and student learning.
- Gain and practice coaching strategies to support principals’ growth as instructional leaders.
- Support principals to effectively allocate school resources.
- Support the growth of principals’ communication skills in their interactions with teachers, colleagues, parents, and communities.
- Have opportunities to increase their own professional knowledge to remain current on leadership support, research on school leadership, and evidence-based best practices.
Who is this for?
- Principal Supervisors
- Superintendents
- Assistant Superintendents
- Curriculum & Instruction Directors
- District Professional Learning Directors
- District Leadership Development Coordinators
- Education Service Center Leadership
Why should I attend?
- Increase principal retention through enhanced support systems.
- Improve school culture and teacher collaboration through empowered leadership.
- Develop systematic approaches to principal coaching that scale across your district.
- Foster principals' growth as instructional leaders who drive improved student outcomes.
- Build a network of fellow district leaders committed to leadership development.
- Implement immediate, practical strategies that transform your leadership support model.
Facilitators:
Paul Fleming serves as chief learning officer at Learning Forward. His current areas of focus include leading the effective implementation of the Standards for Professional Learning and corresponding tools, the expansion of our professional services and leadership and learning series teams, and multiple consulting projects with states and districts to increase educator and leader effectiveness through student-focused, high-quality professional learning. Prior to joining Learning Forward, he served as the assistant commissioner for the Teachers and Leaders Division at the Tennessee Department of Education. He was responsible for the design, implementation, evaluation, and support of impactful policies, practices, and programs related to teacher and leader preparation institutions, licensure, evaluation and development, and educator talent.
James P. McIntyre, Jr. is dean of the College of Education and Assistant Provost for Academic Excellence. Prior to his appointment as dean, he served as director of the Center for Educational Leadership and assistant professor of practice at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. For more than three decades, McIntyre has worked to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for young people as a classroom teacher, public school district leader, and now as a university professor and Dean.
Jackie O. Wilson has over 50 years of experience in K-20 education that includes elementary teaching, literacy specialist, assistant principal and principal, special assignment to the superintendent, director of professional accountability at the Delaware Department of Education, and teaching and administration in higher education at the University of Delaware and Wilmington University. Wilson recently retired from the University of Delaware where she served as an assistant professor in the College of Education and Human Development and served as the executive director of the Delaware Academy for School Leadership from 2010-2023. She currently serves as a consultant for CCSSO, AASA, the Wallace Foundation, The Leadership Academy, and the Delaware and Hawaii Departments of Education. Wilson is the executive director of the National Policy Board for Educational Administration. She recently co-authored a book with colleague Gary Bloom, Blended Coaching, 2nd edition (2023) which focuses on strategies to develop the skills and knowledge of the educator.
