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5 Core Roles Of Central Office Learning Leaders

By Cindy Harrison
Categories: Career pathways
August 2016
Nearly 20 years ago, we wrote an article titled “Multiple roles of staff developers” (Killion & Harrison, 1997). We found ourselves in conversations with colleagues like us who had assumed new roles and responsibilities for shaping a program of what we then called staff development with little guidance for those in central office who held the roles. Before writing that article, we studied our own work to examine what we did each day and collaborated with colleagues in similar roles to understand what the role of staff developer entailed. Much has changed in the field of professional learning since then. Research shaped a new understanding of what professional learning is, and the responsibility and accountability for it is shifting from central office to school sites

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Authors

Joellen Killion and Cindy Harrison

Joellen Killion (joellen.killion@learningforward.org) is senior advisor and Cindy Harrison (harrison.cindy@gmail.com) is a senior consultant for Learning Forward.

5 Core Roles

  • Learning system designer
    Facilitates the development of a district’s comprehensive professional learning system.
  • Program manager
    Focuses on the operational aspects of effective professional learning.
  • Coaching champion
    Ensures implementation and sustainability of new learning within schools, classrooms, or school system offices and departments.
  • Facilitator
    Assists groups with common objectives in completing tasks, planning how to achieve these objectives, and deepening their capacity to collaborate.
  • Change agent
    Has two core responsibilities: promoting and guiding continuous improvement.

Learn More

Standards Into Practice: School System Roles: Innovation Configuration Maps for Standards for Professional Learning (Learning Forward, 2013) highlights the actions of learning leaders in four role groups: central office, director of professional learning, superintendent, and school board.

School system staff are responsible for coordinating systemwide programs, professional learning, and resources needed to help each school achieve its goals for student achievement.

The book includes IC maps to make explicit how specific educators contribute to deep standards implementation, as well as introductory material that explains the concept and use of IC maps and their application to professional learning. Available at www.learningforward.org/bookstore.

References

Hirsh, S., Psencik, K., & Brown, F. (2014). Becoming a learning system. Oxford, OH: Learning Forward.

Jensen, B., Sonnemann, J., Roberts-Hull, K., & Hunter, A. (2016). Beyond PD: Teacher professional learning in high-performing systems. Washington, DC: National Center for Education and the Economy.

Joyce, B. & Showers, B. (2002). Student achievement through staff development (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Killion, J. (2013). Comprehensive professional learning system: A workbook for districts and schools. Oxford, OH: Learning Forward.

Killion, J. & Harrison, C. (1997, Summer). Multiple roles of staff developers. Journal of Staff Development, 18(3), 33-44.

Learning Forward. (n.d.). Definition of professional development. Available at www.learningforward.org/who-we-are/professional-learning-definition.

Learning Forward. (2011). Standards for Professional Learning. Oxford, OH: Author.

Learning Forward. (2012). Standards into practice: School-based roles: Innovation Configuration maps for Standards for Professional Learning. Oxford, OH: Author.

Learning Forward. (2013). Standards into practice: School system roles: Innovation Configuration maps for Standards for Professional Learning. Oxford, OH: Author.

Learning Forward. (2014). Standards into practice: External roles: Innovation Configuration maps for Standards for Professional Learning. Oxford, OH: Author.

Sailors, M. & Price, L. (2010). Professional development that supports the teaching of cognitive reading strategy instruction. Elementary School Journal, 110(3), 301-322.

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