Administrators, standards, and technology
at the TechLearning blog
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There are two primary standards documents for school administrators: ISLLC
and ELCC. Together they broadly define the parameters of school leaders’ work.
They also guide school district position descriptions; administrator evaluations
and assessments; state licensure, certification, and accreditation expectations;
and the content and coursework of postsecondary leadership preparation
programs.
ISLLC
The Interstate
School Leaders Licensure Consortium Standards for School Leaders
(a.k.a.
ISLLC), were created by the Council of Chief State School Officers and are the
foundation of nearly every state’s standards for administrator licensure and
certification. The ISLLC framework was adopted in 1996 and is organized around
six basic standards. The ISLLC standards note that a “school administrator
is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by…
“
- facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship
of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by the school
community;
program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth;
safe, efficient, and effective learning environment;
community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources;
economic, legal, and cultural context.
The ISLLC standards only mention technology twice:
- the administrator has knowledge and understanding of the role of
technology in promoting student learning and professional growth
(under
Standard 2); and
that there is effective use of technology to manage school operations
(under Standard 3).
ELCC
The Educational
Leadership Constituent Council standards
(a.k.a. ELCC) were adopted by the
National Council for Accreditation of Teacher
Education
and are used for accreditation of postsecondary educational
leadership programs. The ELCC framework was adopted in 2001 and is organized
around seven basic standards. The ELCC standards note that “[c]andidates who
complete [educational administration programs] are educational leaders who have
the knowledge and ability to promote the success of all students by…
“
- facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship
of a school or district vision of learning supported by the school
community;
program, applying best practice to student learning, and designing comprehensive
professional growth plans for staff;
a safe, efficient, and effective learning environment;
diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources;
economic, legal, and cultural context.
The seventh ELCC standard has to do with preservice administrator
internships.
As you can see, the ELCC standards are extremely similar to ISLLC. However,
the ELCC standards mention technology a little more than does ISLLC:
- candidates demonstrate the ability to use and promote technology and
information systems to enrich curriculum and instruction, to monitor
instructional practices and provide staff the assistance needed for improvement
(under Standard 2);
research methods, technology, and information systems to develop a long-range
plan for a district that assesses the district’s improvement and accountability
systems (under Standard 2); and
ability to apply technology and research
to professional development design
focusing on authentic problems and tasks, mentoring, coaching, conferencing, and
other techniques that promote new knowledge and skills in the workplace (under
Standard 2); and
long-range, and operational planning (including applications of technology) in
the effective, legal, and equitable use of fiscal, human, and material resource
allocation and alignment that focuses on teaching and learning (under Standard
3).
There also is some additional language regarding technology in the narrative
sections accompanying Standards 2 and 3.
NETS-A
The International Society for Technology in Education released its National Educational
Technology Standards for Administrators
(NETS-A) in 2001. The NETS-A are
comprised of six broad standards and 31 performance indicators. The NETS-A state
that “educational leaders…“
- inspire a shared vision for comprehensive integration of technology and
foster an environment and culture conducive to the realization of that
vision;
environments integrate appropriate technologies to maximize learning and
teaching;
their own productivity and that of others;
learning and administration;
assessment and evaluation; and
model responsible decision-making related to these issues.
The NETS-A do not align very well with the two main sets of administrator
standards. To date they also have had little impact on most state licensure and
accreditation efforts or on most university educational leadership programs.
Discussion
Should there be more mention of technology in either ISLLC or ELCC? Probably.
That said, we also know that technology leadership is just one aspect of
principals’ and superintendents’ busy lives. While we might wish that ISLLC and
ELCC better recognized the ways that digital technologies are revolutionizing
our personal and professional lives, we also must remember that school
administrators are responsible for leading instruction, supervising and
evaluating employees, budgeting, community relations, management and operations,
and a variety of other duties. There’s only so much time in administrators’ days
and we have to prioritize their time and energy.
The NETS-A are an ambitious set of standards. While ideally all of the
NETS-A capacities exist somewhere in the school organization, it is difficult to
argue that a single person should be proficient in every single area the NETS-A
cover. There will be some educators, whoever, who want a comprehensive program
grounded in the NETS-A. The graduate programs offered by CASTLE, our partner universities,
and a few other educational leadership programs are an attempt to meet that
need.
The ISLLC and ELCC standards dominate conversations and
expectations regarding school administrator competency. The next iterations of
both documents probably should more explicitly address the technological changes
that are occurring in our society. Until then, anyone got a good
NETS-A / ISLLC / ELCC crosswalk
?
Other questions
- Do you know of any comprehensive, high-quality, district-sponsored staff
development efforts based on the NETS-A?
office administrators?
difficult for them to master?
preparing administrators to be technology leaders?
