Developing Leaders
Building Pathways to Leadership.
At Springfield Prep, we believe strong leadership is critical to creating extraordinary outcomes for our students. A track record of success in the classroom is a necessary prerequisite for leadership with us and there are many other complex and challenging skills that school leaders need that must be intentionally developed outside of the classroom.
Teachers who are looking for new ways to have an impact beyond their classroom have the opportunity to grow as Instructional Coaches or Team Leads. In addition to in-house coaching and support, we invest in high quality training opportunities with organizations like Relay Graduate School of Education, Build. Excel. Sustain. and The Management Center for staff taking on new leadership responsibilities.
Here are some of the ways we support leader development.
Progressive Leadership Opportunities
There are a variety of leadership roles for growing leaders — from Grade Level Chair to Content Lead to Department Chair to Instructional Coach to Academic Dean. These roles provide leaders the opportunity to develop their skills, build experience, and grow towards other school leadership roles.
Cohort-Based Learning
Learning with and from other leaders is an important part of leadership development. Every month, a cohort of team leaders work with the Director of Talent to develop new schools, refine their leadership style, and work through problems of practice. Team Leads also evaluate organizational challenges and provide input to the school’s leadership through a Team Chair Council.
The Management Center
“The training with The Management Center helped me break down key leadership skills into manageable pieces which has helped me communicate with my team and delegate more effectively. Our cohort of Team Chairs also meet regularly— it’s so helpful to hear from other leaders around the school. Even if each team is different, hearing about how others address challenges has given me ideas of things to try that I wouldn’t have come up with on my own. ”
External Training with Leaders in the Field
We invest in our leaders by providing intensive cohort-based opportunities for senior leaders to attend training with preeminent providers of management and school leadership training, including the Relay Graduate School of Education, The Management Center, and Build. Excel. Sustain. Learning alongside school leaders from high performing schools across the country helps our leaders feel inspired and gives them access to best-practices and other resources to bring back to our school community.
Relay Graduate School of Education
“The Observation/Feedback training with Relay helped me really target my feedback to the highest leverage growth area for my coachee. I learned how to come to my coaching meetings fully prepared so that I could put more of the thinking on my coachee. I also learned how to use video in my coaching which has helped the teacher I coach self-reflect and it also helps us get on the same page about the next step to work on.”
“Collaborating with other school leaders across the country in the Inclusive Schools Leadership Institute with Relay has given me ideas for strengthening the good work we are already doing as a school when it comes to inclusive practices, universal design for learning, and comprehensive social-emotional supports for students. As part of the program, I submit assignments and get feedback from an expert in the field that I can bring back to our school.”