April 11th PLC Meeting …
A Big Success!

On April 11th CSDC had its final 2005-2006 Professional Learning Community meeting for this school year. It was an excellent meeting, focusing once again on “Leadership”.

Jan Herrera, our co-president elect provided the “appetizer” for the afternoon. In small groups Jan led us through a strategy for providing authentic, positive feedback (feedback that truly impacts people in positive ways) for teachers/colleagues. It was such a thought-provoking idea, one that can be implemented easily and effectively.

The “main course” was provided by Dr. Ron Cabrera, Assistant Superintendent of Adams County School District 50. Dr. Cabrera did an excellent job of presenting an interactive, brief overview of Balanced Leadership: School Leadership That Works, a scientifically researched program designed by McRel.

Important findings from McRel’s meta-analysis include the following:

1. There is a relationship between leadership and student achievement – leadership matters.
2. There are 21 leadership responsibilities, each with a statistically significant and positive relationship to student achievement.
3. Strong leaders do not always have a positive impact on achievement.

McRel’s fundamental leadership question is …

“What must leaders know and be able to do to both improve current forms of schooling and to lead the transition from current forms to new and more productive forms of schooling?”

Thanks to both Ron Cabrera and Jan Herrera for sharing their time and expertise with us!

For more information about McRel and its work on leadership, go to their website at www.mcrel.org.