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Leadership Connection Rubric: Supporting Equity in the Schools We Need
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The Leadership Connection Rubric guides effective leadership preparation, induction, ongoing support, coaching and supervision of school and district leaders. The seven rubric ELEMENTS are essential building blocks of effective leadership. The elements identify fundamental components of the leadership chemistry and, in the right combination, yield a personal “formula” for effective leadership. The elements are more completely explicated in the descriptors of practice (DoPs) and in the detailed indicators of practice (loPs)
Elements 1, 2, and 3 focus on essential personal and professional perspectives and attributes. Preparation and induction of leaders support the development of Elements 4, 5, 6 and 7 while continuing to deepen the practices of Elements 1, 2, and 3. Effective leadership relies on the inter-relationship and continuous improvement of all elements. As a leader relies on experience as a means of reflecting on his/her knowledge, skills and dispositions, s/he continues to deepen and broaden his/her effectiveness. The levels in the rubric include emerging or novice, which typically signals preparation in a credential program, including fieldwork and internships. The developing level encompasses an induction period, which is approximately three-five years, but could be longer depending on the leadership position of the individual. The practicing level is ongoing as the veteran leader continues to demonstrate growing expertise.
As the rubric was field-tested and implemented, this realization became clearer: Effective leaders at the practicing level may not be rated at the highest level of practice in every indicator to be highly effective in their work. Since leadership potential and effectiveness has a particular chemistry or alchemy for each person, the key is the combination for each leader. In fact, since the key resource in a school is the relational trust of the adults, it is actually more important that the principal and other administrators recognize the merit of collaborative leadership, and rely on other adults to take on leadership roles and assume some of the indicators in the practicing level The effective leader is therefore more effective because s/he can cultivate distributed leadership. Thus, it is actually not necessary to be fully developed in every indicator to demonstrate effective leadership.
The rubric is designed to be a self-assessment reflection tool. Taking the time to specifically reflect on core aspects of your practice as a leader is a time proven powerful way to continue to grow and develop.
For additional information about the rubric, related research, and the Principal Leadership Institute, email bse-pli@berkeley.edu.
Leadership Connection, 2015. Primary authors: Lynda Tredway, Rebecca Cheung, Viet Nguyen, Daphannie Stephens, Linda Leader-Picone and Janette Hernandez