Strong Leadership

We believe that the two key determinants of school success are the quality of its teaching and the quality of its leadership. We therefore invest deeply in supporting both. Our work with school leaders has as its foundation a definition of strong, effective school leadership which we expect the principals in our network of Expeditionary Learning schools to embrace and put into practice.

In selecting the principals of our network schools we look for individuals who possess the qualities and attributes that are at the core of this definition.This includes a capacity and willingness to:

• Imbue the entire school community with the belief that all students can achieve at high levels
• Articulate and inspire others around a school vision which reflects Expeditionary Learning’s values, educational philosophy and core practices 
• Align resources, staff, structures and strategies around that vision
• Develop and execute strategies for bringing out the best in every teacher
• Use data to inform practice and improve student, staff and school performance.
• Encourage contributions and leadership from all members of the school community – students, staff and parents
• Model the qualities of character that the school teaches and encourages
• Build and sustain a vibrant school-wide professional learning community
• Commit to deepening/furthering one’s own professional and personal learning

The specific ways we help bring this definition to life include the following:

• We bring together our principals as a discrete cohort on a regular basis to explore issues and topics which relate specifically to leading an Expeditionary Learning school in NYC
• We provide our principals with opportunities for school inter-visitations, both to Expeditionary Learning schools in NYC and elsewhere around the country
• We provide our principals and other school leaders with a variety of off-site professional development experiences throughout the year that they can engage in alongside their teachers to increase fluency in aspects of the Expeditionary Learning model, ranging from student engaged assessment to designing high quality learning expeditions.
• We help our principals to develop annual work plans which reflect their instructional and other priorities for the year, and we meet with them regularly to review progress against these work plans
• We provide our principals with a wide range of data relating to student and school performance as well as Expeditionary Learning implementation, and support them in reviewing and analyzing that data 
• We offer a principal mentoring program through which our seasoned Expeditionary Learning principals are paired with principals who are new to the Expeditionary Learning model
• We serve as thought partners to our principals, helping them to set priorities, plan strategy and trouble shoot problems