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Skidmore

A team of University of Georgia College of Education experts is currently analyzing Gwinnett County School District’s award-winning leader academy for young principals and assistant principals to determine where improvement might be considered.

UGA has received a $458,000 sub-grant from the Wallace Principal Pipeline Project through Gwinnett County Schools to study, analyze, critique and develop recommendations for significant components of Gwinnett Schools’ Quality Plus Leader Academy.

COE researchers and the QPLA Team will investigate national leadership standards and make a recommendation to the district about the possible effects on those standards, conduct assessments of the main components of the QPLA and prepare a report of areas where improvement might be considered, examine the process and tools being used to admit candidates to the programs and work with the staff of Gwinnett County Schools to identify areas for improvement.

Max Skidmore, a clinical associate professor in the department of lifelong education, administration, and policy is the primary investigator, and Ronald Cervero, associate dean of outreach and engagement, is the co-investigator of the project. Melissa Freeman, an associate professor, and Khalil Dirani, an assistant professor, both in the department of lifelong education, administration, and policy department, are assisting in the project. Other faculty members are assisting with specific segments of the study.

The QPLA, which has received national recognition for its excellence, was established by Gwinnett County Schools in 2007. Over the last four years, the program has served as an umbrella to cover all activities associated with the training and development of aspiring school administrators in the school district.

Its main components include the six-month Aspiring Leader Program aimed specifically at preparing teachers to become assistant principals and the year-long Aspiring Principal Program for assistant principals.

Other components of the QPLA are the Leader Mentor Program, available for first- and second-year principals and assistant principals, and monthly Leadership Development meetings, Leadership Seminars and the Summer Leadership Conference.

The UGA team will analyze leadership standards, criteria and process for admission to the programs, the several components of the programs themselves, two forms of residency, mentoring of graduates and other programs that add value to the knowledge, skills and talents of the focus groups.

The study of the selection and admissions process will include a review of all major parts of the process to include a study of inter-rater reliability, use of assessment tools and forms of assessment used by other professional groups such as law and medicine.