Proposal+from+our+last+discussion

Hello all,

We appreciate the spirit of collaboration at our last meeting. Pete and I have worked over the weekend and have developed this draft of the ILead program. It incorporates the ideas we discussed. We have also looked at the areas where we would contribute to the program and based upon other leadership programs we offer proposed a cost for this contribution.

We look forward to all our your feedback.

Tom and Pete

School Leadership and Technology in Times of Change Draft 4/16/07**
 * iLead:

The vision of the “iLead” program is to create a mindset rooted in complete accountability and to support the development of Principal/CEO’s who effectively lead their teams and use technology in ways that meet and exceed all measurements of student achievement and success.
 * Program Vision**:

1. Principals will become more effective and accountable CEO’s and leaders, so that they are successful at **meeting and exceeding student achievement goals upon which they are measured.**
 * Program Goals**:

2. Principals and school leaders will understand and use technology to streamline their own work so they have time to focus on leading change within their schools; as well as to help them in their decision-making.

3. Principals and school leaders will have a deep understanding of the potential of technology to create active and engaging classrooms where students use technology tools to deepen their understanding of their subject areas and content, develop their higher order thinking skills, as well as develop habits and skills that will prepare them for the 21st century workplace.

4. Build the foundation for an ongoing ILead program that can be offered broadly to principals and include continuing collaboration among and support of the summer program participants.

Each participant will receive a Technology Toolkit consisting of a laptop/mobile device and software tools that will be used throughout the program and will remain with the Principal afterwards. Out-of-the-Box Training will be delivered at the end of June.
 * Program Structure**:

The program will consist of a four-day leadership and technology experience for three to four cohorts, each made up of 60 Principals and school leaders, to take place in July. In addition, there will be a one-day follow-up session at the end of September. During the rest of the school year, participants will be supported through the use of various Web 2.0 communications tools.

The program will consist of:

1. **Personal Assessment** – Assess areas of strength and areas for improvement for each school leader. This assessment will be conducted before the program begins and will be the basis of a Personal Learning Plan for each. The Personal Learning Plan will provide a profile that will be used to help support each Principal/CEO in achieving success during the coming school year. This assessment will be linked to the specific measures of success for each principal.

2. **Learn** – A learning program that is targeted to enhancing the leadership and technology strengths of each principal and improving areas where needed.

Each day a Practitioner/Leader will open the session with a horizon expanding view of what is possible when technology is applied effectively to the school environment. The Practitioner/Leader will be handpicked to align with the Best Practices strand of the program. It is desirable that, whenever possible, the exemplars be from the NYC schools and rotates among a HS, MS, and El school leaders.
 * Expanding Horizons:**

A horizon expanding and inspirational keynote speaker will conclude the fourth and final day of each cohort program.

Technology and Leadership Best Practices: Technology and Leadership will be threaded together to insure that whatever skills are developed are applied effectively and produce the desired outcomes. (Note: We are not training Principals; but giving them conceptual frameworks using tools that are readily available in the NYC schools and provided in the Technology Toolkit.)

Technology Best Practices: __Practice 1:__ Collecting, analyzing, and making decisions with data. __Practice 2:__ Examining what to look for in a classroom observation and learning to look carefully and critically at effective classroom instruction using technology. Principals will review and refine a rubric to use when assessing classroom instruction. __Practice 3:__ Identifying school-wide educational priorities for the integration of technology and developing a technology plan. (Note: there was discussion of an on-line planning tool). __Practice 4:__ Awareness of Student Leadership, Support, and Empowerment Strategies __Practice 5__: Awareness of Community Communications Strategies

Leadership Best Practices: __Practice area__ 1 Building successful teams that include teachers, students and parents. __Practice area__ 2: Effective communication to inspire and support. __Practice area__ 3: Building Trust to attain continuous improvement of results. __Practice area__ 4: Overcoming obstacles through creativity and changing perspectives __Practice area__ 5: Developing teachers and students as leaders __Practice area__ 6: Effective decision making for the world of the Principal/CEO.

3. **Act** – Participant will be part of a Learning Team designed to support them during times of change. This process will inspire staff; develop clear expectations, and a path to achieve them with their building team.

4. **Review** – a reflective practice to review what is working and what needs improvement, this process is linked to the initial Personal Learning Assessment and helps the principal recognize successes while supporting them as they continue to grow. In addition, we will use appropriate Web 2.0 tools to insure that we create avenues for ongoing learning and communication among the cohort participants and program leaders.

5. **Expanding Horizons** – Each participant will be provided with an opportunity to visit one model school that demonstrates effective use of technology. Each leader is eligible to select an onsite visit that will extend and expand the use of technology for instruction or school management. The school leader, assistant principals and other curriculum leaders within the building are eligible to attend.

Assessment: Data will be collected as part of pre-session preparation. It will be gathered again at the close of the summer session and at least once during the school year. This data will be used to illustrate the value of this program to its participants and provide insights into how programs such as this can be more broadly offered.


 * Deliverables and Costs**:

We are confident that the type of program outlined above can be of great value to the New York City schools. This program brings the best of leadership development and intrinsically links it to the use of technology in the successful and practical practices of a leader.

We have begun the process of laying out the work that we need to do to both customize our leadership programs to the specifics of both the New York City schools’ requirements and the tight integration of the technology chosen for use by principals. There are a number of unknowns that we know will be worked out over the next month and therefore the specifics can’t be fully calculated at this time.

We propose to provide the following services to New York City schools for the iLead program. These services are offered with the background that they are for the delivery of a summer 2007 program that will lead to a longer-term program offered more broadly this fall.


 * Services Provided**:

• Development of an initial leadership curriculum that integrates best leadership practices with use of technology to support New York City School principals.

• Working with New York City schools technology facilitators to assure the integration of the technology components of the program with the leadership components of the program.

• Development of program deliverables for the leadership component of the iLead program that are customized to the specific measurement objectives of the New York City schools’ principals. These deliverables will take into consideration the perceived difference in issues between elementary, middle and high school principals.

• We will work with the New York City schools to develop the best collaborative technology infrastructure for the iLead program participants.

• Development in collaboration with New York City Schools a pre-program assessment tool that can be administered on-line.

• We will work with the New York City Schools personnel to select the best candidates for this program.

• Work jointly with the New York City schools personnel to select exemplars of best leadership practices within the New York City schools. We will work with these selected exemplars to assure that the presentations they make are aligned with the purpose and content of the iLead program.

• We will meet regularly with New York City schools personnel for the coordination of the program.

• We will provide expert facilitators for the delivery of the leadership component of the iLead program for three four-day sessions offered in the month of July 2007.

• We will provide leadership experts to support the iLead learning teams between the July and September sessions.

• We will develop a curriculum for the leadership component of the September iLead one-day session. This curriculum will be integrated with the technology component of these one-day sessions.

• We will provide expert facilitators for the delivery of the leadership component of the three one-day sessions to be conducted in September.

• We will provide a program assessment on the areas of success and limitations. This assessment will include a recommendation for an on-going iLead program for the balance of 2007.

For these services, we are proposing a fee of $1500 per student ($300 per participant day). This fee assumes a minimum of 100 students and a maximum of 240 students.

These fees are modeled on other leadership programs that we offer. We have discounted them by 35% to honor our commitment to be a catalyst for change in the educational community.