The Sonoma County Office of Education’s Leadership Assistance Center was established in 2004 in recognition of the critical role that school leaders play in improving student learning. At the state and local levels, considerable resources have been invested in professional development and support for teachers, but very little is available for school leaders.
The Leadership Assistance Center fills that gap by providing emerging, new, and experienced school leaders with the practical tools and insights they need to do their jobs, and do them well. Underlying each program is a clear emphasis on strategies for closing the achievement gap. In addition, structures are provided so that participants can take the lessons “home” and fine-tune them to the needs of their school or district.
In 2009, the Leadership Assistance Center received multi-year funding from the Stuart Foundation to expand leadership programs and coaching support throughout the region. This support serves veteran school principals and school leadership teams in Sonoma, Marin, Mendocino, and Napa counties.
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News: High-Performing Teams
History was made at Douglas Whited School in the Rincon Valley Union School District in 2009-10. For the first time since tracking school achievement scores, an entire grade level at a Sonoma County school achieved 100 percent proficiency in a core content area. The staff credits this success to their work as a professional learning community, which is featured in this publication and accompanying video.
PLC Teams | Jan 2010
Learn about the power of high-performing Professional Learning Community teams and how they can lead to improved learning. The video shows a PLC meeting at Whited School.
Related documents:
Common Assessment Meeting Protocol (pdf)
PLC Norms: What are they? (pdf)
PLC Norms: Sample (pdf)
PLCs: A Road Map for Implementation (doc)
Setting Norms for Collaborative Work (pdf)
Team Meeting Format (pdf)
Work Plan Flow Chart for High-Performing Teams (pdf)
