Empowering Leaders Statewide: Lessons from the Alabama Principal Leadership Development System

Outline

Presentation Outline:

1. Welcome & Purpose Setting (5 minutes)

Content:
- Brief introduction to session goals and relevance
- Overview of Alabama’s legislative commitment to school leadership (Act 2023-340)

Engagement:
Warm-up poll (device-based): “What is a word or phrase that comes to mind when you think about principal development?

2. Key Focus: Principal Development in Action (25 minutes)

Content:
- Purpose and components of APLDS: leadership standards, framework, new principal mentoring, evaluation, professional learning
- Integration of school climate surveys as a tool for cultivating belonging

Engagement:
Think-pair-share: “Which part of APLDS would be most valuable in your context?”

3. Impact Measures & Outcomes (10 minutes)

Content:
- Review of measurable outcomes: principal retention, school climate, student growth and achievement
- How Alabama uses data to inform and adjust the program

Engagement:
Small group discussion with brief whole group share out: “In your school or district, how do you currently measure these three outcomes: principal retention, school climate, and student growth and achievement? What data do you rely on — and what’s missing?”

4. Local Application & Planning (15 minutes)

Content:
How participants can adapt APLDS strategies or structures in their own schools/districts

Engagement:
- Guided reflection worksheet: Participants outline one leadership support strategy they want to implement or strengthen
- Peer-to-peer pairings: Share your idea and offer feedback

5. Wrap-Up & Q&A (5 minutes)

Content:
- Recap of key takeaways
- Final reflections

Engagement:
Open Q&A + live word cloud: “What’s one word you’re leaving with from this session?”

Outcomes

After this session, participants will be able to:

Describe the core components and structure of the Alabama Principal Leadership Development System (APLDS), including standards-based resources, mentoring, evaluation, and ongoing professional learning.

Analyze how the APLDS program aligns with school leadership standards and supports principal effectiveness, retention, school climate, and student learning.

Interpret school climate data as a key outcome measure for leadership development and understand its connection to cultivating belonging.

Identify actionable strategies for implementing or adapting elements of the APLDS program in their own districts, schools, or leadership pipelines.

Supporting research

Darling-Hammond, L., Wechsler, M. E., Levin, S., Leung-Gagne, M., & Tozer, S. (2022). Developing effective principals: What kind of learning matters? The
Wallace Foundation.

Drago-Severson, E. (2009). Leading Adult Learning. Corwin.

Grissom, J. A., Egalite, A. J., & Lindsay, C. A. (2021). How principals affect students and schools: A systematic synthesis of two decades of research. The
Wallace Foundation.

Learning Forward. (n.d.). Learning designs: Standards for professional learning. Learning Forward.

U.S. Department of Education School Climate Surveys (EDSCLS) School Climate Model created in partnership with National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE)