Barnstable Educators Embark on Leadership Program

In early October, approximately 25 educators from Barnstable Public Schools embarked upon an 18-month school leadership program entitled the “National Institute for School Leadership.” (NISL).  

Educators including superintendents from both school districts, principals, directors, teacher union leadership, aspiring teacher leaders and curriculum coordinators kicked off the first Cape Cod Cohort held at Barnstable Intermediate School. This national school leadership program was created to develop school leaders focused on instructional improvement and to build school and district leadership to sustain instructional improvements.  

This leadership program has graduated 6,000 students in fifteen states throughout the United States.   

The program’s major focus areas include the following: 

• Strategic thinking 

• Instructional leadership 

• Team building and coaching 

• Professional Learning Communities 

• Data based decision making 

• Standards based instruction 

• Using data to improve instruction and shared best practices 

These concepts are taught in a variety of ways including computer-assisted tutorials/exercises, small group discussions, role-playing scenarios, analyzing case studies, and simulations.  This leadership experience consists of about 20% online coursework, 65% face-to-face interaction, and 15% personal reflection and application including completing an Action Learning Project (ALP) to improve instruction in the schools. The NISL program costs include approximately $10,000 per participant and was funded by the school district’s Race To The Top (RTTT) federally funded grant program.  

The NISL leadership program was one of the recommended projects outlined in the RTTT grant application as a leadership program focused on improving student achievement. 

The following are some quotes from educators and school leaders throughout Massachusetts and other states who have participated in the NISL Program: 

“This is the most powerful education leadership training I know of. It has led to practical collaboration among our principals.  They now share best practices, think more strategically, and feel far better prepared to lead their schools to higher performance.” -David P. Driscoll, former Massachusetts Commissioner of Education. 

“ I have attended numerous workshops geared toward principals during my educational career. However, none of them presented the work in such a complete manner, from vision to supervision, from standards to curriculum to learning to best practices in literacy, math, and science.  No other professional development has even come close to providing a clear, complete picture of what it means (and what it takes) to lead a school to high levels of sustainable academic achievement.  NISL is an extraordinary program.” -Marjorie Soto, principal, Joseph J. Hurley School, Boston, MA 

So, as we embark upon this educational leadership journey for the next 18 months, I am confident that our educators and school leaders will continue to engage in rich and meaningful dialogue that will lead to improving student achievement for ALL students.