Investigating the Impact of EPIC Professional Development on Perspectives Charter School Principals. An Evaluation of the EPIC Professional Learning Model. Evaluation Brief
Author: Sloan, Kay
Date: 2010-09-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Charter Schools,Principals,Urban Schools,Academic Achievement,Achievement Gains,Instructional Leadership,Best Practices,Leadership Effectiveness,Faculty Development,Pilot Projects,Video Technology,Case Studies,Reflection,Change Strategies,Educational Change,Program Effectiveness

In 2009-10, New Leaders for New Schools partnered with the Perspectives Charter School Network in Chicago to pilot an innovative leadership development program for principals. The program is part of the Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) initiative, which was created by New Leaders in 2006 to identify, reward, and share effective practices leading to dramatic achievement gains in high-need urban schools. To date, New Leaders for New Schools has awarded nearly $13 million to EPIC-awarded schools. In exchange, school leaders and their leadership teams engage in rigorous investigation of practice to document the decisions, strategies, and tools driving student gains and, with New Leaders, author a case study for the Knowledge System (http://epic.nlns.org), EPIC's online professional development platform. This rich repository of over 150 video case studies and related artifacts allows educators in the EPIC consortium--including the five schools in the Perspectives network and over 500 district and charter schools nationwide--to share effective practices and learn from others' success. The partnership with Perspectives allowed New Leaders to meet two of its goals: (1) to build the capacity of its partners to leverage the Knowledge System resources and (2) to test and evolve the professional learning model built around EPIC resources. The EPIC model, which guides principals in their own self-study of leadership practice, gives partners the opportunity to tailor the professional learning experience to local and individual principal needs. For Perspectives, that meant selecting videos and crafting sessions aligned with ongoing efforts to create strong professional learning communities in each school and build the leadership capacity among its teachers. This research brief reports on what Perspectives principals and New Leaders learned from the pilot implementation of the EPIC professional learning model and the impact of the program on principals' knowledge, skills, and application of effective practices in their schools. Overall, principals reported that the sessions helped them further develop their leadership practices. They agreed that the Knowledge System videos provided valuable examples of effective practice and that structured conversations with colleagues were a rare, welcome opportunity. The presession planning and collaboration between New Leaders, Perspectives, and the facilitator resulted in a program that clearly reflected local goals--borne out in survey results showing that all six participants said the sessions were relevant to their needs and that most (83 percent) rated them &quot;extremely relevant.&quot; All of the principals gained insight into how they could build capacity in others and left with tools and strategies to help them share leadership responsibilities and bring focus to data conversations and the work of professional learning communities.