Florida Administrative Code › 6 - DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION › 6A - State Board of Education › Chapter 6A-5 - EDUCATOR STANDARDS, PREPARATION AND PERFORMANCE › Section 6A-5.081 - Approval of School Leadership Programs

Current through Reg. 50, No. 138; July 16, 2024
This rule sets forth the requirements and implementation of
				  the approval process for each type of school leadership program offered by a
				  Florida postsecondary institution or public school district, charter school, or
				  charter management organization.
(1)
				Definitions. For the purposes of this rule, the following definitions apply.
(a) "Academic year" means the period of time
				during which program candidates attend or complete a state-approved school
				leader preparation program. This includes summer term, fall term and spring
				term.
(b) "Competencies and Skills
				Required for Certification in Educational Leadership in Florida" mean those
				practices described in Rule
				6A-4.00821, F.A.C., which is
				incorporated herein by reference (
http://www.flrules.org/Gateway/reference.asp?No=Ref-16031
).
				A copy of Rule 6A-4.00821, F.A.C., may be
				obtained from the Florida Department of Education, 325 West Gaines Street, Room
				124, Tallahassee, FL 32399-0400.
(c) "Competency-based" means that
				participants in school leader preparation programs must demonstrate the skill
				sets and knowledge bases outlined in the Florida Educational Leadership
				Standards.
(d) "Continued approval"
				means that subsequent to an initial approval, a school leadership program has
				been granted the authority to operate for a five-year period. The basis for
				continued approval is outlined in the documents entitled Florida Department of
				Education Continued Program Approval Standards for Level I Educational
				Leadership Programs, Form EL CAS-2023; and Florida Department of Education
				Continued Program Approval Standards for Level II School Principal Programs,
				Form SP CAS-2023.
(e) "eIPEP" or
				"electronic Institutional Program Evaluation Plan" means a
				Department-maintained web-based tool that serves as a data repository, data
				collection and reporting tool for both program performance data as well as a
				repository of continued approval goals and strategies for state-approved school
				leadership programs.
(f) "Field
				experiences" mean activities conducted in a variety of prekindergarten through
				grade 12 settings that are designed to give the program candidate the ability
				to practice and demonstrate competence in the expectations of effective school
				administrators outlined in the Florida Educational Leadership
				Standards.
(g) "Florida Educational
				Leadership Standards" mean those practices described in subsection
				6A-5.080(2),
				F.A.C., which is incorporated herein by reference (
http://www.flrules.org/Gateway/reference.asp?No=Ref-16032
).
				A copy of Rule 6A-5.080, F.A.C., may be
				obtained from the Florida Department of Education, 325 West Gaines Street, Room
				124, Tallahassee, FL 32399-0400.
(h) "Initial approval" means that a new
				school leadership program has been granted the authority to operate for a
				five-year period. The basis for initial approval is outlined in the documents
				entitled Florida Department of Education Initial Program Approval Standards for
				Level I Educational Leadership Programs, Form EL IAS-2023; and Florida
				Department of Education Initial Program Approval Standards for Level II School
				Principal Programs, Form SP IAS-2023.
(i) "Institutional Program Evaluation Plan"
				or "IPEP" means the annual plan developed by each approved Level I or Level II
				program to describe its review and analysis of program candidate and program
				completer data and how the results will impact continuous program improvements
				as part of its continued approval process.
(j) "Instructional expertise" means
				documented successful demonstration of the standards for effective educators
				outlined in the Florida Educator Accomplished Practices (FEAPs) and a
				documented track record of achieving student gains. Acceptable documentation of
				instructional expertise must include a rating of "effective" or higher on the
				"Performance of Students" and "Instructional Practice" sections of the
				candidate's two most recent performance evaluations per Section
				1012.34, F.S. For candidates who
				are not employed by a Florida public school district, a provider may accept
				alternative equivalent documentation demonstrating two years of effective
				instruction with a record of student learning gains.
(k) "Leadership potential" means the critical
				skills and dispositions that a candidate must demonstrate prior to entering the
				program. At a minimum, these qualifications must include an analysis of the
				candidate's relentless focus on improving student achievement in their own
				classrooms and contributing to the demonstrable improvement of teaching
				effectiveness in the classrooms of colleagues.
(l) "Level I educational leadership program"
				(Level I program) means a program eligible to be offered by a post-secondary
				institution, school district, charter school, or charter management
				organization that leads to certification in educational leadership for the
				purpose of preparing individuals to serve as school administrators.
(m) "Level II school principal program"
				(Level II program) means a program eligible to be offered by a school district,
				charter school, or charter management organization that builds upon Level I
				program training and leads to certification as a school principal.
(n) "Partner" means to develop and maintain a
				collaborative professional relationship with agreed upon goals and outcomes.
				Partnerships must include evidence that the institution, school district(s),
				charter school(s), or charter management organization(s) work together to:
1. Determine program admission standards, and
				identify and select candidates,
2.
				Provide job-embedded field experiences for program candidates; and,
3. Identify strategies for continuous
				improvement of the program based upon a review of the performance of program
				candidates and the performance of program completers using aggregate data from
				performance evaluations.
(o) "Placement rate" means the number of
				program completers reported annually by each program to the Department who are
				identified by the Department's Staff Information System, as prescribed in
				Section 1008.385(2),
				F.S., as employed in a full-time or part-time school administrator position in
				a Florida public school district, including charter schools, within three years
				of program completion. If a program provides documentation of a program
				completer's death or disability, the number of program completers included in
				the calculation will be adjusted.
(p) "Program admission standards" mean the
				minimum requirements an applicant must meet to be considered for entry into an
				educational leadership preparation program. The program admission standards for
				all programs must define (1) candidate grade point average (GPA) requirements,
				(2) candidate professional qualifications, to include minimum "instructional
				expertise" and "leadership potential" standards, and (3) candidate selection
				processes used to determine admission status.
(q) "Program candidate" means an individual
				who has been admitted into and is currently enrolled in, but has not yet
				completed Level I or Level II program approved under this rule.
(r) "Provider" means an entity that is
				authorized to offer a Level I or Level II program, as defined in this
				rule.
(s) "Program completer" means
				an individual who has satisfied all Level I or Level II program requirements
				approved under this rule.
(t)
				"School leadership positions" mean the administrative personnel positions that
				are defined in Section
				1012.01(3)(c),
				F.S.