New from McREL...

The Balanced Leadership Program and leadership, practice and learning [Newsroom]

8 Jan 2010 21:43:11 GMT

McREL in the News

The Balanced Leadership Program and leadership, practice and learning
Texas A&M University
January 7, 2010

McREL Newsroom
	Newsroom links Education Hot Topics Press Releases E-Newsletters RSS Feeds Newsroom Home Page		Contact Bryan Goodwin Vice President, Communications & Marketing Phone: 303.632.5602 Fax: 303.337.3005 Send a message

Researchers from Texas A&M University and the University of Michigan are currently evaluating the effectiveness of McREL's Balanced Leadership® program. The study will look for a connection between principals' participation in the Balanced Leadership Program and student achievement gains.

Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL)
4601 DTC Blvd., Suite 500, Denver, CO 80237-2596
303.337.0990 (phone) • 303.337.3005 (fax)
www.mcrel.org • info@mcrel.org

Autonomy for School Leaders [Newsroom]

4 Jan 2010 23:33:59 GMT

McREL in the News

Autonomy for School Leaders
The School Administrator
January 2010, Number 1, Vol. 67
January, 2010

McREL Newsroom
	Newsroom links Education Hot Topics Press Releases E-Newsletters RSS Feeds Newsroom Home Page		Contact Bryan Goodwin Vice President, Communications & Marketing Phone: 303.632.5602 Fax: 303.337.3005 Send a message

In this article, Jim Eck, McREL's senior director of field services, and Bryan Goodwin, McREL's vice president of communications and marketing, discuss a key finding from McREL's research on district leadership, which suggests that effective districts intentionally create "defined autonomy" for school leaders: they set clear, non-negotiable goals for student achievement and classroom instruction district-wide, while offering the principals the autonomy and support necessary to achieve those goals.

Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL)
4601 DTC Blvd., Suite 500, Denver, CO 80237-2596
303.337.0990 (phone) • 303.337.3005 (fax)
www.mcrel.org • info@mcrel.org

McREL Principal Evaluation System [Product]

30 Dec 2009 16:15:59 GMT

McREL's Principal Evaluation System provides both an easy-to-use tool for evaluating school administrators and professional development that explains the "why" and "how" of measuring against behaviors that research suggests are linked to higher levels of student performance.

By benchmarking school leaders against the behaviors of highly effective principals, our evaluation system provides feedback to guide principals' professional growth and help them improve their performance while raising student achievement.

In addition, our evaluation system helps districts to recognize excellence, especially those principals who have mastered critical competencies and can serve as exemplars, role models, and coaches for others.

Key benefits:

Store & track evaluations in one place.
Access data anywhere, anytime.
Instantly prepare and submit reviews.
Quickly analyze data and create custom reports.
Receive free helpdesk support.

View/Download the flyer (PDF)

To learn more:
Visit www.mcrel.org/product/392.

McREL's Principal Evaluation System

Get started today
For more information about the software, professional development, or optional services, contact us today.

Call 1.800.781.0156
OR
Send us a message

Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL)
4601 DTC Blvd., Suite 500, Denver, CO 80237-2596
303.337.0990 (phone) • 303.337.3005 (fax)
www.mcrel.org • info@mcrel.org

Solution Tree Annual Conference on Standards and Assessment [Professional Development]

16 Dec 2009 20:24:34 GMT

April 14-16, 2010
Las Vegas, Nevada

This conference offers a range of assessment strategies and the time to explore, network, and discover the tools that will work best for you. This event will help you find direction and return home with practical ideas for making your assessments timely, precise, and instrumental to maximizing your instructional time.

Join McREL's President & CEO, Timothy Waters, in a keynote presentation as he explores what our schools would look like if we treated every student failure as a catastrophic event and outlines how to ensure that every student who enters our system leaves it with a full range of post-secondary and life opportunities.

Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL)
4601 DTC Blvd., Suite 500, Denver, CO 80237-2596
303.337.0990 (phone) • 303.337.3005 (fax)
www.mcrel.org • info@mcrel.org

Discovery and New Frontiers News [Newsroom]

25 Nov 2009 20:01:33 GMT

McREL in the News

Discovery and New Frontiers News
Volume 10, Number 3, November 2009
November 25, 2009

The latest edition of NASA's Discovery and New Frontiers Program Newsletter highlights McREL's participation in NASA Week in Boaz, Alabama, to our ongoing education and public outreach work for several NASA missions.

McREL Newsroom
	Newsroom links Education Hot Topics Press Releases E-Newsletters RSS Feeds Newsroom Home Page		Contact Bryan Goodwin Vice President, Communications & Marketing Phone: 303.632.5602 Fax: 303.337.3005 Send a message

Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL)
4601 DTC Blvd., Suite 500, Denver, CO 80237-2596
303.337.0990 (phone) • 303.337.3005 (fax)
www.mcrel.org • info@mcrel.org

Learn how leaders make a difference for students [Professional Development]

25 Nov 2009 17:23:35 GMT

McREL Professional Development
District-Level Leadership Foundation Series Institute

February 2, 3, & 4, 2010
McREL—Denver, Colorado

$300 for February 2 ONLY
$575 for February 2–3 ONLY
$825 for February 2–4

For more information, contact
Mary Cullen
Administrative Coordinator
303.632.5547 (phone)
303.337.3005 (fax)
Send a message

District-Level Leadership Foundation Series Institute

Learn how leaders make a difference for students

The Foundation Series provides participants with an overview of McREL's research on district-level leadership; connects those research findings and conclusions with our earlier school-level leadership research; and provides a systems perspective to the research, tying concepts from living systems theory and social systems to McREL's conclusions about high reliability organizations.

Our district-level program is based on a comprehensive analysis of decades of research on effective district leadership reported in the publication District Leadership That Works: Striking the Right Balance.

February 2, 2010

Module 1: School District Leadership that Works: An Overview

February 3, 2010

Module 2: Connecting District and School Leadership to Student Achievement

February 4, 2010

Module 3: District-Level Leadership: A Systems Perspective

Price:
$300 for February 2 ONLY
$575 for February 2–3 ONLY
$825 for February 2–4

Agenda:

Module 1: School District Leadership that Works: An Overview
  February 2, 2010

8:00–8:30 a.m. Coffee and Conversation
8:30–9:00 a.m. Welcome and Introductions

Outcomes
9:00–9:45 a.m. The Science of District-Level Leadership

Finding 1: Leadership Matters

Finding 2: District-Level Leadership Responsibilities
9:45–10:00 a.m. Break
10:00–10:45 a.m. Learning About District-Level Leadership Responsibilities

Card Sort Activity
10:45–11:15 a.m. Finding 2: District-Level Leadership Responsibilities
Collaborative Goal-Setting Process

Non-Negotiable Goals

Board Alignment and Support

11:15 a.m.–12:00 noon GPS Tool and Conversation Protocol
12:00–12:45 p.m. Lunch
12:45–1:30 p.m. Use of Resources for Professional Development
Activity: Indicators of Success

1:30–2:30 p.m. Monitoring Goals
Amy Ramirez Role-Play Activity

2:30–3:00 p.m. Defined Autonomy and Loose-Tight Coupling

Defined Autonomy and Coupling Activity

Three Levels of Defined Autonomy

3:00–3:15 p.m. Bonus Finding: Superintendent Longevity
3:15–3:30 p.m. Guided Reflection

Evaluation
3:30 p.m. Adjourn

Module 2: Connecting District and School Leadership to Student Achievement
  February 3, 2010

8:00–8:30 a.m. Coffee and Conversation
8:30–9:00 a.m. Welcome and Introduction

Community Building Activity: Handshake

Connecting Leadership
9:00–9:15 a.m. Comparing District-and School-Level Leadership

Finding #1: Leadership Matters

Finding #2: Leadership Responsibilities
9:15–10:00 a.m. Activity: Learning about School-Level Leadership Responsibilities
10:00–10:15 a.m. Break
10:15–11:00 a.m. Emphasizing District and School Responsibilities Together
11:00 a.m.–12:00 noon Finding #3: The Differential Impact of Leadership
Magnitude of Change

12:00–12:45 p.m. Lunch
12:45–1:30 p.m. Magnitude of Change (cont.)
1:30–2:15 p.m. Planning and Managing Change Tool & Discussion
2:15–2:45 p.m. Focus of Leadership

District-Level: Non-Negotiable Goals

School-Level: 11 Influences

2:45–3:00 p.m. The Balanced Leadership Framework®

Framework Reflection
3:00–3:15 p.m. Purposeful Community
3:15–3:30 p.m. Guided Reflection

Evaluation
3:30 p.m. Adjourn

Module 3: District-Level Leadership: A Systems Perspective
  February 4, 2010

8:00–8:30 a.m. Coffee and Conversation
8:30–9:00 a.m. Welcome and Introduction

Community Building Activity: The Organizational Chart
9:00–10:00 a.m. Defining Systems

Examining Assumptions

McREL's Assumptions about Leadership
10:00–10:15 a.m. Break
10:15–11:00 a.m. Metaphors for Systems

Elements of Social Systems

District Conversations
11:00–11:45 a.m. Peeling the Onion Protocol
11:45 a.m.–12:00 noon Examining Assumption 1: Optimizing the Current System
12:00–12:45 p.m. Lunch
12:45–1:15 p.m. Examining Assumption 2: Student Success Unlikely

Drivers of Change and Uncertainties
1:15–2:30 p.m. Exploring Future Scenarios Activity
2:30–3:00 p.m. Pulling It All Together

Principles of High Reliability Organizations

McREL's Conclusions from a Systems Perspective
3:00–3:10 p.m. Art and Science of Leadership

What if We Viewed Student Failure as Catastrophic?
3:10–3:30 p.m. Guided Reflection

Evaluation
3:30 p.m. Adjourn

View/Download the flyer (PDF)

Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL)
4601 DTC Blvd., Suite 500, Denver, CO 80237-2596
303.337.0990 (phone) • 303.337.3005 (fax)
www.mcrel.org • info@mcrel.org

McREL creating and studying "Cosmic Chemistry" space science summer school program in Tulsa [Press Release]

12 Oct 2009 22:55:45 GMT

McREL Press Release

McREL creating and studying "Cosmic Chemistry" space science summer school program in Tulsa

October 12, 2009

Denver—Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL), a Denver-based nonprofit, has begun work on a three-year project to design and study the effects of a two-week, summer science program designed to encourage high school students to enroll in high school chemistry. Creation of the program, called "Cosmic Chemistry," is supported with funding from the United States Department of Education's Institute for Education Science (IES).

Cosmic Chemistry will use the real-world context of space science to set high expectations, build background knowledge, and motivate students, with the ultimate goal of increasing their science achievement. The curriculum will be based on real world science from the NASA Genesis Mission (http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov), the fifth in a series of un-manned NASA Discovery Program space missions focused on the solar system.

It will be designed for 9th- and 10th-grade students at Union Intermediate High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and held during the summers of 2010 and 2011. Union Public Schools District will identify 30 students who may need additional support before taking high school chemistry to participate in the pilot test.

The goal of the program is to both help students learn complex science concepts while building their confidence to take higher level science courses. It will teach students to think and communicate like scientists by identifying questions, generating hypotheses and conducting investigations to test their hypotheses.

Recruitment of student participants will begin in February 2010, with the first session starting in June 2010. Evaluation data from the 2010 program will be used to refine and improve the program as necessary for the following summer.

###

McREL is a nationally recognized, private, nonprofit organization located in Denver, Colo., dedicated to improving education for all students through applied research, product development and service. In 2008, McREL provided research-based guidance to educators and policymakers in four countries and 47 states across the U.S.

McREL Newsroom

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  Vice President,
  Communications
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  Fax: 303.337.3005

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Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL)
4601 DTC Blvd., Suite 500, Denver, CO 80237-2596
303.337.0990 (phone) • 303.337.3005 (fax)
www.mcrel.org • info@mcrel.org