LEADERS Center of Excellence
Leading Educational Administrator Development for Excellent Rural Schools
Based at Clemson University’s College of Education, the LEADERS Center of Excellence aims to use leadership coaching and improvement science to improve school leadership practice in rural, underperforming, and high-poverty schools in ways that will increase teacher retention and student learning outcomes.
Experienced school and district leaders
Instructional coaches, assistant principals, principals from schools that:
- Are rural, or high poverty (75%), or have low academic performance, and
- Have a greater-than-average teacher turnover (i.e., less than 92.3% 3-yr average return)
The LEADERS Center of Excellence is a leadership coaching community (LCC), where leadership coaches and school leaders can develop their abilities to lead, coach other leaders, and use improvement science to identify and address local problems of practice.
The purpose of the Center, which is supported by the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education, is to provide leadership coach and school leader professional development in rural, underperforming, and high-poverty schools and districts with greater-than-average levels of teacher turnover.
Education research suggests that school improvement efforts that enhance instructional practices, school climate, and organizational conditions can increase teacher retention and student learning outcomes. The Center, which will be housed in the Clemson University College of Education, will address these two critical needs by providing school leaders with professional development that utilizes the innovative approaches of leadership coaching and improvement science.
Leadership coaching is a transformational professional development intervention for developing leaders that involves a one-on-one relationship where coaches help school leaders improve their leadership effectiveness. Improvement science is a problem-solving approach centered on continuous inquiry and learning where change ideas are tested in rapid cycles, resulting in efficient and useful feedback to inform system improvements.
While participating in the Center, coaches learn leadership coaching techniques to assess school leaders’ professional needs and constraints. The coaches then work together with the leaders to explore new possibilities using improvement science techniques that will help the school leaders implement and sustain school improvement initiatives.
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LEADERS Center of Excellence Team
Angie Carter, Assistant Professor - Educational and Organizational Leadership Development
Hans Klar, Professor - Educational and Organizational Leadership Development
Noelle Paufler, Assistant Professor - Educational and Organizational Leadership Development
Betty Thompson Bagley, Graduate Research Assistant - Educational and Organizational Leadership Development
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Contact Us
For more information or questions about the LEADERS Center of Excellence, please contact Dr. Hans Klar at 864-656-5091 or hklar@clemson.edu.
- For Participants
LEADERS Theory of Action
LEADERS provides scaffolded support that involves training experienced school leaders in leadership coaching and improvement science and providing a combination of school-based coaching and professional community for coaches and school leaders.
LEADERS Conceptual Framework
Through participation in LEADERS, coaches and leaders will develop their abilities to implement rapid cycles of improvement that focus on instructional practices, school climate, and organizational conditions. In turn, these changes are likely to increase teacher retention and student learning outcomes.
