The goal for the second year of the LLN was to make the web page fully operational. In brief, the expectation was that the development team would create additional material to refresh the site each month, from September 2000 to June 2001, with information that was timely and relevant to the needs of principals and/or assistant principals.

The content specialist, Carole Jarrell, was successful in refreshing the site each month during the above period. Barbara Cooley, the web master, posted the new material promptly each month as Carole delivered it electronically. Throughout the year, staff and steering committee members had opportunities to use the site and to judge the capacity of the site to accomplish the purpose outlined below in the introduction to the principal’s office web page:

*****

Continuous improvement of student performance requires a leadership context that fosters learning. Effective principals understand and shape the educational and social character of their schools.

The Leadership and Learning Network supports principals in their efforts to raise student achievement. The Network is designed to

· help principals assess and reflect on their own leadership and management practice;

· help develop and sustain professional learning communities dedicated to the continuous improvement of student and organizational performance; and

· promote and support dialogue among principals on pertinent problems and best practices.

The Network connects principals to their peers, relevant research, professional development resources, emergent national and state policies, and best practices in leadership and learning.

The Web site is designed to provide principals with convenient and fast access to relevant information and resources. Welcome to the Leadership and Learning Network!

*****

The second year of the project, however, fell short of expectation in one respect: the project lacked overall leadership after Brad Mitchell, the original director of the LLN, left to take a position with ODE. Contacts with the four OSU/USI districts were not realized and there was no further feedback sought from the consultant group made up of three principals from each of the four districts.

As a consequence, the timetable for eventually housing the web site within the School of Educational Policy and Leadership was revised. Mary Ann Sagaria, the Director of P&L, met with OSU/USI staff to chart a course for developing the web site with the ultimate goal of it becoming self-sustaining through direct contracts with the school districts to deliver professional development support for teachers. This spring, staff met with Mary Ann and a team of OSU professionals to further explore this goal and to identify the resources and personnel to accomplish this task.

At the May 2001 meeting of the steering committee, in light of the fact that second year funding for LLN was to end June 1, 2001, staff asked the steering committee for direction and guidance. The SC viewed the project as worth supporting, despite the revised timetable and delay. They recommended that staff contact Carole Jarrell and discuss ways to continue the project, with her working directly with OSU/USI staff.

They recommended that Carole be in contact with key personnel in each district and that she draw up a work plan for the continued development of the LLN site to serve the identified needs and interests of OSU/USI school districts (including the possibility of offering courses for principals tied to the web site). 

The SC concluded that the partnership has a substantial investment in LLN site development and needed to find ways to assure that more principals use the site and, where appropriate, increase the impact of other OSU/USI professional development projects supported through the Jennings partnership.

OSU/USI staff held a follow up meeting on June 15, 2001, with Carole Jarrell to outline a work plan that would further develop the site content to make it more useful to the four OSU/USI districts over the next year. Staff identified several technical matters that Carole Jarrell and Barbara Cooley needed to work on over the summer in July 2001 to personalize the page and make it easier for the principals to use during the school year.

The next step was to meet in August 2001 with the superintendent, the staff development coordinator, and other key people in each district to demonstrate the web site, preview the content development plan, and request a recommendation of a principal to interview about instructional leadership practices relative to district initiatives.

From Septemnber 2001 to June 2002, the work plan calls for Carole Jarrell to develop site content for each of the four districts. Carole has outlined the overall process below:

"One of the most important things

we can do to improve the quality of

education in Ohio schools is to provide

superb professional development for

the people who lead them."

Susan Tave Zelman, Superintendent of

Public Instruction, Ohio Dept. of Education

 

 

· Develop separate page descriptive table of contents for each page topic

· Improve feedback and other interactive functions

· Re-design Leadership and Learning home page to clarify content of destination pages

· Contact districts to set up August meetings with central office (e.g. superintendent, curriculum coordinator, staff development director, technology coordinator)

 

Meet with each district to

· Demonstrate what web site currently offers

· Introduce next steps: urban district needs, goals, 2001-2002 initiatives to meet goals, with building level principals in focus and as target users.

· Preview content development plan: meet with a recommended principal each month, beginning in August, to profile principal’s instructional leadership practices relative to district initiatives and organized by Principal’s Office page topics.

· Request recommendations for principals to interview at their schools.

· Present each district with information packet: disks and printouts of current site contents.

 

 

Meet with Principal 1 to

· Interview regarding instructional leadership practices relative to district initiatives

· Obtain relevant content for Communication Toolkit, Publication Digest, Resources, School Workshops, and Political Landscape.

· Take digital photos for update

 

· Develop site content from August meeting

· Preview content electronically with focus principal for accuracy

· Send content to webmaster for posting on site

· Meet with Principal 2 (see above) for next site update

· Rotate through the four districts so that each is featured in 2001-2002

 

 

Last year’s budget was built around a $20,000 grant that covered $2,000 per month for a ten-month period: 30 hours of the content specialist’s work at $50 per hour and up to 10 hours for the web master’s work at $30 per hour.

We propose that this year we need to budget for a twelve-month period, at $2,000 per month, to cover the content specialist and the web master’s hours. We expect that the remainder of the grant will cover costs related to travel to each of the four districts during the year.

Project Director/content specialist $1,500 (based on $50 per hour X 30 hours)

Web Master $300 (base on $30 per hour X 10 hours)

Travel $200 (mostly for Mansfield, Springfield)

Total per month $2,000