Clemson Teams With Upstate Schools To Promote Leadership Development
By Tierney Gallagher
Leadership 2.0 is a two-year professional development program for mid-career principals focused on leadership capacity development at the school level. It seeks to advance administrators’ effectiveness by providing them with the skills needed to seek out and solve problems. It is geared toward those seeking to reach the next level of their leadership capacity in their careers and in their schools.
The program takes a new approach to school improvement by providing coursework and collaborative pairings of school leaders. Its purpose is to increase leadership capacity for next generation schools and cultivate improved teaching and meaningful learning.
What is Leadership 2.0/3.0?
Leadership 2.0 is a two-year professional development program for mid-career principals focused on leadership capacity development at the school level. It seeks to advance administrators’ effectiveness by providing them with the skills needed to seek out and solve problems. It is geared toward those seeking to reach the next level of their leadership capacity in their careers and in their schools.
Leadership 2.0 is a two-year professional development program for mid-career principals focused on leadership capacity development at the school level. It seeks to advance administrators’ effectiveness by providing them with the skills needed to seek out and solve problems. It is geared toward those seeking to reach the next level of their leadership capacity in their careers and in their schools.
Leadership 3.0 is a one-year program for senior leaders and more experienced administrators that provides leadership capacity development focused on coaching and serving as mentors to future leaders. It provides them with the skill set for developing leadership capacity of mid-career educators and school stakeholders as coaches at the building level.
Participants serve the 10 districts involved and are individuals who have demonstrated strong leadership potential, as identified by district superintendents. Each program is a combination of in-person, on-campus, in-district and online work. Learning venues include on-site mentoring meetings and planning sessions, traditional face-to-face seminars, and virtual learning communities, social networks, simulations and case studies.
Leadership 2.0 and 3.0 help to provide learning opportunities in regards to school performance and community audits, and capacity development in coaching and distributed school leadership. In addition to these goals, the programs incorporate a variety of benefits that affect a broad range of people. These include increased learning for students, certification and graduate credits for participants, school-based capacity building for school leadership teams, and better relationships, higher engagement and more student success for school community stakeholders. Both programs offer participants Clemson certification and can be used for credit toward an educational specialist degree.
One of the distinct qualities of the program is the high level of collaboration. Leadership 2.0/3.0 brings together Clemson and 10 school districts in South Carolina, including Abbeville, Edgefield, Greenwood 50, Greenwood 51, Greenwood 52, Laurens 55, Laurens 56, McCormick, Newberry and Saluda school districts.
One of the distinct qualities of the program is the high level of collaboration. Leadership 2.0/3.0 brings together Clemson and 10 school districts in South Carolina, including Abbeville, Edgefield, Greenwood 50, Greenwood 51, Greenwood 52, Laurens 55, Laurens 56, McCormick, Newberry and Saluda school districts. These districts are all part of the WPEC, a long-time partner with Clemson’s aspiring school leaders programs.
Leading the program are Dr. Janie Lindle, professor of educational leadership, and Dr. Robert Knoeppel, professor of educational leadership and chair of the faculty of Leadership, Counselor Education, Human and Organizational Development at Clemson. Also highly involved are Dr. Hans Klar, professor of educational leadership, Kenyae Reese and Matthew Della Sala, doctoral students in educational leadership.
A new approach
According to Lindle, the program is unique because it brings a new focus to educational leadership development. While other programs focus on preparing new, pre-service principals, generally teachers seeking to become principals, Leadership 2.0/3.0 helps principals who are mid career to pass the plateau they often encounter. “We’re trying to keep these folks from being good at only one thing; to try something else, something different and all to keep improving,” Lindle said.
According to Lindle, the program is unique because it brings a new focus to educational leadership development. While other programs focus on preparing new, pre-service principals, generally teachers seeking to become principals, Leadership 2.0/3.0 helps principals who are mid career to pass the plateau they often encounter. “We’re trying to keep these folks from being good at only one thing; to try something else, something different and all to keep improving,” Lindle said.
Instead of helping to prepare leaders, the program focuses on making advancements, preventing dips or declines, promoting steady upward progress and improving leadership strategies.
One of the major benefits resulting from this approach is participants’ ability to interact and learn from other experienced professionals through networking. “The program offers us a chance to network with other school administrators in a small setting,” said Brenda Romines, principal at Bell Street Middle School in Laurens County School District 56. “We are given the opportunity to focus on real things that are vital and happening in our schools currently. It offers an opportunity to reflect on our practice in many ways.”
Learning for leaders, and children
While the program is for educational leaders, its impact ultimately reaches children through improving student learning. Knoeppel points out that this is the most important part. “This is the paramount goal of educational preparation and service to the state; we’re creating different conditions for kids and great opportunities for them,” he said.
While the program is for educational leaders, its impact ultimately reaches children through improving student learning. Knoeppel points out that this is the most important part. “This is the paramount goal of educational preparation and service to the state; we’re creating different conditions for kids and great opportunities for them,” he said.
By improving the leadership capacity of school administrators, the program in turn affects actual learning. “People care about kids but not about the people taking care of kids,” Lindle said. “People should also care about the people taking care of kids. There is a big difference between keeping school and actually teaching. There’s got to be more than that.”
By connecting with 10 different districts and hopefully expanding to more in the future, the program is designed to reach out to those not only around Clemson, but also throughout South Carolina.
Leadership 2.0/3.0 offers unique opportunities by encouraging cooperation across district lines and throughout the state. By connecting with 10 different districts and hopefully expanding to more in the future, the program is designed to reach out to those not only around Clemson, but also throughout South Carolina. “In terms of the land grant model, there are many programs that go border to border in this state,” Lindle said. “However, education is not thought of this way. This is Clemson dealing with the entire state and school districts across the state.”
Despite its focus on extending these efforts statewide, Leadership 2.0/3.0 still makes a distinct impact on people and their communities. “Education is a relationship business where people learn, grow and change. We make a difference at Clemson because we have these relationships with schools, districts, and educators across the state; we’ve invested a lot of time in the field,” said Knoeppel. “Through capacity building, sustaining and improving, Clemson is investing in the schools by taking its resources and investing back into the public.”
Coming back to campus
While the program helps those in the outside community grow, it contributes something special to the University as well. Leadership 2.0/3.0 also provides Clemson the opportunity to learn and give back to its own students.
While the program helps those in the outside community grow, it contributes something special to the University as well. Leadership 2.0/3.0 also provides Clemson the opportunity to learn and give back to its own students.
“The program creates an avenue for us to communicate with districts and learn about the field, and at the same time rethink our own preparation program for training leaders for the field so we can revise what we are doing,” said Knoeppel. “If we didn’t have that relationship, this dialogue wouldn’t happen and we wouldn’t get the indirect result of improved principal preparation.”
Also, because the program is one of a kind, it helps Clemson to differentiate itself from other schools with training and specialization programs in education.
Future goals
According to Lindle, the overarching goal of Leadership 2.0/3.0 is that schools in the districts involved will have leaders for continuous improvement now and in the future. Knoeppel explains that by preparing participants to be mentors for later, the program is consistently building resources for improving leadership capacity and can have a greater impact as time goes on. As the program progresses, they hope it is able to expand and provide these opportunities to districts in other parts of the state as well.
According to Lindle, the overarching goal of Leadership 2.0/3.0 is that schools in the districts involved will have leaders for continuous improvement now and in the future. Knoeppel explains that by preparing participants to be mentors for later, the program is consistently building resources for improving leadership capacity and can have a greater impact as time goes on. As the program progresses, they hope it is able to expand and provide these opportunities to districts in other parts of the state as well.
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