Statewide Success
NISL has now trained over 4,500 school leaders across the country. For example, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts have used NISL's Institutes and Executive Development Program as the core of their statewide professional development initiatives.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts was the first state to adopt NISL's Executive Development Program for the training of school principals statewide.
Download Summary of 2009 Independent Evaluator's Report on the Massachusetts' Project.
"We selected the NISL program because of its breadth, rigor, and the wealth of knowledge about leadership gathered from experts in diverse fields," says former Massachusetts state superintendent David Driscoll. "NISL [allows] our school leaders to work together toward common goals in a collegial network, so that eventually every leader in the state will speak the same language and use the same skills as they work together to refocus their schools toward results."
Lesley University in Cambridge is also using NISL's curriculum as the core of a doctoral degree for principals. The advanced degree program in educational leadership combines NISL's principal training with Ph.D.-level courses on management, organizational change, and educational theory and practice. As Margaret McKenna, president emeritus of Lesley University says, the combination of Lesley's graduate-level education courses and NISL's "unparalleled research-based pathway to principal training" allows the university to "provide the most innovative and powerful advanced degree opportunity in school leadership available nationwide."
The NISL program is as high quality a program as there is.”
David Driscoll, former Massachusetts state commissioner of education
Pennsylvania
In 2005, the Pennsylvania Department of Education created the Pennsylvania Inspired Leadership Initiative, a statewide, standards-based leadership development and support system for school leaders at all levels. NISL is one of two curriculum providers for the program.
NISL has worked with Pennsylvania to develop state standards for school leaders, design training programs that give participants the skills to meet these standards, and create assessment tools that measure the effectiveness of the program. The state now has new training requirements for beginning and veteran administrators, and has significantly increased state spending on training and professional development over the past four years.
Download the March 2010: Old Dominion Pennsylvania Study.
"Status quo educational leaders will not be able to create innovative, effective schools," notes the state secretary of education, Gerald Zahorchak. "If done right, state-run leadership programs are a cost-effective means of improving the preparation, retention, and success of school leaders, and thus of improving student outcomes."
NISL has helped us create turnaround artists, and has assisted principals in driving their schools from good to great.”
Gerald Zahorchak, Pennsylvania state secretary of education
Read more Testimonials from school leaders across the country.