Usage Guidelines: Introduction

We are all familiar with the remark that effective school leaders “know how to get things done despite the system.” The Wallace Foundation has funded leadership work that is intended to change this conversation. A critical objective of the Foundation and its grantees is to address systemic issues that affect leadership, so that state and district conditions support leaders and ensure that the critical goals of improving teaching and learning are attained.

AED has developed rubrics to identify conditions that support or impede leaders, and that assist state and district educators in assessing progress in addressing these conditions. In order to define which conditions are of highest priority, AED used data from the districts and states that received Wallace funding. Four areas were repeatedly at the top of state and district priorities:

  1. Access to useful and timely data and the support for using it to improve overall decision-making regarding teaching and learning.
  2. Equitable and adequate allocation of financial resources to support the teaching and learning goals of the system.
  3. Collaborative governance structures that align policies and practices with the state/district’s vision of high-quality education opportunities and high levels of achievement for all students.
  4. Equitable allocation and ongoing development of human resources to support the teaching and learning goals of the system.

We have provided a “Description” of the four conditions that the Rubrics address as well as a “How To Use” guide. Please review these sections before you begin working with the Rubrics.