Leadership Academies
The Tointon Institute provides two types of Leadership Academies each year, the Principal Leadership Academy and the School and Teacher Leadership Academy. Only graduates of the Principal Leadership Academy can apply for the School and Teacher Leadership Academies.
Principal Leadership Academy
The Tointon Institute for Educational Change hosts one Principal Leadership Academy in June of each year. Principals of elementary, middle, high, K-8, 6-12, and K-12 schools attend these academies. They are five days in length, Monday through Friday.
Each group ranges between 35-40 participants. Skilled facilitators work with the participants during their stay, discussing various topics from developing a school vision to implementing school reform, from improving personal leadership practices to instructional leadership, from developing learning communities within schools to planning and evaluating meaningful and effective staff development, from the nuts and bolts of shared leadership to developing a community where such leadership is embraced and other relevant topics.
Following the academy for one year, participants meet every 6-8 weeks online for continuing professional development hosted by the Director and a Facilitator. Additional support is arranged on an individual basis.
School & Teacher Leadership Academy
Each summer, the Tointon Institute for Educational Change offers two academies for teams of teachers and their principals to attend. These academies are only made available to “graduates” of the Principal Leadership academies. Like the Principal Leadership Academy, these opportunities are extremely popular and always over-subscribed.
These four-day academies are devoted to specific topics with one academy focused on instruction and Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to improve student learning and the other one focused on the development of strong, healthy school cultures to support student learning.
School teams consisting of anywhere from 4-10 members attend these academies with their principal. Some school teams represent their formal School Leadership Team whereas others are comprised of grade level representatives, subject representatives as well as other staff members who are identified as key to the school improvement process. As part of the academy, school teams develop a schoolwide plan for implementing practices learned as well as a plan for how to share what they have learned with the staff as a whole. All sessions include team processing time and devoted planning time is provided for all teams.
