Partnership for Leaders in Education

UVA-PLE - Core Partnership - Approach

Approach

When Young Minds Are at Stake, Good Is Never Good Enough

The UVA-PLE team collaborates with leaders who strive to better education by bettering the institution. Change that cannot happen overnight.

Our goal is to empower system- and school-level leaders to achieve dramatic improvement in a set of district-prioritized schools. The lessons learned and successes achieved inform our strategies for expanding and sustaining success across the school system. The University of Virginia Core Partnership is rigorous, and we never lose sight of the real impact leadership can have on the lives of students.

UVA Core Partnership Approach

The University of Virginia Core Partnership is a three-year district and school leadership development experience that emphasizes improving school system’s conditions through four main levers of change:

  1. Leadership: Systems require the will and capacity to prioritize what is necessary to improve the lives of the children they serve and present a clear vision for the path ahead.

  2. Differentiated Support and Accountability: System leaders must provide schools with the capacity-building, support, accountability and flexibility needed to achieve urgent change. This support must be tailored to each individual system and school.

  3. Talent Management: Creating the environment for success requires having the right people in place to carry out the work. We work with districts to enhance the selection of school leaders, the number of highly effective staff and the development of existing staff.

  4. Instructional Infrastructure: A core component of our work involves data-driven instruction to create an evidence-based approach to better serve students. We work with system leaders to create and implement a cohesive assessment strategy, responsive data systems and a high-quality curriculum.

Focusing on these levers, the program aims to create the system-wide infrastructure necessary to quickly, dramatically and sustainably improve student performance through the three-year process summarized below:

  • Engage

    Two Months

    Together, we identify your district's strongest needs and highest-leverage opportunities.

    • One core, on-site assessment to understand your system conditions
    • Multiple engagements to craft the vision and scope of work
  • Design

    Five to 10 Months

    We architect long- and short-term strategies to address district-specific challenges, outline sustainable change and prepare a learning lab of schools.

    • Four days of system design courses through Darden Executive Education
    • Multiple days of embedded, research-based leadership interviews to identify change-ready principals, district leaders and additional personnel
    • At least one on-site support visit to help structure your strategy and optional custom support to schools to accelerate their leadership advancement
    • Continuous on- and off-site collaboration to shape a strategy contextualized to your ambitions
  • Activate

    Year One

    School and district leaders immerse in a rigorous campaign to ignite school performance, leadership commitments and collective purpose.

    • One week of summer executive education for your selected leadership to advance their change leadership and address root issues
    • Three days of winter executive education for leaders to iterate and adapt change efforts
    • At least four on-site support visits tailored to your focus areas and leaders' needs
    • One Principal Supervisor Summit to accelerate coaching opportunities and support schools
    • Year-round off-site support for strategic consultation and Year Two planning
  • Adapt

    Year Two

    Leaders integrate the success of Year One and adapt their approach toward new areas of sustainable improvement.

    • Three days of summer executive education to synthesize the prior year's outcomes
    • Three days of winter executive education to innovate on district successes and spread organizational learning
    • At least three on-site support visits to drive continuous improvement
    • One Principal Supervisor Summit to continue generating a community of senior leaders
    • Year-round off-site support to consolidate your learning and deepen its impact
  • Extend

    Year Three and Beyond (Optional)

    Continuous improvement takes many shapes. Eighty percent of our partners choose to extend their UVA-PLE partnership with sustainability, cabinet and new cohort support.