MADISON, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Educational researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced today the launch of a web-based version of CALL (Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning), an assessment of K-12 school leadership based on more than four years of research. CALL focuses on how well and how often teachers and administrators carry out critical leadership tasks day to day throughout the school. The result is concrete recommendations for improvements, correlated to five critical domains that determine school success. CALL is now available to all schools as a valuable information resource to improve teaching and learning.
“The CALL leadership assessment is based on new ideas of teaching, learning, and leading,” said Dr. Richard Halverson, professor of educational leadership and co-developer of CALL. “We know today that many educators create conditions in their schools to improve student learning. CALL was developed and validated in more than 200 schools across the country to address this important shift from leaders to leadership.”
Created with support from a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, CALL is a validated assessment of distributed leadership – the actual tasks that impact student learning. Based on research by Dr. Halverson and Dr. Carolyn Kelley, CALL is designed to provide detailed guidance to successful school improvement plans. Every educator in the school takes the CALL survey to ensure that schools receive a holistic perspective on relevant leadership practices.
CALL is already in use in schools across the country. The Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement (GLISI) recently purchased annual CALL subscriptions for five of its partner schools. “We chose CALL because it aims to measure distributed leadership, making it a direct match with our leadership development model. We needed a reliable research-based measure that can tell us how well the skills and strategies we teach leaders is cascaded into practice with their teacher teams,” said Leslie Hazle Bussey, Chief of Staff at GLISI. “As a bonus, our principals and coaches can access the data immediately and begin using it to guide planning and learning.”
CALL is available for purchase through the Wisconsin Center for Education Products and Services (WCEPS). Information on the assessment, including costs, can be found at www.leadershipforlearning.org, or by phoning 877-249-4211.
About the Researchers
Dr. Richard Halverson is a professor in Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis and a researcher at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER), University of Wisconsin – Madison. His research aims to bring the research methods and practices of the Learning Sciences to the world of educational leadership. He co-founded the Games Learning and Society (GLS) research group at UW-Madison, a Fellow at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, and the Co-Director of the Wisconsin Collaborative Education Research Network.
Dr Carolyn Kelley is professor and chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis and a researcher at WCER at UW-Madison. Her research focuses on the preparation and development of school leaders, and teacher evaluation and compensation as elements of strategic human resources management in schools. She is author of several books on school leadership, including Learning First! A School Leader’s Guide to Closing Achievement Gaps (Corwin Press, 2009).
About Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement (GLISI)
GLISI is a non-profit organization founded in 2001 that provides training, consulting, and research services to education leaders. Drawing on research and best practice in K-12 education, business, and adult learning, GLISI’s mission is to develop world-class education leaders who advance student achievement and organizational effectiveness. In FY13, GLISI served over 800 school/district leaders in 51 Georgia districts, collaborating with 12 state agencies and associations to develop strong leaders who transform lives in their communities.
About the Wisconsin Center for Education Products and Services
WCEPS, a non-profit organization founded by friends of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, collaborates with UW–Madison to disseminate educational products and services created at the university to school administrators, teachers, and students. WCEPS extends the impact of UW-Madison’s educational innovations in order to endow further research and development. WCEPS is guided by a Board of Directors that includes the Dean of the School of Education, the UW-Madison Provost and other education and business leaders.
