NEE Principal Professional Development Plan

The Principal Professional Development Plan (PPDP) is designed to guide a principal's professional growth throughout the school year in the same way that the TPDP does for teachers. Most states do not require a professional growth plan for principals each year although research indicates that the school principal has the most direct opportunity to influence teacher effectiveness.

A 2017 report from the Education Policy Center at the American Institute for Research (AIR) puts it this way "...many aspects of learning are influenced by the quality of a school's leader. After all, principals recruit, retain, and support quality teachers, and research shows that quality teachers are the most important element in student success. School leaders influence student learning, the strength of the teachers, and the health of the school environment. And it is the principal who leads and oversees change at the school level."

Rowland, C. (2017). Principal Professional Development New Opportunities for a Renewed State Focus. Principal Professional Development New Opportunities for a Renewed State Focus. American Institutes for Research.

The PPDP goals for growth should be based on the needs of the individual principal. This allows each administrator to personalize the focus of their work on the skills and practices that they most need to improve or in which change is desired. In cases where the administrator's practice is acceptable in all areas, the growth might be planned for acquiring a new skill or knowledge base. Teacher observation data can also be used to inform principal professional development goals. If, for example, teacher observation data indicates that a group of teachers or the entire faculty share a weakness in one performance area, the principal might develop a learning goal involving that area in order to better support teacher improvement.

The activities in this module correspond to each step in the PPDP process. Open an activity to explore the explanation of the actions required in that step.

Review the activity below.

1. Principal Professional Development Plan

Be sure to consult Help and Resources on the NEE Data Tool to access:

• NEE Data Tool - Principal Professional Development Plan (instructions on completing and scoring a PPDP)

• Principal Professional Development Plan Organizer (the doc version of the organizer)

• Principal Professional Development Plan Organizer - Exemplar (a high scoring example)

• Principal Professional Development Plan Scoring Rubric (a doc version of the scoring rubric)