Primary Program Areas

To accomplish its mission, the CLE will focus its resources on three primary program areas: 

• Leadership training and development, which serves individuals in the profession;

• Leadership system support, which serves schools, school systems, and other educational and governmental organizations;

• Leadership research, analysis and dissemination, which serves the educational profession, public policy makers, and political leadership.

Goals of the CLE

The three program areas which form the focus for CLE pursuits are supported by four goals:

• To expand and develop leadership capacity in schools and school systems across the state and the region through preparation of leaders who embody the new leadership paradigm

• To provide training programs and support services necessary to enable schools systems to become true learning organizations

• To collaborate with other organizations and institutions in a compact for the strengthening of educational leadership on a pre-K-16 basis across the state

• To expand knowledge and understanding of educational leadership practice which assures excellence in teaching and learning for every student, in every classroom, in every school, and in every school system of the state

Current and Developing Program Areas

• Women in Leadership:  This program will  address the unique needs and talents of women in leadership positions or aspiring to move into such positions.

• Assistant Principals’ Summer Leadership Institute:  This inaugural program, launched in June, 2000, focuses on the development of these individuals as emerging leaders who are the next generation of leadership at the school and system levels.

• Teacher Leadership Program:  Preliminary plans are underway for joint sponsorship of this program with the Maryland State Teachers Association.  This program recognizes that teachers perform numerous leadership functions—both in and out of the classroom—every day of their professional career.  Yet with the exception of those who are pursuing an administrative role, teachers receive little or no formal training in leadership skills and understandings.  Teachers, along with the principal, are the key to building leadership capacity within schools.

• School Board Leadership Institutes:  This program will be jointly sponsored with the Maryland Association of Boards of Education and will assist local Boards of Education in developing the skills and insights necessary to implement the Work of School Boards model developed by the National School Boards Association.

• Leadership Support Development Program:  This program targets the leadership development needs of the group of school system employees typically designated as “School Business Officials,” although that nomenclature is hardly descriptive.  While they have typically received considerable attention to their technical training needs, leadership skill development has been relegated to on-the-job experience, if at all.  This program is being developed in cooperation with the MD/DC Association of School Business Officials.

• Technology Leadership Program:  While only in the early planning stages, this program will build on initial efforts of the Maryland Technology Academy to develop technology understanding and skills on the part of school administrators to enable them to capitalize on the greatly enhanced skills of their teachers who have participated as Fellows in the Maryland Technology Academy.

  It is anticipated that other programs and services will emerge as the needs and interests of the Center’s clientele change and develop.  

Link to the New CLE Page