Leading Ed Partnerships Case Study Exercise

Illinois State University (ISU) received a Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grant from the U.S. Department of Education in 2017 to support principals’ instructional leadership. ISU’s Leading Ed Partnerships project is focusing on coaching as a primary strategy to develop principals’ instructional leadership capacity and positively influence student learning. Leading Ed Partnerships assesses mindset during the interview process by responding to a coaching scenario. The scenario is based on actual experiences that coaches have faced in their role of supporting principals. The grantee uses a candidate’s response to assess whether the candidate can identify the principals’ strengths and recognize the need to gather information about the principal’s leadership structure and context. The scenario allows the interview team to better understand how a candidate approaches the coaching relationship and whether the candidate is willing to work collaboratively with principals.