Professional Development

The Washington Elementary School District (WESD) is committed to providing ongoing professional development opportunities to school administrators, including those newly hired into a school administrator position.

New Administrator Training (NAT) Program

The NAT program is a two year program for new school administrators.  The NAT program typically meets on a monthly basis and provides new school administrators an opportunity to:

• Share their experiences
• Seek information and input
• Build relationships with district-level administrators and other personnel
• Receive details about particular procedures (e.g. budgetary procedures, new hire processes, staffing, etc.)
• Review case studies to problem solve potential situations that may occur at school

All school administrators, both principals and assistant principals, attend the Professional Learning Academy (PLA), which occurs on a biweekly basis.  The PLA typically consists of instructional, curricula and/or assessment topics.  Also, PLA provides an opportunity to plan and collaborate with other school administrators.

Each school year, school administrators are provided qualified evaluator training.  The qualified evaluator training consists of various evaluation topics including the following:

• Applicable laws and policies
• Procedures and best practices
• Data analysis of teacher evaluation outcomes
• Inter-rater reliability
• Shared ideas and experiences among school administrators.   

Each new hire school administrator is assigned an experienced principal mentor.  The mentor program is a two year commitment that allows the new school administrator and mentor principal to network and build a positive working relationship, to make site visits, and to provide a job embedded professional development.

All school administrators, both principals and assistant principals, attend online meetings.  The online meetings typically consists of business-related topics.  These meetings allow convenience for the school administrator as it allows the administrators to remain on campus while attending these brief meetings.