More than half million downloads
from Principals’ Partnership Web site

Lew Armisted
LA Communications

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(A photo from our 2007 Summer Leadership Institute.)

More than half a million times educators have sought advice from The Principals’ Partnership Web site with the 500,000th download coming in early May.

  “Our site is now one of the most respected resources for educational information in the nation,” said F. James Hoffmann, executive director of The Partnership. “Not only are the approximately 1,000 public high school principals who are members of The Partnership using the site, but educators and parents from throughout the country have access to it.”

 The site, which has received numerous honors including recognition from USA TODAY and educationworld.com, offers articles on key educational issues, information on participating principals, access to other Web sites, and much more. The most popular component is the research brief section, which currently has 178 individual selections.
   While the value-added approach has merit, it is not perfect, Jeremy Ayers, an Alliance policy and advocacy associate, said at the March conference. “It works best when supplemented with other measures of student learning and of teacher knowledge and skills.”

 “The research briefs are a terrific perk of The Principal's Partnership,” says Nancy York, principal Navarro Academy High School, San Antonio. “Often I am overwhelmed with all the educational literature in print and on the web, so I regularly check The Principal's Partnership web page for the current brief. When a brief stirs my interest, I download it immediately and put it into a notebook. I have shared the briefs with fellow administrators and staff. “
   "Students who make greater gains than expected are judged to have teachers who ‘added value’ whereas students who did less well than anticipated have teachers who did not,” the brief points out. If a student achieves at the predicted level, the teacher is viewed as neither adding value nor hindering that youngster’s progress.

Iowa Principal Jeanene Sampson also is a fan of the Web site.

If you are a first year principal or “seasoned” principal the best resource available to you is this Web site,” she believes. “It is simply amazing! I have used it at East High School for several reform topics we are implementing and I have also recommended this Web site to several staff members for their professional requests. Each topic is so well researched, written in educator “friendly” language, relevant and reliable that you just can’t resist making this Web site your FIRST stop when covering the ‘tracks’ of any educational topic.”

The most popular research briefs since the start of 2008 have been school uniforms, tardiness, literacy across the curriculum, trimester schedules, and public displays of affection, according to Web master Jim Forde.

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