- PSEL
- Professional Standards for Educational Leaders — the 10 standards (NPBEA, 2015) the SLLA is built on, defining what effective school leaders know and do.
- NELP standards
- National Educational Leadership Preparation standards — translate the PSEL standards for preparing new school and district leaders.
- ISLLC standards
- Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium standards — the earlier leadership standards that PSEL replaced in 2015.
- Mission (school)
- A school's present core purpose — why it exists and whom it serves right now.
- Vision (school)
- The aspirational future state a school is working to become.
- Core values
- The shared beliefs and commitments that guide a school's daily decisions and behavior.
- Strategic planning
- Setting long-term, measurable goals tied to the mission and using data and stakeholder input to reach them.
- Data-driven decision-making
- Using evidence from multiple sources — achievement, attendance, climate, equity gaps — to define problems and choose strategies.
- Triangulation (data)
- Drawing on several data sources rather than one, so decisions rest on a fuller, less biased picture.
- Continuous improvement
- The repeating cycle of assess, plan, implement, monitor, and adjust that treats school improvement as ongoing, not one-time.
- School improvement plan (SIP)
- A documented set of goals, strategies, and measures a school uses to raise outcomes over time.
- SMART goals
- Goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound — so progress can be tracked.
- Stakeholders
- The people with an interest in the school — students, staff, families, and community — whose input strengthens decisions.
- Shared vision
- A vision developed WITH stakeholders so the whole school community owns and acts on it.
- Root-cause analysis
- Diagnosing the underlying cause of a problem before choosing a solution, instead of treating symptoms.
- Theory of action
- An if-then statement linking the leader's chosen strategies to the intended student-outcome results.
- Vertical alignment
- Coordinating curriculum and expectations across grade levels so learning builds coherently.
- Strategic resource alignment
- Directing time, people, and budget toward the goals in the improvement plan and the greatest needs.
- Instructional leadership
- Focusing a school's leadership on teaching and learning so every student learns — high expectations, strong instruction, and teacher capacity.
- Curriculum alignment
- Ensuring taught content matches the standards and the assessments students will face.
- Standards-based instruction
- Teaching and assessing against clearly defined learning standards for each grade and subject.
- Formative assessment
- Checking for understanding DURING learning to adjust teaching and give feedback — assessment FOR learning.
- Summative assessment
- Measuring achievement at the END of a unit or course — assessment OF learning.
- Diagnostic assessment
- Assessment given before instruction to reveal prior knowledge and gaps so teaching can be planned.
- Benchmark assessment
- Periodic assessment used to track progress toward standards across the year.
- Differentiated instruction
- Adjusting content, process, or product to meet learners' varied readiness, interests, and needs.
- Scaffolding
- Providing temporary supports that are gradually removed as students gain independence.
- Professional learning community (PLC)
- A team of educators who meet regularly to study results and improve instruction around shared learning goals.
- Professional development (PD)
- Ongoing, job-embedded learning that builds teachers' knowledge and skills, ideally chosen from a needs assessment.
- Job-embedded PD
- Professional learning that happens in the course of teaching — coaching, PLCs, lesson study — rather than one-off workshops.
- Instructional coaching
- Ongoing, non-evaluative support in which a coach helps a teacher refine practice using evidence.
- Professional capacity
- The collective knowledge, skills, and effectiveness of a school's staff, which leaders intentionally build.
- Walkthrough (classroom)
- Brief, frequent classroom visits a leader uses to gather instructional evidence and give feedback.
- Backward design
- Planning instruction by starting from the desired learning outcomes and assessments, then building lessons toward them.
- Response to Intervention (RTI)
- A tiered framework that screens all students and provides increasing support to those who need it.
- Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)
- A school-wide framework integrating academic and behavioral supports at escalating tiers of intensity.
- Data-informed instruction
- Using assessment results to target teaching, group students, and plan interventions.
- High expectations
- The belief, enacted in practice, that every student can reach rigorous standards with the right support.
- School climate
- How safe, supported, and connected students and staff feel day to day.
- School culture
- The deeper, shared set of beliefs, norms, and traditions that shape how a school operates over time.
- Culturally responsive leadership
- Recognizing and building on students' diverse cultural backgrounds to ensure equitable access and outcomes.
- Equity
- Giving each student the specific support and resources they need to access a high-quality education and reach high outcomes.
- Equality
- Treating everyone the same regardless of differing needs — distinct from equity.
- Inclusive environment
- A school setting where every student feels they belong and can fully participate and learn.
- Implicit bias
- Unconscious attitudes or stereotypes that can affect decisions — like discipline — without a person realizing it.
- Restorative practice
- A discipline approach that repairs harm and rebuilds relationships rather than relying on exclusion and punishment.
- Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
- A proactive, school-wide framework that teaches and reinforces expected behavior to improve climate.
- Social-emotional learning (SEL)
- Teaching skills like self-awareness, relationship-building, and responsible decision-making alongside academics.
- Trauma-informed practice
- Recognizing the impact of trauma on students and responding with safety, support, and consistency.
- Disproportionality (discipline)
- When a student group is disciplined at rates out of proportion to its share of enrollment — an equity red flag.
- Community of care
- A school environment that supports the academic, social, and emotional well-being of every student (PSEL Standard 5).
- Sense of belonging
- Students' feeling that they are valued members of the school community, which supports engagement and learning.
- Cultural competence
- The ability of staff to understand, respect, and work effectively across students' diverse cultures.
- Ethical leadership
- Acting with integrity, fairness, and transparency, keeping students' best interests at the center of every decision.
- Integrity (leadership)
- Doing the right thing consistently, even when it is unpopular, inconvenient, or unobserved.
- Professional norms
- The standards of integrity, fairness, and ethical conduct expected of educators and leaders (PSEL Standard 2).
- Transparency
- Openly sharing information and decisions so families, staff, and community can understand and trust the school.
- Confidentiality (student)
- Protecting students' personal and educational information, sharing it only as law and policy permit.
- Conflict of interest
- A situation where a leader's personal interest could improperly influence a professional decision.
- Ethical decision-making
- A process: identify the issue, gather facts, weigh values and options against student learning, act openly, then reflect.
- Due process
- The fair procedures owed to students and staff before adverse actions, such as discipline or dismissal.
- Fairness
- Applying rules and resources consistently while still meeting individual student needs.
- Advocacy (for students)
- Speaking and acting on behalf of students' best interests, especially those underserved.
- Whistleblower protection
- Safeguards for staff who report unethical or illegal conduct in good faith.
- Moral courage
- The willingness to make and stand by the right decision under pressure or risk.
- Distributed leadership
- Sharing leadership responsibility across teachers and teams rather than concentrating it in one person.
- Shared decision-making
- Involving representatives of stakeholder groups in important school decisions to build ownership.
- Change management
- Leading a transition by communicating the why, engaging staff, addressing concerns, and providing support so change sticks.
- Resource allocation
- Directing people, time, and budget toward the school's highest-priority goals and greatest needs.
- Operations management
- Running the building, schedule, transportation, and safety systems efficiently to enable teaching and learning.
- Span of control
- The number of people or units a leader directly supervises; an effective structure keeps it manageable.
- Delegation
- Assigning authority and responsibility to capable staff while retaining accountability for the outcome.
- Systems thinking
- Seeing the school as interconnected parts so a change in one area is managed for its effect on the whole.
- Strategic staffing
- Hiring, placing, and supporting staff to strengthen instruction and meet school goals.
- Performance metrics
- Clear, outcome-based measures (like new-teacher retention) used to evaluate programs and progress.
- Teacher retention
- Keeping effective teachers, strengthened most by comprehensive support and professional growth.
- Resistance to change
- Staff pushback during a transition — often a signal of a real concern to understand and address, not punish.
- Capacity building
- Developing the skills and leadership of staff so the organization can sustain improvement.
- School safety plan
- A documented plan of procedures and roles for keeping students and staff safe in emergencies.
- Family engagement
- Treating families as genuine partners in education through two-way communication and shared decision-making.
- Two-way communication
- Communication in which the school both shares information and actively listens to families and community.
- Community partnership
- A sustained, mutually beneficial relationship between a school and a community organization that supports students.
- School-community relations
- The leader's work to build trust and collaboration between the school and the broader community.
- Parent/family council
- A representative group of families that shares in school decision-making and reflects the community's diversity.
- Language access
- Providing translation and interpretation so families who speak other languages can fully participate.
- Wraparound services
- Coordinated health, social, and family supports connected to a school to remove barriers to learning.
- Community asset mapping
- Identifying the resources, organizations, and people in a community that can support the school.
- Public accountability
- Openly reporting school performance (e.g., an annual report) so the community can hold the school accountable.
- Cultural brokering
- Bridging school and home cultures so families from all backgrounds can engage meaningfully.
- Stakeholder engagement
- Genuinely involving families, staff, and partners in shaping decisions, not just informing them.
- Mutual benefit (partnership)
- The principle that lasting partnerships serve the goals of BOTH the school and the partner.
- Strategic foresight
- Anticipating future trends and challenges (enrollment, demographics, technology) and planning the school's direction accordingly.
- Goal cascading
- Aligning classroom and team goals to the school's strategic goals so all efforts pull in the same direction.
- Gap analysis
- Comparing current results to desired goals to pinpoint where improvement is needed.
- Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
- Designing instruction with multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression so it works for all learners.
- Bloom's taxonomy
- A hierarchy of thinking from recall up to analysis, evaluation, and creation, used to plan rigor.
- Common formative assessment
- A shared assessment used by a teacher team to compare results and adjust instruction collaboratively.
- Culturally responsive teaching
- Instruction that connects to students' cultures and experiences to make learning relevant and rigorous.
- Equity audit
- A systematic review of data and policies to surface and address gaps affecting student groups.
- Code of ethics (educators)
- A profession's published standards of ethical conduct that guide educators' and leaders' behavior.
- Servant leadership
- A leadership approach that prioritizes serving the needs of students, staff, and community first.
- Succession planning
- Developing future leaders within the school so leadership transitions are smooth and sustainable.
- Transparency reporting
- Publishing school performance and decisions openly to build community trust and accountability.
