The Leader Quality Unit of the Division of School Improvement provides focused leadership training and development to support the Georgia Performance Standards implementation, guidance and ongoing support for GaDOE school improvement specialists, and coordinates the systematic use of SREB Leadership Modules targeting standards-based education and research-based school improvement priorities.

• High Performance Principals List 2008
• High Performance Principals List 2007
• High Performance Principals Program

About Leader Keys

• The Leader Keys is a performance appraisal process based on Georgia’s Leadership Performance Standards that have been adopted by the Board of Regents and the Professional Standards Commission. In the same manner that the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) guide student learning, the School Keys serve as a foundation for Georgia’s comprehensive system of school improvement and support, and the CLASS Keys guide the instructional practices of teachers, the Leader Keys define effective, high impact practices that school and district leaders need to know, understand, and do.
• The Leader Keys will serve as both a formative and summative instrument to identify a leader’s level of performance on specific standards. The Georgia Department of Education encourages the use of the process at the district and school levels to assess leadership performance and facilitate the professional growth that occurs as leaders engage in continuous improvement.
• The Leader Keys is organized into ten broad strands: Curriculum, Assessment, Standards-Based Instruction, Data Analysis, Organizational Culture, Professional Learning and Development, Performance Management and Process Improvement, Managing Operations, Leading Change, and Relationship Development. These ten strands have been further developed and defined into performance standards with rubrics and accompanying evidence and artifacts.
• The Leader Keys is in draft form and will be field tested by approximately fifty districts, including several hundred district and school leaders throughout the state, during the 2009-2010 school year. These leaders will serve as co-developers by providing feedback that will be used to refine the appraisal system. An external validation study of Leader Keys will be conducted and further refinements will be made to the process before the larger roll out in the 2010-2011 school year.