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Illinois School Board Journal
September/October 2003

Administrators need recertification help

by Frances Karanovich and Nick Osborne

Frances Karanovich is superintendent for Macomb CUSD 185; Nick Osborne is a professor at Eastern Illinois University.

When school doors throughout Illinois opened this August, every educator holding an Illinois Type 75 School Administrator's Certificate began the year with new rules for recertification. Online professional development plans, required annual Administrator Academy credit and mandatory documentation of 20 hours of annual professional growth (in addition to the Administrative Academy) are part of the new rules resulting from HB 0210.

This legislation, effective July 1, 2003, requires school administrators to meet standards not previously required for administrative certificate renewal. Each Illinois school board will be faced with administrators needing time away from their district and staff development dollars for Administrator's Academy courses, travel and other professional development-related expenses. The questions from most boards will be: "How often will our superintendent and/or principal have to be away?" and "How much money are we going to need to budget?" The answers will differ for every administrator and each school district.

All Illinois boards of education hire at least one certified administrator, and all Illinois administrators are required to comply with the recertification rules. What are these rules? Where did they come from? What opportunities are being provided to meet the requirements? And what can a school board do to ensure they have highly qualified, certificated administrators in the future?

Recertification requirements

The requirements are a convoluted maze of "if this, then that" nuances with caveats based on the renewal date of each administrator's teaching certificate. However, some basic requirements are applicable to all administrators' Type 75 certificates, which are issued for five years. The core elements of the recertification requirements are:

• Every administrator will need an online recertification plan containing three goals, with outlined activities for each goal. The plan must describe how activities address the goals and how the activities address the Illinois Professional School Leaders Standards (IPSLS);
• Each administrator must complete five activities with a minimum of 100 hours over the 5-year period, or 20 hours per year; and
• Each administrator must attend one Administrator Academy course each year.
• Administrators must maintain an electronic log of activities verified by a peer reviewer or review team before being eligible for a renewed certificate. The administrator must communicate, disseminate or otherwise apply what is learned in each activity.

This process is filled with details pertaining to credit, peer review team timelines, professional development plan requirements, portfolio documentation, a Least Restrictive Environment mandate (LRE), etc. But the details are for the administrator to worry about, not the board of education. The board's responsibility should only be to become aware that recertification requirements changed July 1 and that the new rules will require time, energy and money. The board also needs to work with the superintendent to be certain the district is covered and a plan with resources is in place to support administrators throughout the new recertification process.

Compliance assistance

The one administrator the board hires and directly evaluates is the superintendent. In 2002, the Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA), the professional organization for Illinois superintendents, began developing an Academy for Professional Development. Jacob "Jake" Broncato, IASA director of professional development, has worked with design teams and trained facilitators to develop eight one-day workshops that earn administrative credit. The workshops are: The ABC's of Administrator Recertification; Marketing and Public Relations; The Role of Leadership in the Change Process; Politics and Ethics of the Superintendency; Leader Know Yourself; Building Capacity for Change; Organizational Management; and Basic Needs of the Superintendent.

The Illinois Principals Association (IPA) has offered staff development opportunities with administrator's credit for some time. Principals, if they are members of this organization, have access to a comprehensive list of the workshops available. The IASA and IPA have partnered to offer the six IASA Academy for Professional Development workshops to superintendents and principals throughout the state.

If a superintendent or principal needs help in understanding the complexities and nuances of the recertification laws, or if they want to create a data-driven professional development plan based on prescribed standards for administrators, they should consider participating in The ABC's of Administrator Recertification workshop at the earliest possible date.

What should a board do?

Know that effective July 1, 2003, administrators' certificate renewal requirements changed. The rules affect all Illinois educators holding Type 75 administrative certificates.

Ask your superintendent about your district's administrators' knowledge of the recertification rule changes and the plans to comply with the new administrator recertification rules.

• Encourage your administrators to become familiar with the IASA's Academy for Professional Development; IPA's opportunities for professional growth, which include collaboration with the IASA; and awareness of Regional Office of Education (ROE) staff development offerings, which include Administrator Academy credit courses.
• Budget for your administrators to have professional development funds necessary to meet recertification rules.
• Support and understand the need for administrators to be away from the district and be aware of the time and energy requirements mandated by the recertification requirements for all administrators.
• Provide appropriate technology for your administrators to access the ISBE Web page and file the mandatory online professional development plan.
• Hold your superintendent accountable for monitoring professional development plans and recertification rule compliance.
• If your district has several administrators, consider a way to acknowledge their work and success during the five-year recertification process. Acknowledgement at a board meeting, recognition certificates, lapel pins and/or additional compensation are always appreciated but will need to be designed to meet the needs and means of a given school district.

Change is a part of life, and the recertification rules for all Illinois administrators have changed. There will be many questions and much deliberation as every administrator renewing an administrative certificate works his or her way through the change process. Board members need to be aware, be supportive and encourage their administrative team. Highly qualified, certified administrators are needed to help move Illinois school districts forward. It can be done!

For more information about IASA's recertification workshops, contact Jake Broncato at jakeiasa@aol.com, or phone the IASA office in Springfield (217-787-9306).