Rhode Island Instructional Leadership Academy

The Rhode Island Instructional Leadership Academy (RIILA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, created in 2005 to serve as the professional development arm of the Rhode Island Association of School Principals.The Academy's mission is to develop and support Rhode Island school leaders in building strong school learning communities that foster high achievement for all students. The Academy's vision is to provide collaborative professional development experiences for Rhode Island school leaders to enhance student achievement and close achievement gaps within and between schools. 

RIILA successfully began full implementation of its 2019 Principal Mentoring/Coaching plan with the following objectives in order to support new/early career and veteran RI principals. The RIASP/RIILA Principal Coaching Program is grounded in the RI Standards for Educational Leaders (RISELs). These objectives are:  

Develop a principal coaching support system for new/early career principals, which  includes training coaches, providing a continuous improvement network for coaches,  and providing one-on-one coaching for new/early career principals. 

Establish a new and aspiring principal network. This network will support an ongoing  community of practice for new and aspiring principals deeply committed to investigating  the role of the principal as the instructional leader. 

The Purpose of RIASP’s Principal Coaching Program is to provide a framework for  beginning principals and early career principals to accelerate their development as educational leaders. Program objectives include:  

1. Provide beginning and early career principals with mentoring/coaching support and professional development opportunities across the RI Educational Leadership Standards to help them grow as instructional leaders focused on equity, high standards and success for all students.  

2. Provide beginning and early career principals with non-threatening, meaningful and relevant mentoring/coaching support to help them develop their leadership skills and dispositions in managing people, data, and process in ways that promote school improvement and safe and caring schools.  

3. Provide novice principals with mentoring/coaching support to support performance expectations and develop a deep understanding of the Rhode Island Standards for Educational Leaders, and principal performance competencies described in the Rhode Island Principal Evaluation System.

Program Outcomes: RIILA’s program outcomes are based on identifying priorities and goal setting for the year, creating an action plan/ strategy map to bring about the desired  instructional change and progress.