AWSP Leadership Framework
The AWSP Leadership Framework was designed to promote the growth of the school leader in areas that are most likely to result in increased student achievement. It directly aligns with Washington state evaluation criteria, rules and regulations.
NEW: AWSP Leadership Framework 3.0
7.0.3
In Effect This School Year
In effect for the 2020-2021 school year, the AWSP Framework 3.0 is the result of a process that included an analysis of other school leadership frameworks, feedback from focus groups and interviews with principals and their supervisors who have been using the original AWSP Framework. Resources and commentary have been added to support and emphasize the importance of growth-oriented conversations.
Print Copies Distributed in August 2020
Print copies of the AWSP Framework 3.0 for each school leader and supervisor were mailed to district offices in early
August 2020. If you didn't receive a copy,
let us know.
Video: Getting to Know Your New Framework
This quick video will walk you through the changes and provide information on how to use the AWSP Leadership Framework 3.0, which goes into effect July 1, 2020.
The video shares AWSP's recommendations for using this document, as well as updates on the general revisions made to this version.
Note: This video does NOT take the place of state-required Framework trainings.
Evidence of Impact Tool
AWSP's Evidence of Impact Tool is designed to help encourage school leaders in conversations about the impact of leadership. It is not an evaluation form, but helps you work through several thoughts on leadership: What is your Problem of Practice (POP) and Theory of Action (TOA)? What makes you an effective leader? How do you know you had an impact?
The Evidence of Impact Tool was updated in 2019. The tool and additional details can be found in the AWSP Leadership Framework 3.0.
Tip: You may need to download the form and open it to use it as a fillable PDF file.
The User's Guide
In 2014, AWSP released the Leadership Framework
User's Guide as a companion to our Leadership Framework. This User’s Guide provided helpful resources to school leaders and their supervisors on how to have ongoing conversations around professional learning using the Leadership Framework. The User’s Guide also provided suggestions on how both principal and supervisor could prepare for evaluative conversations. While this document was helpful, it was impossible to keep the contents current and relative to the ever-changing job of a school leader.
Support for Your Leadership Growth
For version 3.0 of the AWSP Leadership Framework, we included one page per criterion to help guide your leadership journey. These pages are similar to the past User’s Guide and provide suggestions to help you plan, implement, assess, and reflect for your professional growth. In an effort to stay current, expanded versions of these pages, including tools and resources, will be available on the AWSP website. Each criterion will have its own page where we can keep providing new resources to help you think about and grow your own leadership.
Criterion Resource Pages
Directly Aligned to Evaluation Criteria
Of the four state-approved instructional and leadership frameworks, AWSP's is the only one directly aligned with Washington's new evaluation criteria (see diagram at right and click/tap to expand).
History of the Framework
With the establishment of state standards in 1992, AWSP recognized that student achievement would become the primary measure of a school's effectiveness.
Since then, a significant shift has taken place--a shift that has required the evolution of new school cultures, the understanding of new roles for teachers and the development of new student accountability performance standards established and measured outside of the classroom.
Pivotal to the success of this shift is a new type of principal leadership. With this in mind, AWSP assembled a task force of more than 20 principals to analyze this new type of leadership and create a new set of principal responsibilities to match it.
The goal was to create a document showing the interrelationship between these responsibilities and district policies and practices. The task force realized that, as the principals' work changed, the districts' principal evaluation models would also need to change in order to provide the support critical for these school leaders.
The task force developed a Statement of Accountability to guide its work: "Student achievement in a performance-based school is a shared responsibility involving the student, family, educators and the community. The principal's leadership is essential. As leader, the principal is accountable for the continuous growth of individual students and increased school performance as measured over time by state standards and locally determined indicators."
Out of its work, the task force developed seven leadership responsibilities for principals. Also generated were examples of corresponding components that allow principals to successfully carry out those specific responsibilities.
In 2010, AWSP's seven leadership responsibilities became the foundation for a new set of criteria for principal evaluation in Washington state. An eighth criterion, "Closing the Gap," was added by the Legislature that same year.
In 2019, AWSP began the process of revising the Leadership Framework to create version 3.0. The AWSP Framework 3.0 is the result of a process that included an analysis of other school leadership frameworks, feedback from focus-groups and interviews with principals and their supervisors who have been using the original AWSP Framework. Our goal was to create a document that provides structure for conversations leading to the improvement of leadership practices. Resources and commentary have been added to this version in order to support and emphasize the importance of growth-oriented conversations. Version 3.0 goes into effect July 2020.
Required Leadership Framework Trainings
Did you know that anyone who supervises a principal or assistant principal is required to attend 12 hours of state-required AWSP Leadership Framework training? For more information, call the AWSP office at 800.562.6100 or check out the
TPEP Events calendar on the OSPI website.
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For More Information
Jack Arend | Associate Director | (800) 562-6100
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