The Washington County Consortium pursued STLE 3 grant funds to implement career ladder pathways in the 2013-14 school year across the five school districts.   Each district faced challenges that needed to be addressed through enhanced leadership.   The STLE grant would result in cross-district career ladder pathways and Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) that provide high-level peer coaching and professional development, extending the reach of the most effective educators across all districts. Prior to the STLE 3 grant, formal career ladder pathways did not exist within the consortium districts.  As small rural schools, they realize that sharing resources is vitally important to each district’s long-term health. The consortium recognizes that their teacher and principal leaders are some of their greatest resources and they fully support the concept of allowing their leaders to work with, and among, partnering schools. At that time only one district, Fort Ann CSD, had an existing “teacher leader” position (i.e. department head).  However, within individual districts, there was great potential for teacher and principal leaders and all districts agreed that there was a need for additional training and resources to fully prepare these individuals to take on a larger leadership role both within their home district and throughout the county.  

Consequently, the original vision of the consortium was to create collaborative Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and teacher and principal career ladder pathways that would enhance the effectiveness of all educators across each of the districts.  The goal of the PLCs was to provide training for the identified teacher leaders so that they could then become agents of change by taking on additional responsibilities for leading professional development opportunities, including turn-key training, and helping shape the future goals and vision of the district. A goal for all teachers within the consortium was to strive for National Board Certification in their respective disciplines. This was currently the practice within the Fort Ann CSD and as such would be replicated as part of the STLE grant. Also, through career ladder pathways, all districts hoped to develop and retain the most effective early career teachers and principals, nurturing their instructional practice and leadership ability to prepare them for future leadership roles. 

The consortium proposed teacher career ladder pathways that would have teachers move along the teacher and leader effectiveness continuum in the following stages: emerging teachers (Novice Level); master or mentor teachers (Professional Level); and teacher leaders (Leader Level). Teacher leaders would serve primary (K-2), intermediate (3-5), middle (6-8), and secondary grade levels (9-12). Principals would move along the principal career ladder pathway in the following stages: new principals and assistant principals (Novice Level); mid-career principals (Professional Level); and principal leaders (Leader Level). Due to variation in staff size and composition, the selection of career ladder pathway participants would be made at the district level.  All teacher and principal participants on a career ladder pathway would receive targeted professional development through trainings, workshops and participation in a Professional Learning Community (PLC). On the highest rung of each ladder, teacher and principal leaders would continue professional development and action research, as well as share their expertise, experience and training with other district educators through peer coaching activities. This career ladder pathways model would ensure that participants were supported with appropriate and sufficient training, and that the structure generated the necessary momentum to achieve substantive and sustainable improvement for participants and their larger school communities.

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