School leaders are essential to local education agencies (LEA) strategies for improving educational equity and student achievement in public schools in the District of Columbia. To support District of Columbia LEAs, OSSE worked with the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders, other national experts, and educators from across the District to improve supports for principals. A first result of this effort is the new Model DC School Leadership Standards, which align with national principal standards and are tailored to the local DC context. This document is an optional support for DC LEAs, who can use these standards as a tool in their recruitment, preparation, development, evaluation, and retention of school leaders.

After completion of the standards, we asked: How can we provide support for the recruitment and hiring of excellent leaders for schools in DC, drawing on the Model DC School Leadership Standards?

The Teaching and Learning Division at OSSE is now pleased to present a Guidebook to Competency-Based Leadership Hiring. We believe it does just that – provides support for LEAs in conducting effective, competency-based hiring processes, drawing on the Model DC School Leadership Standards. We hope it will help LEAs identify leaders with the right skills to meet the needs of District schools and students.

We are grateful for the engagement and perspectives of leaders and educators that participated in OSSE’s Principal Hiring Stakeholder groups, whose voices have shaped and informed this set of resources.
The guidebook adapts the Quality School Leadership Identification Process (QSLID), a competency-based approach developed by the American Institutes for Research (AIR), to DC context and needs. We are grateful for the support of the GTL Center at AIR, for modifying an approach used around the country to our own needs. LEAs can use the guidebook in its totality, or select the parts that meet their specific needs. To get started, we recommend that LEAs take the pre-assessment, The Principal Hiring Scorecard (also found in Appendix D) and then navigate the guidebook from there.

For more information about the Model DC Leadership Standards or the Guidebook to Competency-Based Leadership Hiring, please contact Rose Goff at [email protected] or Joelle Lastica at [email protected].

Standards and Leadership Hiring Guidebook

• OSSE DC Model Standards
• Guidebook to Competency-Based Leadership Hiring
• Pre-Assessment: Principal Hiring Scorecard

Additional Tools

• Washington DC LEA Scenario – This tool contains fictional district, school, and candidate profiles and can be used by hiring committees along with the guidebook to practice setting hiring priorities and establishing interrater reliability.
• Creating an LEA Scenario: Appendix A – This tool provides a template that LEAs may use to create an LEA-specific school profile, to be used by the hiring committee as a part of the process.

Related Content: K-12 Educator Quality and Effectiveness