Professional Standards for Middle Leaders

Introducing the Professional Standards for Middle Leaders

Discover the new Professional Standards for Middle Leaders, developed by AITSL in partnership with the Queensland Department of Education. Grounded in research and informed by practice, the Middle Leader Standards were built in consultation with the profession. While not a nationally endorsed policy, you can explore the Middle Leader Standards here to support your middle leadership development.

Middle leaders play an incredibly important role, making up a large proportion of the leadership workforce in schools.

The Professional Standards for Middle Leaders:

Define key attributes, knowledge, and skills that shape effective middle leaders.

Speak to current and aspiring middle leaders in schools, preschools and kindergartens and those who work with them.

Provide a common language for professional dialogue and growth.

Provide the missing link in a leadership developmental continuum for teachers, extending from early career teaching to senior leadership.

What is middle leadership?

Middle leaders are qualified teachers who hold recognised management and leadership responsibilities, usually in addition to their teaching responsibilities (Grootenboer et al., 2020). For many, middle leadership is a career goal, for some it is an important step towards becoming a school principal. Some examples of middle leaders include:

Heads of department

Year level coordinator

Stage coordinator

Head of curriculum

Head of student welfare

Pastoral care leader

Learning area leader

Which others can you think of?

These professional standards are a developmental tool to provide clarity about effective leadership to help middle leaders improve their impact by developing their leadership capabilities.

View the Middle Leader Standards

How were the Middle Leader Standards developed?

Development of the Middle Leader Standards involved research, expert advice, broad consultation, a national validation process, national impact assessment, and a trial of draft Standards across Queensland.

A comprehensive literature review provided a wide research base for the development of these Middle Leader Standards. It gathered information from both academic papers and international and national practice.

Read the Middle-leadership literature review (pdf, 2.8 MB)

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AITSL also drew on the advice of an expert panel and feedback from key stakeholders to refine each version of the standards.

The expert panel members were:
- Dr Vivine Robinson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, The University of Auckland
- Dr Peter Grootenboer, Professor of Education, Griffith University
- Dr Kylie Lipscombe, Associate Professor, School of Education, University of Wollongong
-Dr Kerry Elliott, Senior Research Fellow, Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)

The Middle Leader Standards were extensively validated by the profession using a national online process. 940 educators across Australia provided feedback during the psychometric validation. This provided statistically significant, detailed insights which enabled adjustments to the Middle Leader Standards to ensure that they were clear, relevant, useful and fit for purpose.

An implementation trial was conducted across more than 82 Government, Catholic and Independent schools in Queensland, and an external evaluation of the trial found that nearly all participants considered the Middle Leader Standards to be useful and relevant for developing middle leadership capabilities.

An impact assessment was commissioned to understand the potential positive impacts and unintended consequences of introducing the Middle Leader Standards. A series of interviews with 23 key stakeholder groups revealed that the positive intention of the Standards aligned with the likely impacts of their introduction. It revealed not only the need for the Middle Leader Standards, but a desire for middle leaders to be acknowledged for the important roles they play in schools.

AITSL would also like to thank approximately 2000 individuals who contributed to the development of the Middle Leader Standards through consultations or who provided feedback through the national validation, the national impact assessment or the Queensland trial.

Start using the Professional Standards for Middle Leaders today

View the Middle Leader Standards

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Frequently asked questions

AITSL was commissioned by the Queensland Department of Education to develop and trial standards for middle leaders.

The Professional Standards for Middle Leaders (Middle Leader Standards) were developed by AITSL and they are fit-for-purpose for use in any schools in Australia where aspiring or current middle leaders are employed. The Queensland Department of Education is the first system or sector to officially adopt the Middle Leader Standards. They are published on the Queensland Department website as they have not yet been considered or endorsed by all education ministers for national adoption.

The Middle Leader Standards are now available for use outside of Queensland, and it is intended that education ministers will consider them for national endorsement in 2025.

If the Middle Leader Standards are endorsed nationally then the Middle Leader Standards will be published on the AITSL website.

AITSL does not currently offer professional development regarding the Middle Leader Standards.

If the Middle Leader Standards are endorsed for national adoption, AITSL may produce new professional learning resources. We will promote any new or adapted middle leadership resources via our monthly AITSL Mail newsletter. To subscribe to AITSL Mail, go to: https://www.aitsl.edu.au/secondary/news-and-media

The Queensland Department of Education has provided links to resources aligned to the Middle Leader Standards on their website. Many of these resources are relevant for middle leaders employed in schools across Australia. Some of the resources were identified by AITSL.

You can access the Middle Leader Standards and view the resources on the Queensland Department of Education’s website.

AITSL will promote any new or adapted resources via our monthly AITSL Mail. To subscribe to AITSL Mail, go to: https://www.aitsl.edu.au/secondary/news-and-media.