Middle leaders play an incredibly important role, making up a large proportion of the leadership workforce in schools.
The Professional Standards for Middle Leaders will:
Outline what middle leaders know, understand, and do.
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.
We thank the schools who took part in the trial.
AITSL will continue working with the Queensland Department of Education to evaluate the trial findings. The key findings will inform next steps for the Professional Standards for Middle Leaders.
More information will be shared as the project progresses.
Key project milestones to develop and trial the new standards
The National Validation process is now complete.
The standards have been updated, informed by the validation results.
The trial in Queensland schools is now complete.
An independent evaluation of the trial data is now underway.
The standards will be completed in April 2024.
Middle leaders often hold classroom teaching responsibilities alongside their leadership roles. For some, it is a pathway towards becoming a school principal, for others it is a career goal. Some examples of middle leaders include:
Heads of department
Year level coordinator
Stage coordinator
Head of curriculum
Head of student welfare
Information technology manager
Learning area leader
Which others can you think of?
These professional standards are a tool to provide clarity about effective leadership to help these leaders improve their impact and develop their leadership capacity.
Earlier this year AITSL conducted a systematic literature review and document analysis to inform the development of the draft Professional Standards for Middle Leaders.
AITSL is also drawing on the advice of an expert panel and feedback from key stakeholders to refine each version of the standards.
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