An effective school leader has the skills to create, implement, evaluate, improve and share a staff development plan. I sat down with Ben Rhodes, principal of Sandy Creek Middle School, to ask him about specific elements of his annual staff development plan. We began the design process focusing on district and school goals. District goals include improving literacy in the content areas of reading and writing, and Guaranteed Sustainable Curriculum (GVC). Guaranteed and Viable Technology (GVT) and closing the achievement gap (equity in excellence). Using a variety of assessments to focus on specific needs, Ben Rhodes and Mary Sonya, our Student Achievement Specialist, reviewed CSAP, Explore, MAP, and RAD data. They use the Colorado Growth Model to help them determine whether students are making adequate yearly progress. Together, they created the plan that included the district goals noted above while continuing to include new technology skills, information on special education changes with Response to Intervention (RTI), maintaining the current implementation of literacy goals by staff and a new goal of improving outcomes. in mathematics. To decide how to meet faculty skills needs, Ben starts with the hiring process. Knowing what the goals of our school improvement plan are, her interview questions include specific skills and knowledge that will help Falcon Creek students achieve these success goals. Mr. Rhodes is very clear about his high expectations of teaching staff. He is currently in the University of Denver's Educational Leadership doctoral program and is utilizing his knowledge of best practice research. Its assessments of staff training needs are drawn from a variety of sources, including feedback...... middle of paper ...... the district trains staff with new technology tools that will include netbooks, mounted projectors , peripheral technologies, new student achievement reporting system (aka RAD and DAS systems running on Brio software, new access points, which centralize the management console, so students and staff can connect to the CCSD wireless network at all school sites Training will also be provided to refine the RTI process Using district and school goals, assessing needs using the right data, planning specific content and processes. to teach best instructional practices, provide resources to ensure success, measure success and provide frequent feedback, adjust practices as necessary to ensure success. implementing, evaluating and improving the strategies, and then sharing the plan with the community, was key to ensuring the highest student achievement..