RIASP Principal of the Year Awards

Each year RIASP recognizes five separate principals as a Principal of the Year, based on personal excellence, collaborative leadership, personalization, and curriculum, instruction and assessment. RIASP honors the following:

• RI Assistant Principal of the Year
• RI Outstanding First Year Principal
• RI High School Principal of the Year
• RI Middle School Principal of the Year
• RI Elementary School Principal of the Year

To nominate a principal for any of the above awards, please send a letter of nomination to RIASP or send an email to exec-director@riasp.org.

Selection Criteria

Personal Excellence

• Models continuous professional growth
• Interacts with others professionally and tactfully
• Communicates effectively in speaking and writing
• Models values, beliefs, and attitudes that encourage others to higher levels of performance

Collaborative Leadership

• Involves teachers, staff members, parents, students, and the community in creating and fostering a shared vision for the school
• Leads collaboratively to promote ownership among staff, students, parents, and community members for school efforts and outcomes
• Creates a culture of collaboration in which staff members work together as a professional learning community to promote student learning
• Teaches, coaches, and supports the development of potential and current school leaders
• Utilizes available technology tools for school management, operation, instruction, and assessment, fostering collaboration and communication to effectively address issues in the school community and meet the unique learning needs of each student

Personalization

• Establishes and maintains a school environment that reflects high expectations for students and staff
• Creates a school climate that is warm, inviting, safe, and secure
• Organizes the school so that all social, economic, and racial/ethnic groups have equal access to all school programs and provides the support needed for student success
• Creates structures that promote positive relationships between adults and students and ensures that each student is well-known by at least one staff member
• Acknowledges the accomplishments of students, teachers, and school community members.

Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment

• Improves teaching, learning, and assessment by implementing practices, programs, and improvement efforts on the basis of multiple sources of data
• Leads efforts in curriculum alignment and identification of essential learning at each level
• Observes, supervises, and evaluates teachers and instructional programs to maximize the learning opportunities for every teacher and for each student
• Demonstrates knowledge of learning, teaching, assessment practices, research, and programs that maximize student performance
• Facilitates in developing and maintaining co-curricular programs that complement the curriculum while fostering students’ academic and social success
• Ensures that each student has the best possible opportunity of realizing success by providing a personalized plan that evaluates individual learner needs in relation to learning time, setting, methods, and course sequence
• Provides enrichment and support for both students and teachers in meeting high standards