From: SLLA Crash Course (2017). With two complete Practice Tests. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475827842/SLLA-Crash-Course-Approaches-for-Success The School Leaders Licensure Assessment (SLLA) measures whether entry-level education leaders have the standards-relevant knowledge believed necessary for competent professional practice. This is a review session that I hold that documents what an education leader may encounter. Each of the questions in this powerpoint focus on a specific content area related to the standards addressed in ISLLC 2008. In answering the questions, candidates are required to analyze situations and data, propose appropriate courses of action and provide rationales for their proposals.

1. SLLA REVIEW SESSION
School Leaders Licensure Assessment Preparation
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D.
Education Administration
whozien@vsu.edu
Virginia State University

2. Getting Started
Jigsaw Activity: In groups of two:
Brainstorm key terms associated with the
standard assigned to your group.

3. ISLLC Standards
 Standard 1: Setting a widely shared vision for
learning
 Standard 2: Developing a school culture and
instructional program conducive to student
learning and staff professional growth
 Standard 3: Ensuring effective management of
the organization, operation, and resources for a
safe, efficient, and effective learning
environment
 Standard 4: Collaborating with faculty and
community members, responding to diverse
community interests and needs, and
mobilizing community resources
 Standard 5: Acting with integrity, fairness, and
in an ethical manner
 Standard 6: Understanding, responding to, and
influencing the political, social, legal,
and cultural contexts

4.  STANDARD 1:
◦ Vision of Learning
 Facilitation
 Challenges
 Strategic Planning
 Leadership Capacity
 Stakeholder Involvement
 Collaborative
 Develop & Implement
 Collect data
 Assess effectiveness
 Promote learning
 Continuous & Sustainable
improvement
 Monitor & Evaluate
 Modeling the vision
 STANDARD 2:
◦ Instructional Leadership
 Culture
 Instructional Program
 Student Learning
 Professional Growth
 Climate
 Nurture & Sustain
 High Expectation
 Comprehensive, Rigorous
 Motivating learning env.
 Supervision
 Assessment &
Accountability systems
 Monitor progress
 Leadership capacity
 Quality Instruction
 Technologies
 Change

5.  Standard 3
◦ School Operations
 Coordinating
 Organizing
 Planning
 Resource acquisition &
management
 Ensure safety
 Monitor, evaluate
management &
operations
 Obtain, allocate, utilize
 Promote and protect
 Distributive leadership
 Support quality instruction
 Consensus building
 Quality Personnel
 Standard 4
◦ School Community Relations
 Diversity
 Assess interests and needs
 Utilize community resources
 Collaboration
 Collect and analyze data
 Promote understanding,
appreciation of diversity
 Build and sustain positive
relationships
 Build and sustain productive
relationships
 Emerging issues and trends
 Involve stakeholders
 School decision-making process
 Visibility
 Value Diversity

6.  Standard 5
◦ Integrity, Ethics, Fair
 Integrity, Fairness, Ethics
 System of accountability
 Academic & social
success
 Self awareness
 Reflective practice
 Transparency
 Ethical Behavior
 Values of democracy
 Evaluate potential moral
and legal consequences
 Promote social justice
 Meet individual student
needs
 Decision quality
 Standard 6
◦ Political, Social, Economic
and Legal Context
 Political
 Social
 Economic
 Legal
 Culture
 Advocate for children,
families, caregivers
 Influence student learning
 Assess and analyze
 Anticipate trends
 Open dialogue
 Law
 Model strategies
 Communication

7. Administration and Supervision
Candidates MUST speak the
language!

8. Test Format
Section I– 100 multiple choice questions—
140 minutes--worth 70 percent of the test
Section II--7 shorter constructed response
types of questions in which you have
only 10-12 minutes to answer each —100
minutes--worth 30 percent of the test

9. Test Format – Revolves Around ISLLC
Standards
Vision and goals—20 % of exam., 18MC, 2 CR
Teaching and learning—30% of exam., 25 MC, 3
CR
Managing organizational systems and safety—
10% of exam., 15 MC, O CR
Collaboration with Key Stakeholders—15% of
exam, 21 MC, 0 CR
Ethics and Integrity—15% of exam, 21 MC, 0 CR
The Educational System—10% of exam, 0 MC, 2
CR

10. Preparing for SLLA
Practice in dealing with problems in a
quick, yet effective manner (connected
to what you have learned in classes
and noted from ISLLC standards) is
the best approach in preparing for the
test
Use the ETS resource book available
online

11. Preparing for the exam:
 Know the STANDARDS but no need to
memorize, but have a great understanding
of the descriptors related to each (activity
we did earlier)
 Think about the type of school leader
identified in the Standards and prepare to
respond to test questions in a Standards-
relevant way
 Be aware of the amount of time allocated
for each section

12. Continued Preparation of
SLLA
 Sample Questions and Scoring Criteria—
study sample questions and scoring guides
 Make sure responses demonstrate a
sufficient breadth and depth of knowledge
 To get the highest score—ANSWER ALL
PARTS OF THE QUESTION

13. Constructed Response
 Key to successfully answering the Constructed
Response test questions is to focus on the key words in
the ISLLC Standards
 Review all the CR questions and select the easiest ones
for you…and do those first
 Read the complete CR and any supporting documents
 Mentally think through your solution to the problem (as
you would in real-life)

14. Constructed Response
 Pace yourself—Watch your watch—10 minutes per
question with time at the end to go back and review
 Plan, write and review
 Answer each question in the space provided—writing in
the margins or other incorrect locations could allow the
item to not be scored correctly
 Review your responses—go back and evaluate for
content, organization, clarity, and accuracy…answer
ALL questions

16. Response
 Specifically addresses Professional
Development/Training Issues
 Recognizes difficulty of change or fear of
risks (ingrained practices)
 Teachers playing it safe for evaluation
observations
 Belief that cooperative learning doesn’t
work for certain students
 Difficulty implementing cooperative
learning because of classroom
management issues.

17. SAMPLE : Question 1
 The leader of a middle school instructional
team comes to the principal, concerned that
she is shouldering most of the burden of
coordinating the instructional team’s planning
for instruction. She feels increasingly
resentful and angry at her team members.
The principal expresses understanding of the
teacher’s situation and, to help relieve the
burden on her, appoints a new team leader .
Do you agree with the principal’s action?
Give a rationale citing factors that are
relevant to a principal’s decisions in such
situations.

18. 1- Response includes SPECIFIC reference
to at least one of the following
◦ the principal’s need to acquire more
information about the situation before acting
◦ the principal’s leadership includes assisting
the team leader to succeed in the role and to
enable the team to function well, or
◦ a concern for team process and the
involvement of stakeholders in making
decisions, the importance of consensus
building and conflict resolution
◦ 0—Response is vague, omits reference to any
of the essential factors, or evaluates the
principal’s action without qualification

19. Question 2
A parent requests that her child be retained in
first grade. Although the child missed two
weeks of school due to chicken pox, the
teacher believes that the child is intellectually,
socially, and physically ready for second grade.
The principal observes the child for one hour
and concurs with her experienced teacher’s
recommendation that the child be promoted to
second grade. The principal decides that he
must deny the parents request. Do you agree
with this action? Give rationale, citing factors
that are relevant to a principal’s decisions in
such situations.

20. Scoring Guide
 Response specifically cites the
principal’s need to acquire more
information about the situation, plus
one of the following:
◦ Parents have information and insights
about the child that the school would not
have
◦ Part of the responsibility of school
leadership is share information with the
parents about the possible consequences
of retention.

21. Question 3
 It is early December and the students in
an elementary school are practicing for
the annual holiday concert. A parent
phones the school to insist that her child
not be required to sing any of the
Christmas songs. The principal excuses
the child from participation in the music
practice. Do you agree with the
principal’s action? Give a rationale,
citing factors that are relevant to a
principal’s decisions in such situations

22. Response Question 3

23. Question 4
 The technology committee of a high
school recommends the purchase of
graphing calculators for the mathematics
department. After checking with three
vendors, the principal decides to authorize
a contract to purchase them from the wife
of a faculty member since she is able to
offer a good price and will be readily
available for help with instruction and for
service. What are the issues raised by
this decision?

24. Response Question 4

25. Individual Practice 1

27. Solve this Scenario
You are the newly assigned principal of James
Madison School, an elementary school with an
excellent reputation in the area, enriched
programs in all grades, and high level of parent
participation. The district has embarked on a
major initiative in cooperative learning. By and
large, the school has experienced rapid growth
as a result of extensive real estate development
in the area. One change evident in the past five
years is that a much smaller proportion of the
student population now participates in lessons,
classes, sports activities, and other educational
and personal opportunities outside the scope of
the school.

28. Solving the Scenario
 School Improvement Goals:
◦ To improve implementation of cooperative
learning in all classrooms
◦ To improve achievement levels of all
students in basic skills in the core areas:
reading, writing, and mathematics

29. Solving This Scenario
 Questions:
1. Based on your understanding of
learning and teaching and larger
educational issues, identify and
describe the broader challenges
faced by the school.
2. Evaluate the given school improvement
plan in terms of its strengths and
weaknesses. Describe the actions the
principal should take to implement the
plan and elicit community support.

30. Scoring Rubric
 Well developed analysis and synthesis
of all documents
 Describe challenges faced by the
school
 Evaluation of Improvement Plan
(strengths and weaknesses)
 Multiple ways to elicit community
support
 Multiple actions principal should take

31. Multiple Choice
 Which of the following
◦ Answer fits in “Which of the following”
 Circle or underline critical details
 Read the entire question
 Read all of the responses

32. Multiple Choice:
Not, Least, Except
 Select the choice that DOESN’T fit
 Used when there are several good
answers, but also clearly wrong way
 Always capitalized…pay attention

33. Scenario & Document Based
 Always read through the scenario and
document BEFORE reading the
question.
 Don’t waste time taking notes or
reading multiple times until after
you’ve read once and then read the
question.

34. OTHER HINTS
 Answer MC in any order
 There are NO trick questions
 Answer patterns are a MYTH
 No penalty for guessing. Score
based on number of correct responses
 SKIP difficult questions and return if
tiem permits
 Watch the time
 Check your answers (the bubbles)

35. Group Practice
 Multiple Choice
 Constructed Responses
Student taking a break from Studying at
University of Richmond.

36. References
 The School Leadership Series:
 https://www.ets.org/sls
 Read the UCEA Review for regular
ISLLC Updates: http://ucea.org/ucea-
review1/
 Study Guide:
 SLLA Secrets Study Guide: SLLA Test
Review for the School Leaders Licensure
Assessment (Mometrix Secrets Study
Guides)
 http://www.amazon.com/SLLA-Secrets-
Study-Guide-
Assessment/dp/1627339248