Many people have expressed an interest in joining The Leadership and Learning Center as a Professional Development Associate. Here are the specific steps to follow to express your interest in joining The Center.

Expressing Your Interest

If you share a passion for our mission of improving student achievement by building the knowledge and skills of educators and school leaders, then you have taken the first step toward a profession that you will find profoundly rewarding.

Joining The Center as a Professional Development Associate requires a serious commitment. It is not just a job, nor does it involve a typical “train the trainer” course in which one can copy materials for staff development.  Rather, the professionals who join The Leadership and Learning Center must be willing to make a significant investment of their time, intellectual energy, and money.  This includes not only the costs of certification training, but also travel expenses associated with initial training, certification training, and travel associated with a developmental process during which prospective Professional Development Associates shadow and co-present with our senior consultants.  The rewards, both personal and financial, can be substantial for a successful Professional Development Associate.  We want to be absolutely clear, however, that those rewards occur only after a significant commitment to your own success.

Start the process by sending us a letter that describes your professional development experience as well your knowledge of the work and mission of The Leadership and Learning Center.  Please take some time to become acquainted with who we are, what we do, and our core philosophies.  Address your letter to:

Kristin Anderson
Senior Director of Professional Development
The Leadership and Learning Center
317 Inverness Way South, Suite 150
Englewood, CO 80112

Becoming a Professional Development Associate

If we agree that this is potentially a good match, you will proceed with the formal induction process.  The process for becoming a Professional Development Associate includes the following steps:

1. Attend a Decision Making for Results or Engaging Classroom Assessments seminar.  For a list of future seminars, contact The Center's Senior Director of Professional Development at 866.399.6019, ext. 221.  If you believe that you already have the knowledge and skills that these seminars would provide, The Center may waive these requirements for candidates who are able to demonstrate proficiency in the core areas of these seminars.  For Engaging Classroom Assessments, candidates can demonstrate proficiency by submitting an exemplary standards-based performance assessment suitable for use in the classroom and for use as an exemplar to show to teachers who are learning about standards and performance assessment.  For Decision Making for Results, proficiency may be established by submitting a completed action plan that follows the steps of the data-driven decision making process of our seminar.  Thus, while it is not necessary to have “seat time” in our seminars, it is imperative that prospective Professional Development Associates demonstrate proficiency in standards, performance assessment, and data analysis.  Please include your completed performance assessment or action plan with your application packet.  Whether you created the performance assessment and/or action plan on your own or as a result of participation in one of our seminars, every completed application must include one or both of these documents.
2. Submit an application packet to our Senior Director of Professional Development, Kristin Anderson, that includes:
   • DVD of a recently presented seminar, preferably to a group of 25 or more participants.
   • Letter of interest including complete resume outlining specific presentation skills and the details of staff development presentations you have provided in the past twelve months.  Please include the title, audience, date, and content.  Please also include at least five participant evaluations from each of these presentations.
   • List at least 3-5 professional references, including complete contact information.
3. Successfully complete certification training for Decision Making for Results and/or Engaging Classroom Assessments.  During your certification program, you will be required to demonstrate both content knowledge and proficient presentation skills.
4. Submit a formal recommendation from one of our senior consultants who has personally observed you present portions of a seminar to educators or school leaders.
5. Submit a DVD of a practice session for one part of Decision Making for Results or Engaging Classroom Assessments.  This must be conducted with a live audience and could include colleagues in your own school, a local chapter of a professional association, a graduate school class, or other appropriate forum.  The video must be complete, including not only the formal presentation, but also the interaction between the presenter and the participants.
6. Once you have been accepted into the Professional Development Associate Development Program, you will continue to improve your level of content expertise that is essential for the successful presentation of our seminars.  Activities in the Professional Development Associate Development Program include shadowing one of our Senior Professional Development Associates, co-presenting opportunities, and the development of a personal learning plan that will include reading our professional publications as well as related materials and providing written summaries.

Starting Your Career

When you are ready to begin presenting seminars to our clients, you may be offered contracts for presentations.  Some of our Professional Development Associates have other jobs and work only twenty or thirty days a year for The Center, while others have made The Center their life’s work and present more than 100 days each year.  We are a data-driven organization and use feedback from clients and each other to maintain and improve a very high standard of quality.  In order to receive assignments for presentations, consistently high quality ratings are essential.  Successful Professional Development Associates not only provide exceptional service to our clients, but also contribute to the intellectual life of The Center by writing articles, contributing ideas and, in some cases, developing new seminars.  Our publications division, Lead + Learn Press, publishes books, videos, and other resources, and pays royalties at very competitive rates to our authors.

For More Information

Please address your questions to our Senior Director of Professional Development, Kristin Anderson, at KAnderson@LeadandLearn.com. You can also call or write our founder, Dr. Douglas B. Reeves.