More Missouri educators have the opportunity to receive effective leadership training through the Missouri Leadership for Excellence, Achievement and Development (MoLEAD) program. MoLEAD recently expanded its reach to include northeast Missouri.

“Strong instructional leadership directly impacts the direction of education and curriculum development in a school building,” said Ted Sampson, principal at Hannibal High School. “A strong leader has the ability to motivate staff in their efforts in challenging students to achieve at a high level. MoLEAD is a catalyst for developing strong leaders throughout Missouri.”

MoLEAD combines online and face-to-face training with hands on experience and mentoring opportunities to enhance best practices in schools. Nearly 500 superintendents, principals, assistant principals and teachers have participated in the program so far. The program includes 27 days of instruction and 40 hours of online learning.

“MoLEAD helps build the leadership capacity of building and district leaders to support the work of principals and teachers in a meaningful way,” said Mexico Superintendent Kevin Freeman.

This is the fourth round of training offered through MoLEAD. Previous sessions took place in St. Louis and Kansas City, as well as central, southeast, southwest and northwest portions of the state. Twenty-five educators from northeast Missouri are taking part in the fourth round of training.

“Our Top 10 by 20 plan focuses on ensuring every Missouri school has an effective leader,” said Missouri Commissioner of Education Margie Vandeven. “We are thrilled to see this opportunity for high-quality instructional leadership training expanding across the state.”

Added Paul Katnik, assistant commissioner for the Office of Educator Quality: “Effective leadership has a direct correlation to student success. All Missouri students and teachers deserve strong leaders in their schools.”

Preparing, developing and supporting effective educators is one of the goals of Missouri’s Top 10 by 20 initiative, an effort to raise student achievement in the state to rank among the top 10 states by 2020.