Example Job Description
Director of Professional Learning and Leadership Development
A leader who connects district professional learning strategy, leadership development, coaching systems, and assigned induction or educator-development partnerships with trustworthy evidence, equitable opportunity, and accountable action.
Interview Planning Resource
Possible Interview Q&A: Director of Professional Learning and Leadership Development
How to use this resource: Select questions that measure competencies established through the district’s current job analysis. Ask candidates the same predetermined questions under comparable conditions and evaluate responses against the same job-related criteria.
The indicators below describe evidence a strong response may contain; they are not required scripts or the only acceptable answers.
- Workshop satisfaction is high but classroom practice is unchanged. What would you do?
Strong response indicators: Defines intended practice, examines coaching and implementation conditions, gathers follow-up evidence and adjusts design rather than claiming impact from satisfaction.
- How would you build principals' data literacy?
Strong response indicators: Uses authentic school questions, source validation, denominators, subgroup context, uncertainty and action cycles; assesses demonstrated use rather than quiz scores alone.
- How would you evaluate a coaching program fairly?
Strong response indicators: Agrees on purpose and confidentiality, checks access and dosage, uses multiple practice measures, examines selection bias and separates coaching from unauthorized evaluation.
- A learning platform exposes individual teacher coaching notes. How would you respond?
Strong response indicators: Secures access through authorized owners, preserves incident evidence, follows required reporting and remediation, and revises permissions, retention and vendor controls.
- How would you evaluate leadership-development access?
Strong response indicators: Examines nominations, applications, selection, participation and advancement with appropriate context; identifies workload, sponsorship and scheduling barriers.
- A provider claims training caused higher test scores. How would you assess it?
Strong response indicators: Examines design, comparison conditions, implementation, student composition and alternative explanations; reports uncertainty and evaluates educational value and cost.
- The professional learning and coaching platform disagrees with source records. How would you resolve this?
Strong response indicators: Checks populations, dates, definitions, refreshes, joins and corrections for professional learning access, transfer to practice and implementation; reconciles with accountable owners, documents fixes and adds preventive checks.
- What evidence would you require before recommending a district coaching investment?
Strong response indicators: Defines educational need, baseline, access and implementation measures, alternatives, cost and capacity; uses appropriate comparisons and uncertainty and specifies a review or exit decision.
- How would you protect sensitive records while helping teams act on professional learning access, transfer to practice and implementation?
Strong response indicators: Defines purpose and authorized access, minimizes disclosure, protects small groups, uses approved systems and retention rules, and consults responsible privacy and legal owners.
- A vendor proposes AI to automate recommendations in this portfolio. How would you assess it?
Strong response indicators: Tests the proposed use against district professional learning strategy, leadership development, coaching systems, and assigned induction or educator-development partnerships; reviews accuracy, subgroup errors, privacy, security, accessibility and cost, and preserves authorized human decisions and challenge procedures.
- How would you build staff capability to use professional learning access, transfer to practice and implementation well?
Strong response indicators: Uses authentic cases, verifies sources and denominators, explains missingness and uncertainty, coaches interpretation and checks whether evidence leads to useful changes in practice.
- What would your first 90 days as Director of Professional Learning and Leadership Development include?
Strong response indicators: Listens to affected students, families, staff and partners; maps authority and obligations, validates professional learning access, transfer to practice and implementation, identifies urgent gaps and proposes a focused plan with owners and review dates.
Position Description
The Director of Professional Learning and Leadership Development leads district professional learning strategy, leadership development, coaching systems, and assigned induction or educator-development partnerships. The district or employing agency should define the final portfolio, delegated authority, and relationships with other program owners.
The position builds staff capacity for practical analysis and responsible technology use; evaluates changes in practice and student opportunity instead of treating attendance or satisfaction as proof of impact.
Reports To
Illustrative reporting relationship: Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, Human Resources, or other designated administrator. Confirm the locally approved structure and delegated authority.
Required Education and Credentials
Required
- Illustrative district qualification for review: master's degree in educational leadership, adult learning, education, or a related field; confirm the local degree requirement and permitted equivalents.
- Hold a valid California Administrative Services Credential or other authorization appropriate to the actual assignment. District HR must verify current authorization and any additional credential requirements against the final duties.
- Complete district-required employment clearances and training in student privacy, nondiscrimination, accessibility, records, safety, and responsible use of technology.
Preferred
- Graduate coursework or sustained professional learning in applied statistics, program evaluation, improvement science, education data systems, or responsible AI for educational decision-making.
- Advanced preparation in educational leadership, adult learning, education, or a related field, inclusive leadership, family partnership, and coaching adults to use evidence effectively.
Required / Desired Experience
Required Experience
- Illustrative minimum for local review: five years of successful teaching and leadership with adult learning, coaching, and cross-school professional learning design; confirm experience thresholds and permitted equivalents.
- Experience supervising assigned staff, coordinating partners, managing resources, and implementing improvement across the assigned portfolio.
- Demonstrated use of professional learning access, transfer to practice and implementation to investigate needs, verify records, evaluate action, and explain findings and limitations.
Desired Experience
- Experience with California district or regional program requirements, implementation monitoring, and improvement with diverse communities.
- Experience with a professional learning and coaching platform, approved spreadsheets and tools such as Excel, Google Sheets, Power BI, Tableau, or equivalents; applied data-science literacy sufficient to collaborate with analysts.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Professional Learning and Leadership
- Lead coherent professional learning aligned to instructional needs, leadership standards, district priorities and staff experience.
- Design sustained coaching, collaborative inquiry and leadership pathways with principals, curriculum teams, HR and employee representatives.
- Coordinate assigned induction partnerships and program responsibilities; distinguish district training from credential-provider or HR authority.
Needs Analysis and Evaluation
- Use observations, staff learning needs, implementation evidence and student opportunity data to define professional learning priorities.
- Specify intended changes, baselines, follow-up measures and review dates; evaluate transfer to practice using multiple measures and appropriate comparisons.
- Analyze equitable access to learning, coaching and leadership opportunities, including participation barriers, staff workload and school support conditions.
Data Literacy and Responsible Technology
- Develop staff learning in data quality, denominators, subgroup interpretation, visualization, uncertainty and responsible use of evidence.
- Evaluate learning-management, coaching and AI tools for instructional value, accessibility, privacy and human oversight; protect confidential personnel and student records.
- Separate coaching information from formal evaluation as required by local policy and agreements; verify consent, access, retention and approved research uses.
Resources and Improvement
- Manage assigned personnel, budgets, consultants and calendars; assess cost, capacity and sustainability beyond session counts.
- Build facilitator and mentor capacity through observation, feedback and evidence of implementation; revise ineffective offerings.
- Communicate findings and limitations to authorized stakeholders, track improvement commitments and perform related duties within the classification.
Required Skills and Abilities
Knowledge of
- Adult learning, coaching, facilitation, leadership development, implementation science and collaborative inquiry.
- Needs assessment, learning transfer, observation quality, survey bias, comparison designs and evaluation limits.
- Applicable personnel confidentiality, evaluation procedures, agreements, accessibility and credential-program boundaries.
- Professional learning and coaching platforms, practical analytics, secure records and responsible AI learning design.
Ability to
- Translate priorities in district professional learning strategy, leadership development, coaching systems, and assigned induction or educator-development partnerships into feasible plans, clear responsibilities and measurable follow-through.
- Validate professional learning access, transfer to practice and implementation using accurate sources, definitions, populations and denominators before making decisions.
- Evaluate implementation and outcomes, examine subgroup opportunity, and distinguish association from causation with qualified analytical support.
- Use approved modern systems and accessible visualizations; partner with data specialists on complex linkage, statistical methods or reproducible analysis.
- Protect confidential information, document consequential decisions, maintain professional judgment and escalate unresolved legal or policy questions.
- Lead staff and partnerships, communicate evidence and uncertainty clearly, and revise ineffective practices with affected communities.
Work Environment
- Work is performed in district offices, classrooms, school grounds, meeting rooms, and other professional settings, with remote participation as authorized.
- The position involves computer use, school visits, observation, facilitation, and detailed review of records, dashboards, assessments, reports, and communications.
- Work requires frequent coordination with school and district leaders, program specialists, students and families as appropriate, data and technology teams, fiscal and legal owners, and external partners.
- The employee encounters interruptions, competing priorities, sensitive student and personnel matters, and urgent concerns requiring calm, documented judgment.
- Workload may increase during planning and budget cycles, program transitions, monitoring and reporting reviews, public meetings, and urgent service concerns.
Other Requirements
- Successfully complete required criminal-record, fingerprint, and employment clearances.
- Complete a tuberculosis risk assessment and any examination required by applicable law or district policy.
- Maintain required credentials and complete district-assigned training in privacy, cybersecurity, accessibility, nondiscrimination, mandated reporting, and workplace safety.
- Protect confidential student and employee records; follow approved access, sharing, retention, incident-reporting, and records-request procedures.
- Travel between district offices, schools, professional-learning locations, and community meetings as assigned.
- Possess a valid California driver's license and maintain insurability when driving is an essential function; confirm the district's actual travel requirements.
- Occasionally work evenings, weekends, or extended hours for school events, public meetings, reporting deadlines, or urgent student and operational matters.
- Perform office and school-based activities involving sitting, standing, walking, communication, and computer use; confirm any role-specific lifting or other physical requirements through local job analysis.
- Perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.