The Accelerated School Administrator Program (ASAP®) is a high tech, high impact, leadership development program that can help build a new generation of school leaders in a school or district.
ASAP participants are enrolled in a personalized professional development program that builds on individual strengths and addresses specific learner needs. ASAP participants include school administrators and teachers in elementary, middle and secondary schools.
ASAP is a collaborative and innovative approach that is well-suited to motivated, self-directed candidates, and the program is appropriate for the preparation of principal-candidates and teacher-leaders. The ASAP approach can also be used for remediation among veteran principals who would benefit from having their skills and knowledge refreshed.
The South Florida Annenberg Challenge partnered with technology providers to create online browser-based learning technologies and to develop an online leadership development tool that would allow school districts to accelerate the development of their potential assistant principals and principals.
ASAP originated in 2001 as a high-quality, fast-track approach to leadership development to meet the urgent need for effective school leaders for the new century. ASAP was designed to utilize state-of-the-art individualized e-learning, combined with the benefits of blended learning; cohort meetings, mentoring and coaching. Online diagnostic assessments are used to create an individualized learning plan for each participant. Prescriptive assessment is provided through the Educational Leadership Assessment (ELA), which was incorporated into the ASAP learning suite in the summer of 2003. The ASAP InBasket was later incorporated in the fall of 2007.
Research studies of the ASAP outcomes for each of the years 2003 to 2007 were conducted at the University of Miami. The final evaluation of the program, conducted by the University of Miami, School of Education under the direction of Dr. Bessell, is provided in chapter 7 of Research Perspectives on School Reform: Lessons from the Annenberg Challenge, which is archived at Brown University. The South Florida Annenberg Challenge generated annual evaluations and biannual monitoring reports, tracking progress that showed significant evidence that can only be captured over time, including trend lines and longitudinal data over several years. The final phase of the evaluation addressed operational effectiveness of the effort. In all areas ASAP was found to benefit both aspiring and existing school principals.
ASAP has assisted cohorts in professional development programs in a majority of the largest school districts in the United States and has provided services to districts and educational leaders in provinces including British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. We continue to grow to meet the needs of educational leaders with expansion into content and assessment for teachers, paraeducators, school counselors, assistant principals, principals, administrators and school administration staff.
Meet some of our team…
ASAP programs including Teacher Essentials, Leader Essentials, ASAP for Teachers and Snapshot Student Achievement Data are supported by our experienced team of professionals and support experts.
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Barry Carbol, PhD.
Dr. Carbol has been a professional educator for over 30 years. He has been a teacher, school principal and has held a number of senior government positions. His doctoral thesis was on educational measurement and evaluation and he has graduate degrees in administration, and curriculum & instruction. During his career in the public sector, Dr. Carbol headed programs in curriculum, program development, assessment, learning resources and education technology. Dr. Carbol is an expert on the implementation of educational technologies in schools, and development of distance-learning. -
Mary Ellen Bafumo, PhD.
Dr. Bafumo is a long time educator who enjoys being on the cusp of change in the field. She currently is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Elementary Education at State University of New York (SUNY). Dr. Bafumo was instrumental in the creation of ASAP as Program Director for the Council for Educational Change in Florida. Throughout her career she was Executive Director of Professional Development for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina, Director of the Basic School Network with Dr. Ernest L. Boyer, and is author of numerous articles, study guides and book chapters on educational issues. -
Rick Wiertz, MBA
Rick spent 28 years in the news business including News Director in major market television, and radio talk show host. Rick has chaired committees on ethics and freedom of information and privacy legislation, served on advisory panels to schools of journalism, and new media technology, served on several charitable foundations, and established one of the first major scholarships for First Nations journalism students. Rick has been building businesses in the technology sector for over 20 years and is a life long learner, earning his last postgraduate degree after the age of 50.
