SLLA case studies
SLLA · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The School Leaders Licensure Assessment (SLLA) is the ETS examination that many states use as one component of the licensure process for aspiring principals, assistant principals, and other building-level administrators. It is intended for candidates who have completed, or are finishing, a graduate preparation program in educational leadership and who are ready to move from classroom or teacher-leader roles into formal school administration. The SLLA case studies are 5 cases and about 4,013 words.
1The Framed Vision: Building a Strategic Plan Under Deadline
Three weeks into her first principalship at Cedar Ridge Middle School (640 students, 58% economically disadvantaged), Dr. Amara Osei inherits a strategic plan due to the district in ten weeks.
763 words, about 4 min2Same Course, Same Test, Two Different Results
At Riverside Middle School, four teachers teach the same 7th-grade math course. On the end-of-quarter common assessment, Team A's students average 81% mastery and Team B's average 52%, even though prior-year proficiency was similar (44% and 41%).
820 words, about 4 min3Twenty-Seven Minutes of Dismissal
At Lincoln Elementary (410 students, three buses, 62% walkers), dismissal takes 27 minutes and produces a daily hazard: car riders queue on the street back into a 35 mph road, walkers cross the bus lane, and last month a first grader had a near-miss with a delivery van. The building's single six-foot-wide front corridor is the only route for the walker group.
765 words, about 4 min4Four O'Clock Conferences and a 3 p.m. Shift
Rosa Delgado, a fourth grader, has missed 14 days this quarter. Her mother works 3 p.m.
824 words, about 4 min5Three Problems, One Week, One Board Member
Mid-year at Franklin High School (1,450 students), the principal learns three things in one week. First, a chemistry teacher posted a photo of a student's graded quiz, name visible, on a classroom "wall of shame." Second, a local business owner offered $60,000 for a new STEM lab, conditioned on naming it for his late wife and on the district "guaranteeing" 30 seats per year for students from a neighboring, wealthier elementary attendance zone outside Franklin's boundary.
841 words, about 4 min