SLLA study materials
SLLA study resources

SLLA study plan

SLLA · Give each week a clear focus.

8 weeks · About 7 hours per week

Week 1

Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum & Vision, Mission, and Strategic Goals

  • Deconstruct Domain 2 into a one-page concept map linking curriculum coherence, high-quality instruction, assessment literacy, and professional learning to observable leader actions.

  • Draft a 200-word vision statement, then annotate three concrete instructional decisions that would change if that vision were adopted.

  • Generate and score a 25-item self-quiz on Domain 2 vocabulary, logging every miss by underlying concept rather than by item.

  • Identify five verbs from the Domain 1 performance expectations and convert each into a question you would ask a staff member to test alignment.

Your checkpoint

A scored 25-item Domain 2 self-quiz plus a one-page concept map in which every missed item is re-explained in your own words.

Week 2

Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum & Vision, Mission, and Strategic Goals

  • Trace a full data-driven instruction cycle from assessment to reteaching, naming the leader's decision at each of the six checkpoints.

  • Compare three vision/mission statements against a five-criterion rubric you write, and rank them with justification.

  • Design a professional learning plan that specifies needs analysis, measurable objectives, learning activities, and an evaluation method.

  • Evaluate one school improvement scenario for the mismatch between stated goals and allocated instructional time.

Your checkpoint

A two-page professional development plan (needs analysis → objectives → activities → evaluation) scored against your own six-criterion rubric.

Week 3

Managing Organizational Systems, Operations, and Safety & Vision, Mission, and Strategic Goals

  • Map the school budget cycle from allocation to expenditure to audit on a single flow diagram.

  • Sequence a crisis response from initial detection through reunification, marking the leader's decision points and communication triggers.

  • Contrast two master schedule models for their effect on instructional time and intervention access.

  • Justify three resource trade-offs by tying each to a specific vision priority.

Your checkpoint

A one-page master schedule decision memo that allocates time and staff to the top two instructional priorities and explicitly names what was cut.

Week 4

Collaborating with Families and Community Stakeholders & Managing Organizational Systems, Operations, and Safety

  • Build a stakeholder map that segments families, community partners, and staff by influence and information need.

  • Translate one school initiative into a communication matrix covering audience, message, channel, and timing.

  • Diagnose four common barriers to family engagement and match each to a leader action that removes it.

  • Outline a partnership agreement with an external community organization, including reciprocity and exit terms.

Your checkpoint

A stakeholder communication matrix (audience × message × channel × timing) for a single school-wide initiative.

Week 5

Professional Ethics, Integrity, and Equity

  • Apply a four-step ethical decision model to three written dilemmas and defend each resolution with a named standard.

  • Audit one school policy for equity gaps in access, discipline, or resource distribution.

  • Distinguish legal compliance from ethical obligation in four short scenarios and state which governs the leader's response.

  • Draft a 150-word equity impact statement for a decision that disadvantages one subgroup in the short term.

Your checkpoint

Three written ethics scenarios resolved through the decision model and cited standards, each in 300 words or fewer.

Week 6

The Education System and Instructional Leadership Context

  • Diagram the policy flow from federal to state to district to school for one instructional mandate.

  • Summarize the major school funding sources and the constraints each places on local spending.

  • Analyze a governance or bargaining scenario to identify who holds decision authority and where the leader has discretion.

  • Explain in writing how to advance an instructional priority while operating inside three fixed constraints.

Your checkpoint

A one-page annotated flowchart of the policy and funding environment with three leadership implications drawn from it.

Week 7

Vision, Mission, and Strategic Goals & Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum & Managing Organizational Systems, Operations, and Safety & Collaborating with Families and Community Stakeholders & Professional Ethics, Integrity, and Equity & The Education System and Instructional Leadership Context

  • Complete one full-length timed practice test under exam conditions with no notes.

  • Tag every missed or guessed item to a domain and a root cause: knowledge gap, misread, or faulty reasoning.

  • Verbalize the rationale for ten constructed-response prompts aloud within a two-minute limit each.

  • Rank all six domains by error density and select the two lowest for Week 8 remediation.

Your checkpoint

A scored full-length timed practice test plus an error log tagging each miss by domain and root cause.

Week 8

Vision, Mission, and Strategic Goals & Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum & Managing Organizational Systems, Operations, and Safety & Collaborating with Families and Community Stakeholders & Professional Ethics, Integrity, and Equity & The Education System and Instructional Leadership Context

  • Re-teach your ten weakest concepts by writing a fresh explanation and example for each.

  • Re-attempt every item missed in Week 7 and record why the correct answer is correct.

  • Rehearse time allocation across item types to confirm pacing on a 30-question subset.

  • Assemble a single review sheet limited to concepts you have missed at least twice.

Your checkpoint

A one-page final review sheet of your ten weakest concepts plus a score of at least 90% on a 30-question retest of those same concepts.

Milestones

Week 2: Complete the Domain 1–2 foundation: concept map, vision annotation, and PD plan all finished, and score at least 75% on an untimed 30-question set drawn from Domains 1 and 2.

Week 4: Score at least 75% on a 50-question mixed set covering Domains 1–4; any domain scoring below 70% gets a named re-study block scheduled in Weeks 5–6.

Week 6: All six domains have at least one written deliverable and one scored practice set; confirm the error log shows misses spread across at least four domains, not concentrated in one.

Week 8: Full-length timed practice score at or above your target passing margin, at least 90% on the weak-concept retest, and zero untagged items in the error log.