Chapter 7: Performance-Based Academic Coaching Teams (PACT): A System-Wide Support for Principals and Aspiring Principals

Training and support for principals is critical to counter turnover rates of school administrators. The need for ongoing mentoring of campus administrators is something many school districts neglect when addressing school leader retention. The Performance-Based Academic Coaching Teams (PACT) website is used to assist newly hired administrators during their first years. The website focuses on the development of instructional leadership through electronic mentoring, immediate help requests, professional development modules, administrator mentor training, principal research support, message boards, and chat sessions. These components focus on helping the novice administrator with daily challenges and areas they may not have developed during their preservice preparation. The PACT website has grown over the past 5 years into a part of the educational leadership programs in the Texas A&M System universities and now is being used throughout the state. In 2015, the PACT site will be presented nationally. This will in turn give the PACT site a greater audience and will also help with the financial sustainability as the site continues to grow.