Most educators would agree that the most important job of a school leader is providing instructional leadership that results in improved student learning.  Effective instructional leaders possess knowledge and skills in three major areas: 1) curriculum - articulation of what students are expected to know and be able to do, 2) instruction - a variety of age-appropriate input experiences that teachers orchestrate in order for students to learn the curriculum to meet a desired standard, and 3) assessments - a variety of measures to determine the degree to which students learned what they were taught. 
       The Instructional Leadership Academy focuses primarily on the “instruction” side of the triangle and includes three segments: 1) learning to identify, label, and explain the major elements of effective instruction based on brain research and learning theory, 2) learning to analyze classroom instruction and conduct developmentally appropriate instructional conference for the purpose of increasing teacher effectiveness, and 3) learning a variety of performance evaluation strategies.