"The Association of California School Administrators," by Cyndy Simms
Posted 01/07/2013
As a retired superintendent in Southern California, I continue to hold membership with the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA). ACSA provides a variety of services for educational administrators working in California. When it was formed in 1971, ACSA replaced seven separate organizations that represented smaller groups of education professionals.
ACSA is the largest such organization in the United States, with over 16,000 members. ACSA strives to ensure that all students in California have the resources and skills necessary to succeed, regardless of their background or vocational interests. To this end, ACSA maintains nearly two dozen committees and councils focused on issues at the municipal, state, and federal levels.
Through its advocacy efforts, ACSA has played a major role in securing financing for California schools, making programs within schools more flexible and assisting individual counties and districts with local goals. ACSA has also lobbied on behalf of schools and administrators on issues regarding curriculum design, accountability, and school assessment. In addition, ACSA sets standards for school administration and has developed training programs for nearly every administrative position in existence in California school districts.
In addition to playing a leadership role in California, ACSA has inspired educational administrators’ associations in most other states to adopt a similar umbrella model. However, ACSA remains the most comprehensive organization of its kind in the United States.
More information on ACSA and its programs, workshops, and resources can be found at www.acsa.org.
