Leader

The Learning Forward Academy is a two-and-a-half-year program designed to empower teacher leaders to improve their instructional practice and become professional learning subject-matter experts so they can lead change in others. It includes in-person learning days, annual conferences, and ongoing virtual collaboration with academy participants.

Through a two-year fellowship, Leading Educators partners with schools and districts to maximize the leadership development of early- to middle-career teachers to bolster the talent pipeline, increase student achievement, and develop the skills and sustainability of teachers on their teams. 

Designed exclusively for KIPP teachers in leadership roles, the KIPP Teacher Leader Program is designed to help teacher leaders hone their instructional skills while learning new strategies to bring out the best in their colleagues. Participants in the one-year program focus on developing the leadership competencies and behaviors of the KIPP School Leadership Competency Model. 

The Center for Teacher Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University offers two-day conferences designed to give teacher leaders the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that they will need to work effectively with adults. It also offers workshops on communication skills, team building, and time management, as well as role-specific training focused on instructional mentoring, observing and conferencing, and data-driven coaching.

This brief from the California Collaborative on District Reform considers how Garden Grove, a large urban district in California, implements a comprehensive system of human capital development using processes for getting great teachers and building teachers’ capacity, including through professional learning.

The National Center on Time and Learning produced case studies of four schools that have used increased time for teacher-led professional learning to improve school performance. 

This case study shows how Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools implemented new Opportunity Culture models that extend the reach of excellent teachers to more students, for more pay, within current budgets. The study shows how new Multi-Classroom Leadership and Time Swap models provide more planning, collaboration, and coteaching time for teachers and teacher leaders.  

This set of case studies from Education Resource Strategies (ERS) profiles four organizations that have implemented a strategic approach to teacher professional growth and support. Each case study describes the mission of the organization, the strategies it used to find time for professional learning, and its performance results, program costs, lessons learned, and next steps.

These example schedules from Public Impact show how schools can rotate their teachers’ time in subject-specific teams with digital learning or have elementary teachers specialize in their best subject or subject pair, such as math/science. Teachers gain professional learning and collaboration time from these models.

Learning Forward provides example schedules demonstrating various block scheduling options and ways schools have repurposed planning time, describing each school’s techniques for scheduling and their benefits.