Resources

This presentation from Ellen Behrstock-Sherratt overviews the literature related to the role of school leaders in addressing equity issues. 

The authors of this report reviewed four districts that exhibited shared leadership. The report defines the different components of shared leadership and the conditions that enable it, and it also provides some examples of shared leadership. The authors believe there is no one right way to distribute leadership; both bottom-up and top-down approaches can be successful.

Mead Valley School is one of the poorest schools in the United States. In almost every conceivable way, its students are very much underprivileged. Yet the school managed to beat the odds and sustain high levels of academic achievement. School leaders turned Mead Valley School around by using five main strategies:

This article describes how one new school principal in Kentucky transformed from a task-dominated agenda to one that allowed her to visit every classroom at least once per week. This approach allowed her to drastically increase the amount of time focused on instruction and learning. The key behind the transformation was a trained school administration manager.

The authors of this report, which focuses on 11 schools in North Carolina, discuss the importance of trust in schools. Going beyond the issues of what effect trust has on a school and why, they address how a school leader can foster a trusting school culture. Strategies for building trust are provided, along with practical examples in the words of those school leaders who succeeded in creating trusting school communities. 

This Public Impact webpage provides an overview table and detailed descriptions of school models that redesign jobs, and in some cases, use technology in new ways, to extend the reach of excellent teachers to more students.

This Public Impact webpage provides information on how school models that extend the reach of excellent teachers to more students can create new roles that enable teachers and paraprofessionals to pursue a variety of career paths. 

The T3 (Turnaround Teacher Teams) Initiative at Teach Plus represents an innovative approach to recruiting, developing, and supporting teachers to serve in high-need schools. The T3 Initiative currently partners with schools in Massachusetts and Tennessee.

This paper, by Rachel Curtis of Human Capital Strategies for Urban Schools, gives examples of school systems that have created unique teacher career pathways as part of a larger vision to transform the culture of teaching and learning within schools. Through these profiles, Curtis outlines a process to help school systems develop new roles for teachers and create and implement systems and structures to support teacher leadership efforts.

There is a growing acceptance, indeed enthusiasm, among policymakers and education leaders for a heightened teacher role in leading a stronger profession. More than 60 colleges now offer master’s programs in teacher leadership. Smart, dynamic, motivated teachers fear stagnating in their growth, and teacher leadership positions provide avenues to pursue new skills and interests while remaining in the classroom.