10 Ways to Identify, Coach, and Support Teacher Leaders

Recently I came upon a great idea from Bill Ferriter on The Tempered Radical where he asks the question, "What do teacher leaders need from administrators?"  This is a fantastic question.  As principals begin to implement changes in their schools, they need to have a finger on the pulse of their teacher leaders.  These "high flyers" are the group that will be the tipping point for momentum in the building.  If a principal can gain support for changes from the teacher leaders, the teacher leaders will then become strong salespeople and recruiters with the rest of the staff.  Identifying, coaching, supporting teacher leaders is one of the most important things a principal can do.  And so.....on to 10 ways to identify, coach, and support teacher leaders:

1. Find those teachers with a strong moral compass for students.  The teachers who place the students' interests over their own.
2. Empower them to try new ideas and to share with others. 
3. Model positive approaches to reflection in the light of critical feedback.
4. Talk through and share your own thought process on decisions and ideas with teacher leaders.
5. Search out feedback from teacher leaders...don't wait for them bring it to you.
6. Talk with teacher leaders and find out what their personal/professional goals are.  Then actively try to help them achieve those.
7. Allow teacher leaders to mentor other teachers but also provide them with feedback on their mentoring.
8. Model continuous learning.  Take them through book studies, share current educational literature, provide opportunities to attend conferences and attend them yourself (within reason), share your experiences with learning from your mistakes.
9. Understand that when your teacher leaders leave to pursue leadership opportunities in other places (teacher leader becoming administrator in another building) this reflects well on your leadership.  Don't be afraid of what you will lose when they leave, the quality of teacher you attract will be much higher than you were able to attract before you began growing teacher leaders.
10. Don't be afraid to admit when you are wrong.  Your teacher leaders will see your humility and learn much from it.

Double Jeopardy for Students at Risk!

I recently came across an interesting report from The Annie E. Casey Foundation which according to their website (http://www.aecf.org/) is, "...is a private charitable organization, dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children in the United States. The primary mission of the Foundation is to foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families. In pursuit of this goal, the Foundation makes grants that help states, cities and neighborhoods fashion more innovative, cost-effective responses to these needs."

This report entitled Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation is very sobering especially when viewed in light of the moral imperative of education.  I've included some of the more powerful quotes from the report below:

• "Results of a longitudinal study of nearly 4,000 students find that those who don't read proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to leave school without a diploma than proficient readers.  For the worst readers, those those [who] couldn't master even the basic skills by third grade, the rate is nearly six times greater" (p. 3).

• "The combined effect of reading poorly and living in poverty puts these children in double jeopardy" (p. 3).

• "One in six children who are not reading proficiently in third grade do not graduate from high school on time, a rate four times greater than that for proficient readers" (p. 3).

• "For children who were poor for at least a year and were not reading proficiently in third grade, the proportion that don't finish school rose to 26 percent.  That's more than six times the rate for all proficient readers" (p. 4).

• "Third grade is an important pivot point in a child's education, the time when students shift from learning to read and begin reading to learn.  Interventions for struggling readers after third grade are seldom as effective as those in the early years" (p. 4).

• "...children with the lowest reading scores account for a third of students but for more than three-fifths (63 percent) of all children who do not graduate from high school" (p. 6).

• "...the children in poor families are in double jeopardy:  They are more likely to have low reading test scores and, at any reading-skill level, they are less likely to graduate from high school" (p. 7).

What does this mean?  To be blunt, unless schools have programs in place to provide intense, sustained interventions to primary students who are below level in reading, we will continue to send students on past third grade who are very much in danger of falling into a group that has little chance of graduating.  Sobering thoughts...


References:

Hernandez, D. J. (2011). Double jeopardy: How third-grade reading skills and poverty influence high school graduation. Albany, NY: The Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Leadership Influences on Student Learning 2: Leadership as Influence

How do school leaders influence student achievement?  I noted in the last blog how school leadership directly influenced three other groups that have a direct influence on student learning.  As true as this is, however, it does not explain how leadership actually influences student learning through influence of those other groups.  Consider the following table from the Wallace Foundation study:

One way that school leaders have influence on student learning is by creating a climate of collective leadership.  By empowering and including teachers in leadership conversations and how to improve school and classroom conditions, administrators will influence student learning.

Louis, K. S., Leithwood, K., Wahlstrom, K., A., & Anderson, S. E. (2010).  Investigating links to improved student learning. The Wallace Foundation.  http://www.wallacefoundation.org/KnowledgeCenter/KnowledgeTopics/CurrentAreasofFocus/EducationLeadership/Documents/Learning-from-Leadership-Investigating-Links-Final-Report.pdf

Leadership Influences on Student Learning: 1

As a school leader, how many different groups/individuals do you influence (or are you influenced by) on a daily basis?  Have you ever considered the sheer number?  Research supports the idea that the role of principal is closely linked to more groups/individuals than any other role.  Consider the figure below:

By count, there are eight different groups that have some sort of influence on principals.  However, there are also five groups that principals directly influence.  Although, student learning is not in a direct line with school leadership, the role of principal directly influences three separate groups that have direct influences on student learning. 

It is a very sobering thought that the role of principal has so much influence.  Yet it also should be very exciting that the role of principal is so ripe with opportunities for influencing student learning.  As a principal/school leader are you maximizing the opportunities that present themselves when working with the many different groups you have influence with?

Louis, K. S., Leithwood, K., Wahlstrom, K., A., & Anderson, S. E. (2010).  Investigating links to improved student learning. The Wallace Foundation.  http://www.wallacefoundation.org/KnowledgeCenter/KnowledgeTopics/CurrentAreasofFocus/EducationLeadership/Documents/Learning-from-Leadership-Investigating-Links-Final-Report.pdf

Leadership Influences on Student Learning

The Wallace Foundation just recently finished their report entitled Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning.  It is a massive document (338 pages) yet contains a wealth of information focused around the following stated goals for the project:

1. Identify state, district, and school leadership practices that directly or indirectly foster the improvement of educational practices and student learning.
2. Clarify how successful leadership practices directly and indirectly influence the quality of teaching and learning.
3. Determine the extent to which individuals and groups at state, district, school, and classroom levels possess the will and skill required to improve student learning, and the extent to which their work settings allow and encourage them to act on those capacities and motivations.
4. Describe the ways in which, and the success with which, individuals and groups at the state, district, school, and classroom levels help others to acquire the will and skill required to improve student learning.
5. Identify the leadership and workplace characteristics of districts and schools that encourage the values, capacities, and use of practices that improve student learning.

Over the next few weeks, I hope to post some thoughts about the information contained in the document in order to help district and school leaders learn how to maximize their influence on student learning.  Stay tuned to the first post later today (hopefully).  :)

Is your school Learning or just Lucky? Leading or Losing?

As a school leader, one of the most important skills to have is to be able to understand why certain things are happening in your school the way that they are. For example, school leaders need to understand what it is about their organization that causes them to have the student achievement results that they have. A great way to analyze where a school is is by using the Leadership and Learning Matrix below.

Created by Doug Reeves, this leadership matrix allows school leaders to analyze why they are getting the results that are occurring. This is very similar to the concepts of unconscious incompetency/conscious competency. Schools that find themselves in the Leading quadrant are schools where gains in student achievement are the result of intentional structures that could be reproduced in any setting. However, schools that find themselves in the Lucky quadrant have no idea why they are getting gains in student achievement. For these "lucky" schools, imagine how much more successful they could be with more intentional structures. Schools that are "Learning" are schools that have realized why they aren't making more progress but are willing to change in order to benefit the students.

And then there are the "Losing" schools. These schools haven't really even accepted that they are leaving students behind. These schools most often blame outside factors for their lack of success instead of focusing on the factors they have control over.

No matter which quadrant you find your school in, the most important thing is realizing that you can always improve. Communities of learning never rest and never stop analyzing how to get better. Which school are you?

Isn't Technology Wonderful!!

It is constantly amazing how much technology has to offer in terms of uses for instructing students. What is even more amazing is that as many ideas as you can think of for using technology, others can come with that many more different ideas. It is only by talking with others that we can share all of our wonderful ideas together to benefit students.

For example, one idea I learned from a fellow training participant today (Thanks Cindy!) was to use the Google Calendar to link to a Google Docs form and have students complete exit slips, bell ringers, and other short assessments online. Not only does it cut down on paper and copies but by using the Google Docs, all student answers will be summarized and tabulated automatically without having to do it yourself.

Taking this even further at a district level, using the calendar to post the district's professional development opportunities would also allow registrants to click on the event and then be instantly transported to the registration survey though Google Docs.

The possibilities are endless. What ideas can you think of? Add your own ideas by commenting below.