Paper Shows
Districts how to Design Programs for Impact
Detroit, MI, October 20, 2014 – As school districts
across the country confront the challenges of recruiting and retaining great
teachers while trying to close persistent achievement gaps, two prominent
nonprofit organizations today released a blueprint for building effective
teacher leadership programs. The Aspen Institute Education & Society
Program and Leading Educators, which partners with school districts to
accelerate the impact of teachers in leadership positions, unveiled Leading from the Front of the Classroom: A Roadmap
for Teacher Leadership that Works at the Education Writers Association
seminar in Detroit Monday.
The
paper provides school districts with concrete strategies for maximizing the
potential of highly effective teachers to influence their colleagues, shift
school culture and advance teaching, learning, and student achievement. The
good news is that school districts across America increasingly are investing in
the development of new career pathways for their best teachers as a reward and
retention strategy. Unfortunately, they often do so without regard for the
impact they want these teachers to have or how this can reinforce and strengthen
other reforms. As a result, these initiatives have yet to stem attrition or
improve achievement in any consistent or widespread fashion.
“I’ve
heard from so many teachers who are tired of the heartbreaking choice between
serving their students and serving their profession. Teacher leadership must be
a force for changing education—not a result of it,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said.
Leading
Educators Founder and CEO Jonas Chartock said, “What principal hasn’t wished
she could harness the talent of her best teachers and spread it to every
classroom in her school? We know from our own experience this is possible and
with this paper, Leading Educators hopes to point districts in the direction of
creating high-impact leadership programs that address their many challenges
around talent retention, achievement, and administrator burnout. In the areas
where Leading Educators works directly with schools on developing these types
of programs, we have seen higher teacher satisfaction and more collaborative,
less stressful learning environments.”
Aspen Institute Vice
President Ross Wiener said, “Done right, teacher leadership elevates the
profession while advancing other reforms. For example, it’s overwhelming for
principals alone to give every teacher the feedback and guidance they need and
deserve – and it’s not how any other profession is structured. Teacher
leadership leverages talent within the teaching corps, makes the job more
attractive to ambitious and accomplished teachers – and can make education
reform more sustainable at the same time.”
The
paper cites several examples of effective teacher leadership initiatives at the
state, school district, and school levels, including programs in Tennessee,
Chicago, the District of Columbia, and Denver, among others. Standalone
profiles also were released today of teacher leaders as Common Core coaches in
Tennessee, team leaders in Denver Public Schools, and school-culture leads in
the Noble Street Network of charter schools in Chicago.
These
approaches share common attributes that have the potential to improve retention
and student achievement:
They
are designed for impact: This
means aligning teacher leadership programs with key school priorities rather
than just using leadership as an opportunity to recognize successful educators.
They
know their context: Successful
teacher leadership is predicated on having strong and well-defined systems in
place to identify effective educators. School communities must have trust and
confidence in their teacher leaders and not question the process by which they
achieved their elevated position within a school.
They
have defined measures of
success: It is critical that districts and schools build a broad understanding
of the long term and leading indicators of success. Vision must be clear and
well-communicated.
They
are built strategically: Effective
teacher leadership programs cannot be a burden on principals or other
educators, but must actually redistribute some responsibility in ways that make
the principal job more manageable. Schools must commit to designing roles that
make sense for their communities, train teachers in the management skills they
need to be successful leaders, and recognize these leaders for their impact.
"By
investing in the creation of a thoughtful teacher leadership program we've seen
our schools in a position to hold all students to high expectations,” said Michael Milkie, Superintendent of Noble
Network of Charter Schools. “This paper captures a critical piece of our
success and hope it serves as a model for other school organizations and
districts looking to maximize the impact of the talent in their
classrooms."
Leading
Educators and the Aspen Institute officially unveiled the paper during a panel
discussion at the Education Writers Association’s Detroit seminar on teaching
entitled The Push to Upgrade the Teaching
Profession: What Reporters Need to Know. The full report can be seen at http://www.leadingeducators.org/publications.
###
ABOUT LEADING
EDUCATORS
Leading
Educators is a national nonprofit organization based in New Orleans that seeks to improve student achievement by
accelerating the positive impact of experienced teachers who take on leadership
positions in their schools. We partner
with states, districts, schools and individual educators to design leadership
opportunities and develop the management skills of teachers so they can lead
their peers to better student outcomes. For more information, visit www.leadingeducators.org.
ABOUT THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
EDUCATION AND SOCIETY PROGRAM
The Education
and Society Program improves public education by inspiring, informing, and
influencing education leaders across policy and practice, with an emphasis on
achieving equity for traditionally underserved students. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org/education
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jon Reinish
SKDKnickerbocker
202-999-0461
JReinish@SKDKnick.com
Katrin Thomas
The Aspen Institute
202-736-5857
Katrin.Thomas@aspeninst.org
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