What is Effective Teacher Leadership?

I just re-read Carrie R. Leana's "The Missing Link in School Reform (2011)," and I agree that teacher collaboration, described by the author as a form of social capital, is what makes really good teachers become excellent.

The U.S. Department of Education's Blueprint for Reform (2009) suggests that teacher evaluation include room for multiple measures such as teacher leadership or peer-review (see p. 4).

I appreciate the flexible, aim-focused tone of the Blueprint. I wonder how the Department could be more explicit about what teacher leadership and peer review actually look like. How can the Department advance incentives, infrastructure or models that develop and sustain the essence of teachers' stewardship of the profession?

I also wonder about the future of the Blueprint, its intersection with Race to The Top and the reauthorization of Elementary and Secondary Education Act (aka No Child Left Behind). What can the Department do to foster policy that engages the millions of teachers we already have in our classrooms?

Cultivating the Effective Hybrid Teachers

Effective teachers help students develop a love of life-long learning.  Do our school systems provide opportunities for teachers to effectively use their wondrous crafts? How can teacher effectiveness be enriched by the hybrid teaching role? 

Essentially, hybrid teachers spend part of their time in the classroom and part of their time in stewardship of the profession. But before we agree this is idea, we have to develop the infrastructure that supports and sustains hybrid teachers. Bruce Taterka and I will be facilitating a conversation about the hybrid teacher at this year's annual EduCon in Philadelphia. 

An abstract of our conversation follows:

In order for K-12 teachers to be more effective, we need opportunities to study the intersection of curriculum, instruction, assessment and policy. For example, as federal agencies call for more teacher research, and states design high-stakes standardized assessments of student growth, teachers need to be more involved with what goes in in schools and districts. One of the challenges we face is that many teachers already work 50 hours a week; where do we find the time we need to lead? Data from the 2013 Measures of Effective Teaching study also shows that teachers also seek opportunities to lead without leaving the classroom.

Experience:

We'd love to hear more about your experiences with hybrid teaching. What experience do you have with hybrid teacher roles? What systems should be in place so that the hybrid teacher roles are effective and sustainable? 

How much is a teacher worth?

Today I read the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer and learned that the outgoing CEO of Sunoco is receiving about $37 million in compensation for liquidating assets (i.e. shedding at least 175 jobs). 

Of course we want a robust economy, and I'm sure the SUNOCO CEO has a skill set that is valued by many. But I wonder if her skill set is any more complex than those of teachers who make hundreds of decisions on a daily basis.  These decisions affect the health, engagement and lives of 180,000 children across Philadelphia, and millions more across the US. 

Teachers are valuable.

At the same time, public education has been framed as THE leverage point to enrich our economy.  It has been said that we need college- and career-ready students who can help the US retain its economic prowess.  Yet I thought the purpose of education was to advance democratic equity.

A robust democracy is not at odds with a sustainable economy.

We need teacher leadership to ensure that smart policy influences curriculum, instruction and assessment.  We need effective working conditions so that teachers can flourish.  We need teachers to be seen (and see themselves) as professionals.  We need time to study and inform policy.

I know that all of us won't always agree on policy -- and that is a good thing.  But I'd like to believe that we see teachers as professionals who have the experience that is essential to dynamic education systems.  And if we take care of our teachers, we take care of our students and schools -- and our society.

How much are teacher worth?

Mapping Teacher Leadership

Comments from 60+ teachers when asked, "What does teacher leadership mean to you?" The words "teacher" and "leadership" were removed before the word cloud was created. Check out Wordle for a fun word cloud tool.

A New Teacher Unionism

Steve Owens, one of my colleagues from the Teacher Leaders Network, recently posted some interesting questions on his ED.gov blog:

• What constructive role do you see for unions in education reform?
• What suggestions do you have for how the Department can build the capacity of stakeholders to participate meaningfully in the great policy debates of our time?

Steve is a music teacher, president of his NEA local, and a classroom-based Teaching Ambassador Fellow with the US Department of Education.  Steve helped me understand about the three branches of a new unionism that, if integrated, could help enrich public education.  For Steve, and many of his colleagues within the Teachers Union Reform Network, new unionism includes the integration of industrial, professional and social justice models.  I'll write more about new unionism later, but I wanted to address Steve's questions.

I think unions can have a much stronger role in advocating for teacher leadership. For example, I’d like to see more unions working with districts to create regional (if not school-based) “fellowships” in which teachers have 1/2 classroom responsibilities and 1/2 policy/research responsibilities. What a terrific way to cultivate teacher leadership and give teachers the time and resources to refine their understandings of policy and research.

The Department can get more stakeholders involved by focusing on state-level school board associations, parent groups, administrators and student unions. I’ve attended school board meetings and have been concerned about the adversarial comments flying back and forth between these stakeholders.

The Department is in a position to leverage relationships so that more people are talking about more of the same things. For example, how can the stakeholders work together to protect teacher (and principal!) pensions? If we want the best teachers (and principals) for our students, then we can surely collaborate to create the best working conditions that attract and retain highly qualified, creative and synergized educators.

Even if we don’t all always agree on specific solutions, the shared understandings will help us keep the conversation focused.

So, back to Steve's questions:

• What constructive role do you see for unions in education reform?
• What suggestions do you have for how the Department can build the capacity of stakeholders to participate meaningfully in the great policy debates of our time?

What do you think?

Teaching for profit -- say what?

Over at The Future of Teaching, John Holland has raised some interesting questions about the differences between "teacher leaders" and "teacherpreneurism." Check out John's graphic (below) to get a sense of where John is heading:

With this graphic, John has done a terrific job of probing the differences between “Teacher Leader” and “Teacherpreneur.” I like money as much as the next person, but I wonder about the “non-profit v. for-profit” dichotomy.

By associating teacherpreneur with profit, we embrace a extrinsic reward model of education. The implication is that teachers would do more/better only if we were paid better. I certainly would like a higher salary, but I think we’ve got to focus on effective working conditions that help teachers flourish. Nor are many of our colleagues just plain “lazy.”

Besides, in order to garner “profit,” you have to exploit some resource.  What services are we going to cut in order to create this profit?   If we insert profit into public education, then the goal becomes more about making money and less about fostering democratic habits of mind and body [& spirit].  Is "for-profit"  a model we want for public education?

Why not just pay teachers really well for their important, child-rearing endeavors and elevate collaboration, creativity and critical thinking as our aims?