Students' literacy achievement tends to lessen as they progress from elementary to middle level to high school as measured by state and national assessments. To ensure that secondary school students retain their literacy skills, many states and districts have created the position of literacy coach for middle and high schools. Literacy coaches are…

The number of staff members serving American higher education institutions has more than doubled in the past twenty years, as occupations in technology, development, government relations, and even athletic administration have grown as never before in the history of the academy. As the number, variety, and importance of these positions have grown,…

Quality professional development is fundamental to effective teaching and higher student achievement in all classrooms at all grade levels. Administrators and instructional staff must possess solid, up-to-date academic and professional skills in order to maintain high performance schools. To ensure the acquisition of these skills, the Kentucky…

Sustaining results-oriented team efforts is hard work, and achieving diversified solutions to complex issues over time requires commitment an creativity. To support the momentum of learning communities, this book provides an illustrated collection of ready-to-use tools and examples of plans in action for results-oriented faculty and staff.…

This article discusses the lack of female teachers in leadership positions. In 1988, The National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) and the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) commissioned a study to address the administrator shortage. They found that the top three reasons candidates gave for not applying…

A close relationship between teaching quality and student achievement is documented by a steady flow of research since the early 1990s. A cutting-edge rural school is tapping the talent of its National Board-certified teachers to transform teaching and learning.

The concept and practice of teacher leadership have gained momentum in the past two decades. Teachers are assuming more leadership functions at both instructional and organizational levels of practice. Empirical literature reveals numerous small-scale, qualitative studies that describe dimensions of teacher leadership practice, teacher leader…

Purpose: This exploratory study examines conditions that lead elementary principals to support the work of school-based instructional teacher leaders. The study asks, How do principals' knowledge of teacher leadership and their interaction with teacher leaders contribute to principals' support for teacher leadership? And, How might district…

There's nothing new about having teachers lead teams, chair departments, and manage programs, but what's never been available to schools is a framework for developing these teacher leaders and encouraging them every step of the way... until now. One of education's foremost consultants and authors lays out the foundation that every school needs for…

"Help Wanted" signs are springing up outside schools. The shortage of school administrators is not coming, it is here. To thwart the shortage and keep schools on the cutting edge, diligence in cultivating, training, and inspiring a new generation of school leaders--especially for the principalship, must be exercised. Staffing the Principalship…

This guide is intended as a resource for school administrators, school leadership teams, and other teacher leaders as they learn about implementing professional learning teams (PLTs) in their schools. PLTs are teams of four to six teachers who come together to help each other improve student learning by changing classroom instruction. This guide…

This article describes how teacher leadership emerged within schools with either a high level or a low level of readiness to establish a professional learning community. Through the perspectives of principals and teacher leaders, there were distinct differences in the emergence of teacher leadership, the operation of shared leadership structures,…

How do principals get teachers past isolation to create a top school? Principals must create a web of leadership, a nonhierarchical structure of authority and control. While they remain at the center, they are supported only when they learn to delegate. Teachers learn to take on leadership roles, creating a more vested interest and lessening the…

In recent years, school improvement initiatives have been the focus of political agendas, professional conferences, and publication topics. While a plethora of school improvement resources and techniques exist, most explanations regarding how to employ school improvement strategies in differing contexts is extremely vague at best, and non-existent…

This paper reports on an ethnographic study of 25 teacher leaders in five schools within a large midwestern city school district. Data was collected through unstructured interviews and observations of teachers. Three central themes appeared repeatedly, and explain the presence of and support for teachers as leaders, including: (1) specific school…