High rates of teacher turnover and persistent student achievement gaps are ongoing challenges for many Indiana schools. State and district leaders have responded with a range of initiatives and policies to strengthen teaching and learning and to increase student access to effective teachers. One of the most promising is the development of teacher career pathways and distributed leadership models focused on strengthening classroom instruction. In 2020, the Indiana Governor's Next Level Teacher Compensation Commission recommended this approach by encouraging districts to create new opportunities for teachers to increase their compensation through career ladders or pathways that utilize the instructional and leadership capacity of educators to improve teaching and learning. Three school districts that have made teacher leadership a core strategy for improvement received a federal award to advance this work. Brown County Schools, Goshen Community Schools, and Perry Township Schools partnered with the nonprofit National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) to win a five-year, $47 million federal grant from the Teacher and School Leader (TSL) Incentive Program. These districts are located in different parts of the state and serve communities from urban to remote rural locales. What they have in common is the continual need to improve teaching and learning to support diverse and changing populations of students, including refugees, English learners, minority students, special education students, and students receiving free and reduced-price meals. The work of educators in Brown County, Goshen, and Perry Township can be seen in the improvements in teaching and learning as well as in the many ways that they have created more equitable and inclusive environments to better address the needs of diverse student populations.