Teacher leaders assume a wide range of roles to support school and student success. Harrison and Killion describe 10 roles that teacher leaders can fulfill in their schools. As resource providers, they provide materials to help their colleagues. Instructional specialists help colleagues with instructional strategies, and curriculum specialists…

Teaching literacy skills is inextricably meshed with the work of transformation. When students learn to read and write, they are learning the knowledge and skills needed in order to better understand their world and ultimately to participate in the remaking of their realities. Leadership for social justice is a democratic, empowering relationship…

Teacher leaders are the pack mules of effective school improvement because they carry the weight of responsibility for ensuring that reforms take root in the classroom and deepen the learning of all students. They continually think about the gap in schools between the real and the ideal, and the discrepancies that they witness compel them to push…

Using data to redesign instruction is a means of increasing student achievement. Educators in Camden County (Georgia) Schools have used data from benchmark testing since 1999. They hired a commercial vendor to design a benchmark test that is administered four times a year and use the data to generate subject-area reports that can be further…

The authors argue that leadership networks when comprised of regional stakeholders including university faculty, school system administrators, and teacher leaders can begin to work together towards common reform goals. (Contains 1 figure.)

This paper attempts to articulate the process and content of the coaching model developed by the staff who work in schools affiliated with the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative (BASRC). BASRC is a 7-year-old nonprofit grant-funding organization with the mission to transform schools in the San Francisco Bay area, California into vital places to…

The premise of this article is to fashion a theoretical notion of teacher leadership that infuses a feminist ethic into the philosophical base of this timely and judicious movement. A feminist ethic is described in relationship to teacher leadership and a portrait of one teacher leader gleaned from an in-depth interview and observation exemplifies…

This article discusses how schools and school districts across the U.S. face a growing "leadership deficit." Accelerating retirements and reportedly shallow pools of applicants for administrative positions are raising alarms about future leadership. And all of this is happening just when schools will need the best leaders ever. Four…

While the technological society has rapidly moved into the digital-information age leadership has emerged as even more distinctive and essential for success. Experience teaches everyone that leadership can be exercised through noble uplifting pursuits or driven by corrupting repressive power. Leadership when positive creates a stimulating…

In this book, Robert Hess promotes teacher leadership as the critical component to achieving breakthrough results in school improvement. Developed from conversations and stories of dozens of teacher leaders and administrators, this book advocates that all teachers can and should take on leadership roles in their school. It contains many stories of…

The National Staff Development Council (NSDC) has won recognition for the field of professional development. Researchers and education change agents acknowledge the importance of professional learning among strategies essential for reforming schools and raising teacher and student performance. The federal government, states, and school districts…

The "Making Middle Grades Work" ("MMGW") school improvement design consists of a framework of Goals, Key Practices and Key Conditions for accelerating learning and setting higher standards. It recommends research-based practices for schools to improve academic and exploratory instruction and sustained student achievement. "MMGW" research has shown…

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…

The most difficult task while focusing the school's mission of teaching and learning is balancing administrative duties and unforeseen crises. The difficulties faced by the leaders and educators in school community are described by a day's analysis in the Boston Arts Academy.

A school-wide, shared vision can light the path to a positive school climate. Bringing the abstract concept of a school-wide vision from theory into practice enables administrators to extend a broad-based leadership approach to the teachers (Lambert, 2003). This inclusive method builds upon the knowledge and expertise the teachers possess and…