Policymakers and education system leaders who invest in formal instructional teacher leadership need to carefully consider how to do so in ways that will best sustain teacher leadership and maximize its benefits for instruction and learning. This report outlines how giving teacher leaders responsibility, accountability, and authority to drive instruction can accelerate student learning. In this report, the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) offers ten recommendations for maximizing investments in formal instructional teacher leadership roles: (1) Design formal teacher leadership responsibilities to encompass all of the main schoolwide systems for improving instruction; (2) Leverage teacher leadership to create coherence across major instructional improvement initiatives; (3) Establish multiple, interconnected leadership positions to increase opportunity, reach, and impact; (4) Emphasize that formal instructional teacher leadership roles enhance, rather than limit, opportunities for all staff to engage in leadership; (5) Select teacher leaders who have the right set of accomplishments, skills, and dispositions to succeed; (6) Provide teacher leaders with training and ongoing support focused on specific job responsibilities; (7) Empower teacher leaders by adopting common tools and protocols, including a research-based instructional framework or rubric; (8) Create and protect release time during the week for teacher leaders to lead, and give them enough time to build trust and long-term relationships that enable success; (9) Make more strategic use of existing resources to fund formal teacher leadership positions; and (10) Place teacher leaders at the school level, but expect districts to play a key role in sustaining and leveraging teacher leadership for maximum impact.