Strawbridge GSU EPEL 7410 Slides 1

Instructional
Leadership

Nancy Sharpe Strawbridge
GSU/EPEL 7410
Fall 2008

Instructional Leadership
EPEL 7410
 Introductions
 Overview
 Course

of syllabus

content

 Reading

for this class meeting


Are schools
special places?
--Thomas J. Sergiovanni

Changing our thinking from
organization to moral community . . .
(Sergiovanni)

Moral communities are based in
covenants—”planted in the heart
rather than written in stone.”
"I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.”
Jeremiah 31:33

Case Study from Sergiovanni

Why do we even need to talk about
instructional leadership?


. . . because things don’t just
happen in the movies. . .

Course Content
 Overview

of instructional
leadership, supervision, and
evaluation
 Adult learning; professional
learning; nurturing teacher
leadership
 Talking about teaching; what
does good teaching look like?

 Formal

and informal
observation and evaluation;
the walk-through

 Confronting marginal
teaching
 Mentoring, coaching, and
teacher induction

What is
instructional leadership?

What does it mean to you?

“The principal of a successful
school is not the instructional
leader, but the coordinator of
teachers as instructional
leaders.”
Carl Glickman, 1991

School Leaders as
Instructional Leaders—Questions to
Consider . . .







What does effective instruction
(instruction that causes learning)
look like? (UBD, backward design,
facets of understanding)
How do you know effective
instruction is taking place?
How do curriculum, instruction, and
assessment come together in the
classroom?

Expanding views of instructional
leadership . . .
1)


Individuals other than principals
engage in instructional leadership.
Who? How?

2)

Instructional leadership can (and
should) extend beyond direct
intervention in the classroom.
How?
Daresh, J. (2002). What it Means to be a Principal:
Your Guide to Leadership

Direct Instructional Leadership


Staff Development
 Plan

for professional learning

 Assess professional learning needs
and plan for a year of ongoing
activities
 Provide training for support staff on
how their roles relate to the
instructional program



Teacher Evaluation and Supervision
 What

is the difference between
evaluation and supervision?
 Setting clear goals and objectives
for instruction
 What about the walk-through?
 Work with the belief that all
teachers can teach well
 Conferencing with teachers

 GTEP; state requirements

Indirect Instructional Leadership


Resource Acquisition and Building
Maintenance
 Adequate

resources for teaching
 Prioritize needs to support
instruction
 Maintain physical facilities
 What other “resources” to teachers
need?



Instructional Facilitation
 Establish


instruction as a priority in
terms of activities and time
 Support teachers who are
innovative
 Support risk-taking and possible
failure
 Demonstrate the belief that all
children can learn



Student Problem Resolution
 Assist

teachers in discipline
matters
 Enforce attendance laws
 Interact directly with students and
parents who are having difficulty in

school
 Be the “bad guy!”

Behavior Patterns of
Instructional Leaders








They provide a sense of vision to
their school.
They engage in participative
management.
They provide support for instruction.
They monitor instruction.
They are resourceful.


According to your text (Zepeda p.1). . .

“perhaps the most important work a
supervisor does—regardless of title or
position—is to work with teachers in ways
that promote lifelong learning skills:
inquiry, reflection, collaboration, and a
dedication to professional growth and
development.”

What do you think?

What about standards?








Content standards—National Council
of Teachers of Mathematics
Grade level standards—National
Middle School Association
State department standards—exist in
many areas (Kentucky has standards
for beginning and experienced
teachers)
National standards—National Board
Certification for Teachers
Standards for School Leaders
Zepeda p. 3-7

Accountability and
High Stakes Testing


Should teachers be evaluated on the
success of their students?



Shouldn’t high stakes accountability
apply to students and adults?



Should states be able to determine their
own accountability benchmarks?

Supervision v. Evaluation


Supervision is formative—ideally
leading to improved teaching. This
is where professional learning
should be generated.



Evaluation is summative—leading
to a job performance rating.

School Culture &
Work Environment
What is the legacy of the one-room school?

From effective schools to school
improvement—why culture matters . . .




1960s and 1970s
 The Coleman Report
 Jencks’ findings about inequality
 Ron Edmonds “all schools could be
effective” (Glickman, p.33)
1980s
 Continuing emphasis on effective schools
 Emerging emphasis on SBM, leadership,
collegiality, professional learning, etc.
 Beginnings of school choice & charter
school movements



1990s
 Murphy

asserts that we must move
beyond narrow definitions of school
effectiveness to broad principles:
All students can learn.
 Focus on student outcomes (data-driven
instruction)
 Assume responsibility for student
learning—stop blame
 School communities should be
structurally, symbolically, and culturally
linked


According to Murphy and Datnow in
Leadership Lessons from Comprehensive
School Reforms . . .
. . . successful principals build “dense
leadership organizations.” More
commonly thought of as
“distributed leadership,” this
leadership builds on collaborative
skills and allows for the exercise of
leadership to be accomplished by
different people at different times.

Effective Schools to
Improving Schools (Glickman, p. 37)












Varied sources of leadership
Consideration of individual school context and
culture
Parental involvement
Shared vision
External and internal support
Focus on teaching and learning
Ongoing, imbedded professional development
Teacher collaboration—instructional dialogue
Democratic, collective inquiry—action research
Coherent improvement efforts
Data-based feedback on improvement efforts
using multiple measures

Does school culture matter in
improving schools? Where does it
come from?


Beliefs and values about students,
learning and leading shape our
personal vision and our vision for our
work.

“Strong cultures don’t appear
magically.” p. 18

Questions for reflection (adapted from
Zepeda, p. 17):






What do I stand for? What are my
core beliefs about teaching and
learning and school?
What is good teaching? What make
an excellent teacher?
What kind of support do teachers
need to become excellent?
How do supervision, evaluation and
professional learning contribute to
excellent teaching? How do they
ensure learning?

Principals in Healthy Cultures
(from Zepeda, Figure 1.9 p.19)
Are visible
 Communicate well and often
 Are always role models
 Are passionate about their work
 Accept responsibility for the
school’s culture
 Are organized


Are positive
 Take pride in the school’s
physical environment
 Empower others appropriately
 Demonstrate stewardship—
protect their school and its
people


Principals in Unhealthy Cultures (cont.)








Communicate little and are not
visible.
View themselves as “the boss.”
Are poorly organized.
Feel that others are responsible for
the physical plant.
Make excuses—place blame on
outside influences.

Glickman, et.al. reference a “paradigm shift”
in supervisory practices marked by:









Relationships between supervisors and
teachers are collegial not hierarchical
Supervision is practiced by all—teachers
and administrators
Focus is on teacher growth not
compliance with minimum competency
Teacher collaboration is facilitated
Teachers are involved in ongoing
reflective inquiry

Supervision involves mastery of:


Knowledge



Interpersonal skills



Technical skills
Glickman, et. al. p. 9

Darling-Hammond, et. al., view supervision
as PREPARING TEACHERS FOR A
CHANGING WORLD . . .




Teaching as a Profession
Learning in a Democracy
A Vision of Professional Practice
 Knowledge

of learners and their
development
 Knowledge of subject matter
 Knowledge of teaching

Bridging the gap between supervision
and evaluation (from Zepeda, pp. 32-33)









Emphasize the function of teacher
evaluation in finding and recognizing good
teaching
Include the teacher in the process
Use more than one person to evaluate
Use multiple sources of data to inform
judgments about teacher quality—
including student achievement data
Use evaluation results to support teacher
growth and promotion
Attend to the sociology of teacher
evaluation.

Differentiated Supervision. . .


What do teachers want?

(Zepeda,

p.34-38)

What should teachers be
doing?
 What does differentiated
supervision look like in your
building?


Supervisory Styles
(Zepeda, Figure 2.2, p.37)


Directive control approach



Directive informational approach



Collaborative approach



Nondirective approach

What approach will
you use with
Mr. Grimes?

Next class . . .


Adults as learners,



Professional Learning, and



Nurturing Teacher
Leadership