Questar Instructional Leadership PP
Investigating the Links to
Improved Student Learning
Seashore-Lewis, K; Leithwood,
K.; Wahlstrom, K; and, Anderson,
A. (2010)
What School Leaders Do to
Improve Student Achievement
Instructional Leadership
Consider:
What do building leaders do that
improves classroom instruction?
Prior Research has Identified Four
Categories of Core Leadership Practices:
• Setting Directions
• Developing People
• Redesigning the Organization
• Managing the Instructional Program
Discuss:
What can principals do
specifically in each of these
categories which will improve
instruction?
Compare:
Compare your group’s answers
with research findings.
Top Three Answers
What leadership practices on the part of school
principals are considered, by principals and teachers,
to be helpful in supporting and improving classroom
instruction?
• Focusing the school on goals and expectations for
student achievement
• Keeping track of teachers’ professional development
needs
• Creating structures and opportunities for teachers to
collaborate
Implications for Practice
• Instructional improvement requires a school-wide
focus on goals and expectations for student
achievement.
• Principals play a key role in supporting and
encouraging teachers’ professional development
needs. Leaders have a role to play in keeping track
of those needs, as well as providing resources and
materials to improve teachers’ repertoire of
instructional practices.
Implications for Practice
• Policy makers and practitioners should avoid promoting, endorsing,
or being unduly influenced by conceptions of instructional
leadership which adopt an excessively narrow focus on classroom
instruction. Classroom practices occur within larger organizational
systems which can vary enormously in the extent to which they
support, reward, and nurture good instruction. School leaders who
ignore or neglect the state of this larger context can easily find their
district efforts to improve instruction substantially frustrated.
• Principals must include careful attention to classroom instructional
practices, but should not neglect many other issues that are critical
to the ongoing health and welfare of school organizations.
Instructional Leadership:
Digging Deeper
The Changing Role of the Principal from
Manager to Leader
Study Questions
1. What does instructional leadership look like to
teachers?
2. Are teachers’ reports of instructional leadership
similar in substance to what principals have to
say about instructional leadership?
3. Does instructional leadership look different at the
elementary and secondary levels?
Types of Evidence Examined in the Study
• Teacher Surveys
• Student Achievement Data
• District leader, Principal and Teacher interviews
• Classroom Observations
Teacher Survey Results
• The survey contained 131 items which asked about principal
leadership behaviors deemed likely, in previous research, to
influence teachers’ instructional behavior.
• After factor analysis of the responses, two factors emerged:
• Factor 1: 10 items – Instructional Climate
• Factor 2: 7 items – Instructional Actions
• All principals in whose buildings teachers completed the survey
were ranked. The top 20% and the bottom 20% of principals were
identified.
Factor 1: Instructional Climate
Instructional Climate is about influencing the
context in which instruction takes place.
Discuss: How can principals do this?
Then compare your answers with the study findings.
Factor 2: Instructional Actions
In order to turn their visions of high student achievement into reality, high-scoring
principals are actively engaged in providing direct support to teachers.
Discuss: How can principals do this?
Then compare your answers with the study findings.
Interview Findings: Three Behaviors Distinguishing HighScoring from Low-Scoring Principals
1. High scoring principals have an acute awareness of
teaching and learning in their schools
2. High scoring principals have a direct and frequent
involvement with teachers, providing them with formative
assessment of teaching and learning.
3. High scoring principals have the ability and interpersonal
skills to empower teachers to learn and grow according
to the vision established for the school.
Other Study Findings
•
•
•
•
•
•
Intentional classroom visits are more effective than
“popping in” or being visible
Principal engagement with individual teachers to ensure
that the school’s vision would be realized was seldom
occurring
Many teachers prefer to be “left alone”
Department heads provide little or no instructional
leadership
Discussions about teaching and learning occur informally
between colleagues and peers
Instructional leadership was more commonly
demonstrated in elementary than secondary schools
Discussion:
Discuss these study findings
Consider:
What do district leaders do that helps building
leaders to improve classroom instruction?
District Instructional Leaders:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Clearly communicate expected standards for high
priority areas of instruction
Have a detailed plan for improving instruction across the
district
Are active and effective in supporting excellent
instruction
Clarify the steps that school leaders and teachers need
to take to improve the quality of instruction
Actively monitor the quality of instruction
Frequently communicate about best practices
Implications for Practice
1. District leaders should acknowledge, and begin to reduce,
ways in which principals are limited in their capacity to
exercise instructional leadership by the work required of them
in their role as it is currently structured. District administrators
are normally aware of the managerial effectiveness of their
principals regarding immediate tasks and problems. District
leaders need to find ways to help secondary and elementary
school principals work with teachers in order to improve. They
also need to help principals structure their work schedules in
order to find sufficient time to do this.
2. The role of department head in secondary schools should be
radically redefined. Department heads should be regarded,
institutionally, as a central resource for improving instruction in
middle and high schools.
Implications for Practice, continued…
3. Principals need to be held accountable for taking actions that
are known to have direct effects on the quality of teaching and
learning in their schools. Creating a vision for instructional
improvement is not enough. Districts should expect principals
to take targeted action aimed at implementing instructional
leadership within each school.
4. Most districts will need to have honest and in-depth
discussions with their principals to develop procedures for
systematically and practically monitoring implementation of
instructional leadership. The needs and circumstances of
elementary and secondary school principals may need to be
differentially addressed, however the bottom line would have
each principal expected to take specific steps to enact
instructional leadership in his or her school.
Improved Student Learning
Seashore-Lewis, K; Leithwood,
K.; Wahlstrom, K; and, Anderson,
A. (2010)
What School Leaders Do to
Improve Student Achievement
Instructional Leadership
Consider:
What do building leaders do that
improves classroom instruction?
Prior Research has Identified Four
Categories of Core Leadership Practices:
• Setting Directions
• Developing People
• Redesigning the Organization
• Managing the Instructional Program
Discuss:
What can principals do
specifically in each of these
categories which will improve
instruction?
Compare:
Compare your group’s answers
with research findings.
Top Three Answers
What leadership practices on the part of school
principals are considered, by principals and teachers,
to be helpful in supporting and improving classroom
instruction?
• Focusing the school on goals and expectations for
student achievement
• Keeping track of teachers’ professional development
needs
• Creating structures and opportunities for teachers to
collaborate
Implications for Practice
• Instructional improvement requires a school-wide
focus on goals and expectations for student
achievement.
• Principals play a key role in supporting and
encouraging teachers’ professional development
needs. Leaders have a role to play in keeping track
of those needs, as well as providing resources and
materials to improve teachers’ repertoire of
instructional practices.
Implications for Practice
• Policy makers and practitioners should avoid promoting, endorsing,
or being unduly influenced by conceptions of instructional
leadership which adopt an excessively narrow focus on classroom
instruction. Classroom practices occur within larger organizational
systems which can vary enormously in the extent to which they
support, reward, and nurture good instruction. School leaders who
ignore or neglect the state of this larger context can easily find their
district efforts to improve instruction substantially frustrated.
• Principals must include careful attention to classroom instructional
practices, but should not neglect many other issues that are critical
to the ongoing health and welfare of school organizations.
Instructional Leadership:
Digging Deeper
The Changing Role of the Principal from
Manager to Leader
Study Questions
1. What does instructional leadership look like to
teachers?
2. Are teachers’ reports of instructional leadership
similar in substance to what principals have to
say about instructional leadership?
3. Does instructional leadership look different at the
elementary and secondary levels?
Types of Evidence Examined in the Study
• Teacher Surveys
• Student Achievement Data
• District leader, Principal and Teacher interviews
• Classroom Observations
Teacher Survey Results
• The survey contained 131 items which asked about principal
leadership behaviors deemed likely, in previous research, to
influence teachers’ instructional behavior.
• After factor analysis of the responses, two factors emerged:
• Factor 1: 10 items – Instructional Climate
• Factor 2: 7 items – Instructional Actions
• All principals in whose buildings teachers completed the survey
were ranked. The top 20% and the bottom 20% of principals were
identified.
Factor 1: Instructional Climate
Instructional Climate is about influencing the
context in which instruction takes place.
Discuss: How can principals do this?
Then compare your answers with the study findings.
Factor 2: Instructional Actions
In order to turn their visions of high student achievement into reality, high-scoring
principals are actively engaged in providing direct support to teachers.
Discuss: How can principals do this?
Then compare your answers with the study findings.
Interview Findings: Three Behaviors Distinguishing HighScoring from Low-Scoring Principals
1. High scoring principals have an acute awareness of
teaching and learning in their schools
2. High scoring principals have a direct and frequent
involvement with teachers, providing them with formative
assessment of teaching and learning.
3. High scoring principals have the ability and interpersonal
skills to empower teachers to learn and grow according
to the vision established for the school.
Other Study Findings
•
•
•
•
•
•
Intentional classroom visits are more effective than
“popping in” or being visible
Principal engagement with individual teachers to ensure
that the school’s vision would be realized was seldom
occurring
Many teachers prefer to be “left alone”
Department heads provide little or no instructional
leadership
Discussions about teaching and learning occur informally
between colleagues and peers
Instructional leadership was more commonly
demonstrated in elementary than secondary schools
Discussion:
Discuss these study findings
Consider:
What do district leaders do that helps building
leaders to improve classroom instruction?
District Instructional Leaders:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Clearly communicate expected standards for high
priority areas of instruction
Have a detailed plan for improving instruction across the
district
Are active and effective in supporting excellent
instruction
Clarify the steps that school leaders and teachers need
to take to improve the quality of instruction
Actively monitor the quality of instruction
Frequently communicate about best practices
Implications for Practice
1. District leaders should acknowledge, and begin to reduce,
ways in which principals are limited in their capacity to
exercise instructional leadership by the work required of them
in their role as it is currently structured. District administrators
are normally aware of the managerial effectiveness of their
principals regarding immediate tasks and problems. District
leaders need to find ways to help secondary and elementary
school principals work with teachers in order to improve. They
also need to help principals structure their work schedules in
order to find sufficient time to do this.
2. The role of department head in secondary schools should be
radically redefined. Department heads should be regarded,
institutionally, as a central resource for improving instruction in
middle and high schools.
Implications for Practice, continued…
3. Principals need to be held accountable for taking actions that
are known to have direct effects on the quality of teaching and
learning in their schools. Creating a vision for instructional
improvement is not enough. Districts should expect principals
to take targeted action aimed at implementing instructional
leadership within each school.
4. Most districts will need to have honest and in-depth
discussions with their principals to develop procedures for
systematically and practically monitoring implementation of
instructional leadership. The needs and circumstances of
elementary and secondary school principals may need to be
differentially addressed, however the bottom line would have
each principal expected to take specific steps to enact
instructional leadership in his or her school.