Leadership by teachers is essential to serving the needs of students, schools, and the teaching profession. To that end, the Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium has developed Teacher Leader Model Standards to codify, promote, and support teacher leadership as a vehicle to transform schools for the needs of the 21st century. The Teacher…

Every teacher knows that exposure to new information is one small part in the teaching and learning process. Before students truly learn a concept, they must actively engage with material--discussing, sharing, seeing, and practicing it--to make it their own. In other words, they need to "connect" with concepts and have opportunities to apply them…

A generation of principals has heard the mantra that they should be instructional leaders, but rarely have they been encouraged to be learning leaders. While an instructional leader pays attention to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of instruction, a learning leader focuses on what is learned and how it is learned. These roles are not…

A few years ago, the authors began to consider how to foster more intentional teacher leadership development among all clinical teachers who mentor teacher candidates in their Professional Development Schools. A Professional Development School (PDS) is an in-depth school-university partnership designed to bring about the simultaneous renewal of…

Common experience, along with a vast collection of research, demonstrates that schools can expect a range of benefits to accrue when teachers work together. Teacher teaming can reduce teacher isolation, increase collegiality, facilitate the sharing of resources and ideas, and capitalize on teacher's individual and shared strengths. And most…

Collaboration is critical for accomplishing difficult tasks. As with a kitchen remodel, shared responsibility and collegiality toward a common goal of increased student learning begin with a shared vision. In this article, the author discusses the importance of collaboration and how it guides and reinforces the work one does in schools.

When visitors tour the authors' classrooms at the J. Erik Jonsson Community School, a 3-year-old through 5th-grade laboratory school just south of downtown Dallas, Texas, they sense that something is different. Visitors remark about the respectful, caring environment of the school and the high-powered instruction, and they want to learn how they…

To increase student achievement, schools and districts are hiring teachers as leaders to support peers in improving teaching and learning. Their roles are variously called coach, school-based staff developer, instructional specialists, or program facilitator. Yet though many have exceptional teaching skills, they seldom have a deep understanding…

In this article, the author shares the story of Gloria, a mathematics teacher. In her fifth year in college, while completing her master's degree, Gloria was placed in a year-long internship guided by a faculty of university- and school-based teacher educators in a professional development school. There, she worked with a team of fellow student…

In this article, the author describes how Fox Chapel Area High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania implemented its Professional Education Program. The school's Professional Education Program, which ended its sixth year in 2006-2007, involves scrupulous research, planning, and shared goals. Diverse and small groups of staff meet during protected…

In this article, the authors describe how the quest for continual growth has taken its root at Vestal Central School district. Located at the heart of upstate New York, educators at Vestal Central School district have created a spirit of "kaizen," a Japanese word meaning the relentless quest for continual improvement and higher-quality…

In this article, the authors illustrate the three fundamental elements of school leadership: academic focus, shared beliefs and values, and productive professional relationships. These three elements purportedly produce strong organizational cultures, more teaching expertise, and better student achievement and more thoughtful and caring citizens.…

Layers and layers of curricula stuffed into vinyl binders were the norm in this Texas district until teachers sat down with scissors and glue to create a vertically aligned curriculum. They then created standards-based lessons to support the curriculum and put them into a database readily accessible by all.

How do principals get teachers past isolation to create a top school? Principals must create a web of leadership, a nonhierarchical structure of authority and control. While they remain at the center, they are supported only when they learn to delegate. Teachers learn to take on leadership roles, creating a more vested interest and lessening the…

Powerful professional learning is more than a one-shot workshop. It involves educators working collegially on a matter they care about with content arising directly from their classroom experiences. Educators know which strategies offer more powerful learning. Choosing the appropriate strategy requires answering just three questions.