A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

How Can We Change Practice to Strengthen Leadership?

Which changes in practice can strengthen, support, and reward good leadership? Forum participants described how some schools and districts are revising administrative responsibilities, professional relationships, and accountability systems to achieve these goals.

New Models for Instructional Leadership

Many of the changes in practice discussed at the Forum seek to sharpen the districts' focus on instructional leadership.

• In the Boston Public Schools, principals do walk throughs of each others' schools, using a specific protocol for observing instruction. One principal takes the role of facilitator, and after the walk through, the group suggests possible improvements for that school. The idea is to create a supportive, but challenging, peer group that will encourage administrators to recognize and solve instructional problems.

• In New York's Community District #2, principals visit classrooms in their own school and other schools, then meet regularly to critique what they saw. Distinguished principals receive extra pay to mentor their colleagues. Principals also participate in collegial study groups, where they read relevant research and discuss issues such as how to implement high standards.

• In Bellevue, Washington, both the superintendent and the principals regularly visit classrooms, with the goal of learning to recognize and describe good teaching and to provide better instructional feedback to teachers. After multiple classroom visits, the superintendent and principal discuss their observations, then meet with the teacher and eventually with the students. Teachers and principals in this district are continually revising curriculum and refining lessons. Principals also get together monthly to talk about instruction.

• In San Antonio, the superintendent visits every school, sets aside "listening time" for each principal, and holds small group meetings with principals about how to make school more successful. The superintendent also regularly teaches the same class of students.

What do these and other successful districts have in common when it comes to leadership? First, they have created "cross--role" structures that encourage principals and teachers to work together on instruction. Second, they have developed a systematic process for giving and receiving feedback. Third, they have created collegial circles of principals that focus on improved teaching and learning, rather than on day--to--day job frustrations. Mary Russo, a principal in Boston, said that when her district made a concerted effort to focus principal groups on what they can control instead of what they can't control, the discussions turned primarily to instructional issues and were much more motivating.

Instructional knowledge has traditionally received little emphasis in the hiring process for principals' jobs, but some districts are trying to change practice in this area. Community District #2 in New York asks candidates for principalships to observe several classrooms, then explain to the interviewers the kinds of feedback they would give the teachers. The interviewers quickly discovered that many people who did well in other stages of interviewing could not accurately describe the lessons they had seen.

New Forms of Accountability

Many school systems currently take a hierarchical approach to accountability that discourages cross-role feedback and fails to reward improvements in teaching and learning. Thus a critical step in improving leadership is to revise accountability systems so they reward instructional competence.

In Bellevue, Washington, principal effectiveness is judged by the amount and substance of teacher growth; good instructional leadership is "what separates the satisfactory principal from the less than satisfactory," said Superintendent Michael Riley. New York City's Community District #2 bases accountability for teachers and leaders on the school's progress toward meeting student performance goals. Underlying this approach is the concept of "reciprocity and capacity," as Richard Elmore of Harvard University calls it. This means that the leaders who evaluate an individual's performance against expectations have an equal obligation to provide the capacity that enables that person to do the job. For example, a superintendent who makes judgments about a school's annual performance has a responsibility to provide the principal with relief from administrative burdens and with substantial professional development opportunities to help those who need to do better. Those who cannot do the job after having ample opportunities for growth must step down.

Other districts evaluate principals in terms of teacher assessments of their instructional leadership, or give bonuses based on the quality and quantity of principals' instructional observations. The important element is not so much the specific accountability mechanism, but the fact there are clear goals and mechanisms to keep people focused on instructional improvement and encourage them to reflect regularly on their own performance.

Reducing Administrative Overload

How do effective practitioners stay focused on instruction and still make sure schools run smoothly? Some Forum participants felt that districts need to give principals greater relief from administrative overload. Central offices could be mainly responsible for noninstructional management duties that keep principals out of the classroom, such as budgets, parent complaints, and union issues. Principals could form school clusters to craft ways of sharing responsibilities and reducing their loads.

When central office support is wanting, principals try to handle the overload as best they can. Sheila Ford, a principal in the District of Columbia, said she reserves certain times during the day for classroom observations, and has spread the word to school staff and parents that this time is sacred. Another administrator reported putting in a box the mountain of paperwork that comes into her office, and only doing the essentials; the paperwork left at the end of the year consists of things no one called about or really cared about.

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