Recommendation Two:
Create opportunities, both formal and informal, for teachers to influence design, create, and implement school and district policies and procedures.

 

Role Group Strategies

Policymakers 
Encourage school administrators to include teachers on and encourage teachers to participate in all decision-making and advisory groups within their schools.

Interactive Case Study:  System Wide Change
The George Lucas Educational Foundation.  (2003).
http://glef.org/systemreform/home.html
This site provides an in-depth look at the successful school reform efforts of Union City Public Schools in New Jersey.  The contents are organized around five key factors in reform: leadership, curriculum/assessment, professional development, technology, and community.  Under leadership, the authors explain how the district assessed and addressed their unique needs, in addition to describing the new curricula written by a teacher and the importance of empowering teachers and district administrators.

Principals who Know How to Share Leadership
Alabama Best Practices Center.  (2004, Spring).
http://www.bestpracticescenter.org/pdfs/wte4-1.pdf
The Spring 2004 issue of "Working Toward Excellence" profiles several principals who've discovered (some late in their careers) the power of teacher leadership to revitalize teaching and learning. The issue also describes the Alabama Reading Initiative's principal coaching program, which is helping dozens of principals gain the confidence, skills and knowledge they need to lead reforms in literacy instruction.

Redefining the Teacher as Leader
Usdan, M., McCloud, B., and Podmostko, M. (2001). Institute for Educational Leadership.
http://www.iel.org/programs/21st/reports/teachlearn.pdf
This report examines the potential power in enabling and encouraging teacher leadership.  It discusses roadblocks to teacher leadership, shares promising practices from districts around the country, and provides a list of “Suggested Questions” that communities can use to start discussions related to teacher leadership within their districts.

School-Based Management: Rhetoric vs. Reality
Education Commission of the States
http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/26/58/2658.htm
This article is one in a series investigating the progress of education reform from the end of the 20th Century to the start of the 21st.  Of particular interest in this piece are the list of factors crucial to successful school-based management and the case studies on the reform efforts of Kentucky and Chicago.

To Teach, To Lead, To Transform
Threshold (Summer 2005) Cable in the Classroom
http://tinyurl.com/aohc3
This article considers the role of the teacher leader in the future of school reform. The authors describe the type of roles teacher leaders take on within a school, discuss the necessity of including teacher leadership in teacher preparation programs, and give a variety of answers to the question “What makes a teacher leader?”

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