CONFERENCE:

BUILDING CAPACITY FOR COLLABORATIVE TEACHER LEADERSHIP: FROM POLICY TO PRACTICE

May 11, 2004

At the

HilaryJ.BooneCenter

Conference Notes

Co-Sponsored by the

University of Kentucky, College of Education

and the

Kentucky Department of Education

May 18, 2004

Dr. Lars G. Björk

Associate Professor in the Department of Administration and Supervision and

Director of the Institute for Education Research,

College of Education, University of Kentucky

111 Dickey Hall, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0017

(606)-257-2450, (FAX) 257-1015, ).

BUILDING CAPACITY FOR COLLABORATIVE TEACHER LEADERSHIP: FROM POLICY TO PRACTICE

The Conference: “Building Capacity for Collaborative Teacher Leadership: From Policy to Practice” was co-sponsored by the University of Kentucky and the Kentucky Department of Education on May 11, 2004 at the Hilary J. Boone Center on campus. The Conference provided an opportunity to establish a shared understanding of research findings, definitions, best practices and policies to help advance the notion of leadership for learning in Kentucky schools. The morning session included presentations by Mark Simon, Director of the Center for Teacher Leadership at JohnsHopkinsUniversity and Dr. Jo Blase, Professor at the University of Georgia. During the afternoon, sixty-five (65) participants from 22 agencies, universities, school districts, professional associations, and non-profit entities attended five concurrent breakout sessions. Each session was posed as a question and included sub-questions posed to help guide discussions. Breakout session reports of these conversations provided a foundation for understanding the knowledge base of teacher leadership, policy issues, and problems and promises associated with establishing a collaborative and coherent teacher leadership initiative in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Notes and commentaries collected form each of the five breakout sessions are reported in rough narrative and outline form. In addition, we transcribed (without attribution) responses to the Conference survey that asked the question: “When you think about teacher leadership what are you most concerned about? The Conference survey return rate was 66%. We trust these notes will help participants understand the breadth and depth of discussions that may help to frame future conversations and productive courses of action.

BREAKOUT SESSION DISCUSSION NOTES

Group 1: How can Professional Learning and Development help Build

the Capacity for Teacher Leadership In Kentucky Schools?

Sub-Questions:

● How can we identify teacher leaders?

● What research-based in-service practices and programs are highly effective in

supporting teacher leadership?

● How can changes in professional learning and development policies help build

teacher leadership capacity in Kentucky schools?

● What are the implications of these policies for improving practice?

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT - BUILD CAPACITY FOR TEACHER LEADERSHIP

  • How to identify teacher leaders
  • Lessons learned:
  • Jessamine Co: 14 yr position transformed into quasi-administrator evolved through a differentiated compensation
  • Wondering: have we been democratic about selection
  • Appalachian Initiative: Democracy
  • Faculty election of teacher leader
  • Concern: parallel system of designated leaders vs. covert leaders
  • Concern: how are we defining “teacher”? --- Special Ed, Music, Art
  • Is “teacher” inclusive?
  • How to define teacher leader
  • Characteristics?
  • Finite number?
  • An identified position?
  • Developing skills?
  • Purpose for teacher leaders?
  • Administrative vs. Coaching other teachers
  • What is…
  • Concern: Will formalizing “teacher leadership” create unintended outcomes?
  • Need to keep available
  • Serendipitous leadership
  • Limited number of positions
  • Unlimited opportunities for teachers to lead
  • Use “Academic Leadership” rather than “teacher leadership”

Purpose Opportunities

Traditional ModelAdministrative Non positional

of Leadershipmulti-layered

Teacher LeadershipSupport

Not based on

Experience or age

  • What is…
  • Issues:
  • Policy Issue: salary
  • Practice Issue: identification
  • Concerns:
  • Need for teacher leaders to work with peers as coaches, mentors, colleagues (i.e. respected, knowledgeable)
  • SBDM Council decisions
  • How to prepare Councils to use teacher leaders?
  • What have we learned from those who have done this well?
  • What impact: cultural, relational, trust, shared purpose?
  • What is…
  • Role of principal in developing leaders among faculties
  • Democratic strategies to identify and select
  • Collective goal of school
  • Shared purposes
  • Identification is intuitive on part of the principal
  • Creating disposition of inquiry
  • Creating operating agreement about what teacher leadership is and does
  • Nurture a culture that supports risk taking as a form of innovation
II. What research based in-service practices and programs are highly effective in

supporting teacher leadership?

RESEARCH BASED NOTIONS ABOUT DEVELOPING TEACHER

LEADERS

  • Culture of leadership development (Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative)
  • Murphy, Job embedded study groups
  • Hord, DuFour & Eaker, Professional Learning Communities
  • KentuckyServiceCenters, Intentional studies about Leadership (original), (RegionalServiceCenters)
  • National Writing Project / Kentucky Reading Projects
  • National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)
  • Teacher evaluation model (e.g. 360 Feedback) Portfolio development, action research
  • Constructivist, active learning
  • Differentiated compensation based on student achievement and based on student-teacher-parent goal (Denver study)
  • Proven practices
  • KentuckyLeadershipAcademy
  • Model change sites for Math/Science (3-4 yr PD)
  • Illinois Math Science: Standards of learning Academy (early 1990’s) Conversations about student achievement
  • JessamineCounty Teacher Leadership Development Model: Use what works to transplant to other sites.
  • Use of time: structural barriers K-4 districts have developed unique strategies

III. Policy issues

  • Research Based PD
  • Use PD $ in different way
  • Give to teacher $ to develop what is important to them
  • Review Professional Growth Goals for teachers: What consequences?
  • Review teacher tenure: Stumbling blocks vs. stepping stones to teacher leadership
  • How can schools create structures that support work by teachers leaders (e.g., peer observations, coaching, mentoring, advising)
  • Creative
  • Intentional
  • NCLB  Accountability
  • Unique strategies for “qualified teachers”
  • What policies in place/needed?
  • Focused on results?
  • Academic Leadership supports School Improvement
  • Use teacher evaluation
  • effective professional growth plans, observations, conferencing, goal setting
  • Reassess PD model: change to quality, meaningful growth, individual, school, students)
  • National Board Certification
  • Networking by academic leaders
  • Empowerment
  • Technological support/continuing connections
  • Thinking outside the box

Concerns about developing teacher leaders

  • Do all teachers need same PD?
  • Too restrictive?
  • How create effective PD that makes a difference

SUMMARY

I. How can we identify teacher leaders?

  • link to purpose
  • be clear about expectations
  • linked to purpose,
  • inquiry focused
  • formal vs. informal
  • flexible groups
  • be democratic in selection
  • choice
  • self selection
  • election
  • rotation,
  • etc.
  • be inclusive
  • divergence
  • diversity
  • combat
  • status quo thinking
  • reach “operating agreements”
  • Visit other models
  • Know that it will evolve

II. What research based in-service practices and programs are highly effective in

supporting teacher leadership?

  • ARSI
  • National Writing Project
  • KLA
  • RSC Associates (former model)
  • National Board Certification
  • CEO (KY)
  • Accomplished Teacher Networks (individual technology)
  • Job imbedded PD
  • Certified Evaluation linked to Professional growth, school improvement
  • Best tenets of Adult learning

III. How can changes in professional learning and development policies help build teacher leadership capacity in Kentucky Schools?

  • Face and address structural barriers that you will undoubtedly face.

IV. What are the implications of these policies for improving practice?

  • 24 hour PD requirement
  • Tenure/Evaluation
  • Structural support system
  • NCLB/ HQ House, etc.

GROUP 2:Can the Occupation of Teaching be Re-defined as a Profession?

Sub Questions:

  • What are the characteristics of teachers as professionals?
  • Do teachers view themselves as members of a profession or an occupation?
  • What policies may enhance teacher leadership as a part of the profession?
  • What are the implications of these policies for improving practice?

REDEFINING TEACHING AS A PROFESSION

  • Prior Questions:
  • What is a profession?
  • List of professions
  • Doctors
  • Lawyers
  • Engineers
  • Sociological Definition
  • Controlled admission
  • Body of Knowledge
  • Service Ethic
  • What is the difference between occupation and profession?
  • Can teaching be moved to the status of a profession?
  • Professions deal with Life /Death Issues?
  • Teaching has lifelong effects?
  • k
  • Teaching has controlled access
  • Do we act as a profession?
  • Teachers can have strong ethic
  • Preparation makes profession
  • Teacher leader can take profession further
  • Time isn’t “billable” for teachers like it is for Doctors Lawyers
  • Paraprofessionals work with T’s => Professionals
  • Society has high standards for T’s, but not pay for it
  • Expectation of Public Service
  • Other cultures hold T’s in different status than us.
  • Social situations in which we say, “I’m just a teacher.”
  • How to empower T leader confounded by the social status of T’s
  • Opportunities for advancement are limited
  • Issue of lack of autonomy limits T’s as a professional
  • Teachers as a professional
  • Lowered in curriculum
  • No choices about hours
  • Not privileges as in other professions
  • Legacy from KERA in Teacher autonomy
  • Salary
  • EPSB
  • SBDM
  • Salaries Lower than other professions
  • Problem with lack of clarity in Performance Standards
  • Social perceptions tied to lower salary
  • Narrow performance standards
  • Limit T’s autonomy … i.e. Score on a test
  • Need for differentiation to allow T’s with a more professional approach to flourish – ex. NBPTS certification over T’s who leave with buses (occupation)
  • Occupational Remuneration stuck in inflexible 2 dimensional salary schedule.
  • Review laws/policies on compensation, tenure to allow differentiation based on productivity. Ex: of post tenure review in higher education. Ex.: of study percept that year f of teaching is the most effective.
  • T’s need opportunity to bring what they do, rather than sending on a hunt
  • Employ well and give four years to succeed then out. Ex: of student results with effective
  • What happens in schools that Prevents T’s from improving?
  • Ex: of 30 year as mentor
  • Toxic cultures
  • Disagreements with principals
  • Importance of Instructional Leadership for new T’s
  • Questions about new professionalism for veteran T’s
  • Preparation Issues
  • Not complex enough
  • Not just content
  • Content vs. whole student
  • Outside of T. rule?
  • T’s engaged outside of teaching and learning
  • Ex: Court time
  • Custody Battles
  • Issue of anyone with a certificate can be a principal.
  • Holistic Accountability for Schools
  • Professional Principals
  • create teams
  • Commit to task
  • Make change
  • Based on what is best for S[tudents]
  • Professional Teachers
  • Commitment to ongoing learning
  • Learners T’s
  • Inner Passion
  • Performance Standards for Admission
  • Compare to other professional schools
  • Issues of Attitude and Passion
  • Questions: Re: Anyone can teach
  • Alternate certification
  • Anyone can be a doctor?
  • Differentiation for T’s whose passion is with/in the classroom?
  • does T Leadership require leaving the classroom?
  • Acknowledge leadership without enforcing the hierarchy
  • Remuneration in Time, Summer Enhancement
  • Pay for extra Duties
  • Advanced Degrees $?
  • Autonomy?

WHAT POLICIES ENHANCE TEACHER LEADERSHIP AS PART OF THE PROFESSION?

  • More control over entry to profession
  • Emergency certification T’s in neediest schools?
  • Legislative Requirements for Alternate Certification even when area has no shortage
  • Most Alternate/Emergency certification in Special Ed.
  • Why should people be allowed to practice before completing preparation?
  • Alternative Compensation
  • Performance based pay
  • Enhancement for good T’s
  • Honor Professional Judgment
  • Less bureaucratic restrictions
  • More autonomy
  • Lessen overemphasis on state assessment
  • Certification change to differentiated staffing for best interest and needs of students and schools
  • Redefine credits/seat time/senior year lite
  • Scope of compulsory day/Carnegie unit
  • Redefine teaching – Redefine culture
  • Can reward T’s now –
  • Guest lecture at University
  • Media attention

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

  • bring players to the table
  • empowerment with accountability
  • Redefine time
  • To implement
  • To reward
  • Change from Time to Outcomes
  • Define Leadership without adding on more work/responsibilities
  • Police our own => sanction others in the profession
  • Professional development with coaching => not hours embedded
  • Knowledge of change and how to make it last
  • Need to change PD as now done in KY
  • Turn people away --- no admission, no tenure

GROUP 3:How Can a Teacher Leadership Continuum be Developed from Initial through Advanced Preparation?

Sub-Questions:

  • How can research findings inform the development of highly effective teacher leadership practices and programs?
  • What policy changes are needed to build a coherent preparation continuum?
  • What are implications for preparing future teacher leaders for Kentucky schools?

I. Knowledge/problems/issues

  • Teachers taking administrative paths knowing they don’t want administration (WK of EKU)
  • Convenience
  • Insurance policy ---more credentials
  • Expectation of delivery system
  • Content knowledge
  • Few candidates for content areas
  • Tailor programs to met the needs of teachers, schools, districts
  • Credits
  • Meet individual needs
  • Creating “false structures”
  • Policies inhibit meeting needs
  • What/ How to support teacher leaders
  • What do we support (definition Teacher leader)
  • How effectively do we scaffold teacher development, esp. early in the year?
  • Coherence
  • Fit pieces together Cert. PD
  • How is policy set and impact of policy on practice
  • Univ.
  • In-service
  • PD
  • Roles (disjointed)
  • In-service mandated
  • 4 days
  • Follow up coaching
  • Evaluation of efficacy
  • Cost in $$ and time
  • System of continuity development lacking
  • What are the links and disconnects
  • Link to induction
  • Measure in-service by “seat time”
  • How to sustain
  • What do we mean by initial (when?)
  • Rethink paradigm of management/leadership
  • Administrators as endangered species”

II. Policies in place/Change

  • Compensation
  • PD hour requirement (seat time)
  • Curriculum –
  • Teaching and learning
  • Governance and Accountability
  • Licensure
  • Management and Organization
  • e.g. charge of council dictums
  • Evaluation
  • Screening process
  • Dispositions

III. Implications for Practice for all involved

  • Whose practice?
  • What about TE
  • Incentives / Rewards
  • Improve working conditions
  • Investment and voice
  • Incentives
  • Career Development
  • Common core
  • Individual based
  • Individual
  • Strengths and Weaknesses
  • Performance assessment
  • Continued PGP’s, IEP’s to identify specific needs (deepening, content)
  • Individual needs
  • Situational context
  • School
  • District
  • Curriculum
  • Knowledge
  • Credibility (teachers and others)
  • Evaluation
  • Ongoing, reasonable assessment
  • Benchmarks to meet
  • Screening
  • Dispositions
  • Multiple measures

GROUP 4:Can Certification and Differentiated Compensation Policies Contribute to Teacher Leadership in Kentucky Schools

Sub-Questions:

  • What present certification and differentiated compensation policies pertain to teacher leadership in Kentucky Schools?
  • What central issues must be resolved to create teacher leadership certification?
  • What policy changes will contribute to enhancing professional learning and support teacher leadership in Kentucky Schools?
  • How may these policies influence school-based leadership in the commonwealth?

I. Can certification and differentiated compensation policies contribute to teacher leadership in Kentucky Schools?

  • What present certification and differentiated compensation policies pertain to

leadership in Kentucky schools?

  • National Board Certification
  • There is language in law that allows this.
  • Are there people using the continuing ed provisions for leadership
  • Aren’t really policy barriers, but not being done.
  • How is leadership being addressed in undergraduate teacher ed programs
  • What do we do differently with NBPTS certified teachers once they get it?
  • The certification requires them to continue to learn and reflect
  • There seems to be no evidence as to how National Certification changes their career. They aren’t recognized or used in their schools
  • How can that cohort be tapped?
  • Are schools developing a method for leadership development in the schools?
  • Concerns about favoritism
  • National Board is a documentation experience, not a training experience. But the experience can in itself be a training process.
  • Time is an issue
  • How do we develop a career path that keeps people in the classroom? How to keep people in the profession for 20 years?
  • Teacher sabbaticals / mini-sabbaticals
  • Teacher fellows
  • Job sharing
  • Must figure out how to do the “career lattice”

II. What central issues must be resolved to create teacher leadership certification?

  • How we address why people go into certification programs who don’t want to serve in that capacity.
  • People don’t want to be a “crap catcher”
  • “My principal makes $11 a day more than I do!”
  • Do we have a path for those who do not want to be a principal?
  • Could have teacher leader certification – then have them earn in several ways --- maybe automatic for NBPTS Certification.
  • Needs to be more career path than “assistant” type position
  • Do we have an immature vision of professional growth?
  • Do we have a way in universities to award different things/steps on a lattice?
  • Don’t want to close doors --- all teachers need what we are talking about, but can’t do this until a mature teacher. Needs to be job embedded.
  • Who do we have doing this? Are already doing this, but don’t have baseline data.
  • Teachers have the most credibility behind only Dr.s
  • Can we have more curricular flexibility for program completion?
  • Could do a core, then add on.
  • Could do this with principals and superintendents based on CSIP
  • Can’t come out with a Rank I in Zoo-keeping
  • Some availability of coursework has to do with the numbers interested in pursuing and financial issues.
  • Should first graduate degree be more specialized?
  • Should we get rid of the salary schedule?
  • Does it serve as a barrier?
  • The Rank and experience hold us back.
  • Danger is --- taking away predictability, maybe need to keep some of it
  • Augment it, but keep a base
  • Strands – allows people to attain high levels of salary based upon demonstrated excellence.
  • There are design issues --- need to be check to assure continued growth and prevent stagnation.
  • There are consultants that can assist with this --- Allen Odden
  • Is teacher leadership certification what we want to create?
  • Is this kind of protection needed?
  • If you don’t have it, will it remain ad hoc?
  • Teachers not interested --- at EPSB
  • Current would have to get certified
  • $$
  • Need legal defensibility
  • Why would they be interested?
  • Intrinsic value in process/content
  • Multidimensional selection process
  • Voluntary
  • Perception by colleagues
  • Then would have district give $ or eligibility for things.
  • Will certificate system just be another box to check off?

III. What policy changes will contribute to enhancing professional learning and support teacher leadership in Kentucky schools?

  • How do we get people to think about making teacher leaders? Why won’t people change?
  • Money is a driver
  • Developing a climate
  • Is the council a barrier?
  • If councils are doing what they are supposed to do, not have to be
  • Yes, these are issues. Councils don’t realize their power and what they are making happen. Councils rarely initiate reforms, districts do.
  • No extra compensation for council service.
  • Need more council training on instructional roles; put carrot of $ behind it.
  • Not enough people on Council to do this, but they can provide leadership role in instruction.
  • Councils aren’t trained in the “vision thing”

SUMMARY

I. What present certification and differentiated compensation policies pertain to teacher leadership in Kentucky Schools?