Distributed Leadership…A Tool for the School Improvement Journey
Glasgow High School
Presented by:Todd Harvey…Principal, Glasgow High School
Ed Mayfield…SLC Coordinator, Glasgow High [email protected]
Rhonda Janeka…Ninth Grade Academy Team Member and SLC Design Team Member, Glasgow High School
Dane Holland…Site Council Chairperson, Glasgow High School
Objectives…
To simulate discussion and reflection about current secondary school leadership practices
To stimulate discussion and reflection about the concept of distributed leadership as it applies to secondary schools
To share practices and plans GHS is pursuing related to distributed leadership
To create an awareness of forms of Distributed Leadership that are already in practice within schools
Where We Are Now…
New principals to our schools Under academic watch Focusing on assessing school culture and leadership
capacity Traditional leadership model currently in place Co-recipients of the leadership grant with Christina School
District matching funds (and very thankful!) Initial grant efforts focused on targeted professional
development initiatives and teacher leadership of those initiatives
Guiding Principles/Points of Emphasis…
Think Big…Start Small
Avoid being resource rich /implementation weak
It is about student achievement, student achievement, student achievement…..
It is equally about teacher quality, teacher quality, teacher quality…
School reform is a journey
More Guiding Principles/Points of Emphasis…
No silver bullets found here…our story and interpretations fit our school situation
Be able to identify staff strengths and weaknesses as they relate to leadership capacity
Have self awareness of your strengths and weaknesses
Teacher to teacher talk and teachers leading teachers is powerful
So… What is Distributed Leadership… What might it look like in a secondary school…
Distributed leadership centers around a different model within the school where the distinctions between followers and leaders tends to blur (Gronn, 2000)
It incorporates the activities and efforts of multiple groups in a school who work at guiding staff in the instructional change process (Spillane, 2001)
A Picture is worth 1,000 Words…Teacher to Teacher Talk…
Teacher to Teacher Talk…
Teachers Teaching Teachers…
Teachers Teaching Teachers…
Teachers Organizing and Implementing Initiatives…
Teachers Leading Professional Development for other Teachers…
Collaboration In Progress…
What Distributed Leadership is Not…
It is not one more committee for people to serve on
It is not one person single handedly reforming a school
It is not a top down leadership model It is not possible with out building leadership
capacity among your faculty
What are We Working On at Glasgow High School…
Professional Learning Communities (PLC) Working on the Work -Student Engagement and Teacher
Collaboration Framework (WOW) Differentiated Instruction (DFI) Revitalizing Site Council/Action Teams Restructuring department (Instructional Focus) Measuring Academic Progress (MAP) Smaller Learning Communities (SLC) Design Team International Baccalaureate (IB) Applicant School Team
Activity Two: Someone Once Said..
“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality” Warren G. Bennis
“You manage things, you lead people” Grace Murray Hopper Admiral, Us Navy (Retired)
“A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships were built for” No Name
“People support what they help create” No Name
Activity Two (Continued)…
No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it” Andrew Carnegie
“A good leader surrounds himself with other great leaders” No Name
“It is important when the people believe in their leader, but it is more important when the leader believes in the people” No Name
“My responsibility is to be a supervisor, not a super worker” Fred Smith
Keeping it Real…How does this relate to our guiding principles….
Read and discuss the University of DE Education Policy Brief found in your packet. Suggest an improved practice to off set this finding.
Read over the 3 phases of school improvement. Number them in the correct order from least distributive to the most distributive related to leadership
Final Thoughts…
Distributed Leadership is a framework not an initiative
Distributed Leadership may already exist in various forms within your school
Remember…it is all about positively impacting student achievement-to that end your data and results will be paramount to measuring your success