October 2014

Supporting Principals as Instructional Leaders

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Our MissionThe Center for Educational Leadership (CEL) is a nonprofit service

arm of the University of Washington College of Education dedicated to

eliminating the achievement gap that continues to divide our nation’s

children along the lines of race, class, language and disability.

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Equity Is a Key Principle of Our Work

Equal Outcomes

Fairness

Access and Support

Respect for Differences

Achievement of Every Student

Equity

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Foundational Ideas

1. If students are not learning they are not being afforded powerful learning opportunities.

2. Teaching is a highly complex and sophisticated endeavor.

3. Practice of sophisticated endeavors only improves when it is open for public scrutiny.

4. Improving practice in a culture of public scrutiny requires reciprocal accountability.

5. Reciprocal accountability implies a particular kind of leadership to improve teaching and learning.

6. Leaders cannot lead what they don’t know.

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Getting Alignment Around Instructional Effectiveness

DISTRICT LEADERSHIP

Helping district leaders to develop policies, practices and structure that support principals and teachers in

delivering high-quality instruction.

SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

Helping district leaders and principals observe, analyze

and lead for high-quality instruction.

TEACHING EFFECTIVENESSDeveloping the teaching expertise necessary to ensure that all students

learn at high levels.

STUDENTLEARNING

All students, regardless of race,

class, language and disability, achieve at

high levels.

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Essential Questions

• How does a system’s shared and common vision of effective instruction improve student achievement?

• How do we create a system to lead for instructional improvement?

• What behaviors and practices will we need to put into place to support the growth of instructional leadership?

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Learning Targets

• To deepen our understanding of central office leadership actions to support instructional leadership, teaching, and learning.

• To deepen our understanding of how to use our theory of action to ensure the school system has made it possible for instructional leadership to be the primary job of the principal.

• To deepen our understanding of how a central office framework or evaluation tool can be used to establish a culture of service and coherence focused on student achievement.

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Outcomes

• Identify “promising practices” in central office leadership actions to support instructional leadership, teaching, and learning.

• Identify existing and needed evidence and measures within the district to set goals for central office staff aligned to instructional leadership, teaching practice, and student achievement.

• Use the collective intelligence, experience and expertise of the network to help each superintendent grapple with identified roadblocks that hinder establishing a culture of service and coherence focused on student achievement at the central office.

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Background

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – Empowering Effective Teaching Project

11 Sites - 2 Key Questions

1. How are principals and central office leaders changing how they work to improve teaching performance?

2. What do principals and central office leaders need to know and be able to do to support the improvement of leadership and teaching performance at scale?

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The Principal Support Framework

Action Area 1: A Shared Vision of Principals as Instructional Leaders.

Action Area 2: System of Support for Developing Principals as Instructional Leaders.

Action Area 3: Making It Possible for Principals To Be Instructional Leaders.

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Action Area 1

Clarify the principal’s role as an instructional leader by specifying the high-impact practices that will drive their day-to-day work.

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Action Area 2

Develop principals’ instructional leadership practices through job-embedded supports that build expertise.

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Action Area 3

Enable principals to succeed as instructional leaders by providing sufficient time and strategic supports to perform the job well.

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Why Is This Action Area Critical?

“Expectations for the principalship have steadily expanded since the reforms of the early 1980s, always adding to and never subtracting from the job description. One can argue that we have reached a point where the aggregate expectations for the principalship are so exorbitant that they exceed the limits of what might reasonably be expected from one person.”

- Michael A. Copland“The Myth of the Superprincipal”Phi Delta Kappan, March 2001

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Action Area 3 – Big Ideas

1. Expanding instructional leadership by sharing responsibility.

2. Doing less of the rest and working more efficiently.

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Expanding Instructional Leadership

• Central office support for principals to cultivate and manage strong instructional leadership teams.

– Teacher-leaders

– Instructional coaches

– Other administrators

• Research shows bigger impact on teaching effectiveness, student learning.

• Principal as leader of instructional leaders in school.

– Does not diminish principal authority.

– Support not supplant principals’ instructional leadership.

– Extends principals’ own instructional leadership reach in building.

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Doing Less of the Rest; Working Efficiently

• Reducing administrative burdens.

• Helping principals perform tasks more efficiently.

• Enhancing building-level staff capacity for day-to-day operations.

• Helping principals schedule and defend time for the instructional leadership practices.

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Action Area 3 Litmus Test

Can the school system show principals examples of calendars that accommodate all of the leadership practices prioritized in Action Area 1?

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The Principal Support Framework

Action Area 1: A Shared Vision of Principals as Instructional Leaders.

Action Area 2: System of Support for Developing Principals as Instructional Leaders.

Action Area 3: Making It Possible for Principals To Be Instructional Leaders.

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Colleague Sharing

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Colleague Sharing

• Participants form small groups to share artifacts/evidence representative of promising practices around central office goal setting and evaluation in alignment to instructional leadership, teaching practice, and student achievement.

• Participants discuss and identify and any roadblocks they have/might face establish a culture of service and coherence focused on student achievement.

• Each group selects a facilitator and a timekeeper to utilize the protocol for sharing and (clarify and probing) questioning .

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Cycle of InquiryPhase III: Implement and Support

Road MapAnalyze Evidence- Baseline Data Collection

- Student Learning

-Teacher Practice

Determine an Area of Focus- Principal Practice

First Inquiry Cycle - Implement and Support

Student Growth- Check-in

Second Inquiry Cycle- Implement and Support

Student Growth - Check-in

Third Inquiry Cycle- Implement and Support

Summative -Student Learning

-Teacher Practice

-Principal Practice

August/September

October

DecemberMarch

May/June

Instructional Leadership Inquiry Cycle

Generate a Theory of Action

If the principal…Then teachers will

be able to…So that students will

be able to…

Determine Evidence of Success

• During this phase the principal and the principal supervisor engage in study and learning around the area of focus.

• Step 1: Co-create a learning plan for principal implementation and principal supervisor support.

• Possible Learning Sessions

• Step 2: Implement the Learning Plan – During this phase, the principal supervisor, with input from the principal, plans and reflects on each individual learning session.

• Planning the Learning Session

• Using a learning agenda to support principals engage in instructional leadership

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Colleague Sharing

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Case Study - Principal WebPhase III

• Calibration

• Creating a protocol for future problems of practice

• Using your tools

• System checks and balances

Qualities of Effective Principal Supervisor Coaching Sessions

Each coaching session should be based upon:

• Learning Goals – Determined as part of the evaluation and school improvement planning process and based upon student, teaching, and principal performance data.

• Learning Plan – Co-constructed with the principal and/or leadership team and based upon learning goals.

• Reflection on Previous Coaching Sessions – Utilized to revise plans, ensure continuity of coaching session, and ensure connection to learning goals.

Qualities of Effective Principal Supervisor Coaching Sessions

Each coaching session should include:

• Purpose – Overarching reason for the coaching session connected to the learning plan as well as principal and school progress towards goals.

• Outcomes – Specific goals you want to attain in the coaching session.

• Learning Activities – What you will engage in to support the session outcomes and further the principal’s learning.

• Teaching/Coaching Practices – The “moves” the principal supervisor will make to help achieve the outcomes and support principal learning.

• Joint Work – The idea that both the principal supervisor and principal own and share the work in the meeting.

• Evidence Gathering – Ongoing data collection of principal and school performance aligned to principal and school goals to measure progress and plan for future work. 

• Feedback/Reflection – To ensure agreement on principal progress, how the session went, and for planning next steps for principal and principal supervisor. 

• Next Steps – A plan that outlines the next steps for both the principal and the principal supervisor as well as the date of the next coaching session.

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Communicating for Learning

“True learning takes place only when the leader invests the time and emotional energy to engage those around him or her in a dialogue that produces mutual understanding.”

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Coaching Sessions

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Colleague Sharing

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Example of a Principal Supervisor Monthly Calendar

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Next Steps: Using Your Calendar, Highlight the Following in a Typical Month

• Central office meetings.

• Other meetings.

• Emails, phone calls, etc. - management.

• Your one-on-one work with principals.

• Your time with principals in learning network meetings.

Calculate the percent of the time you spend in each activity.

Exit

Feedback

What worked?

What do I need?

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www.k-12leadership.org/leading-for-effective-teaching

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