Leadership System Resources
Can Principals Be Coaches?
Summary
While district and school leaders might not be in the position of being a full time instructional coach, there are coaching approaches that can be integrated into leadership practices to increase effectiveness as an instructional leader. In this article, Jim Knight, Christian van Nieuwerburgh, and John Campbell present four elements to a coaching approach along with suggestions for how leaders can implement these elements in their day-to-day professional practice.
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This resource might be used by district and school leaders to prompt dialogue around how best to use a coaching approach for improving instruction, student achievement, and student well-being. Leadership teams might wish to use the reflection and discussion guide in order to debrief the article.
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Knight, J., van Nieuwerburgh, C., & Campbell, J. (2018). Can principals be coaches? Principal Connections, 22(2), 42-44.
4 Ways to Build a Healthy Community
Summary
Based on the work of Elena Aguilar, from her book, Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators, this resource provides ISD, district leaders, building leaders, and teachers with four concrete strategies to Build a Healthy Community. This refers to cultivating the right organizational learning environment so that adults can learn together. Healthy learning environments are foundational to the work needed to build resilience in educators and to make impactful changes in practice that enhance student success. Each strategy includes additional resources in the form of readings, a podcast or a Ted Talk that delve deeper into each strategy.
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This resource can be used at multiple levels of an educational system. ISD consultants can use this resource with local Superintendents, Curriculum Directors, or Building Leaders to emphasize the importance of building a healthy community to enhance adult learning and student success. The resource can also be used by district leaders to prompt dialogue between building leaders and encourage the sharing of ideas and successful practices. There is also an opportunity to use this resource within teacher collaborative teams. Please note: this resource includes extended learning opportunities for each of the four strategies. You may want to address each strategy separately to encourage in-depth dialogue and time for reflection.
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Aguilar, E. (2018). Onward: Cultivating emotional resilience in educators. John Wiley & Sons.
Aguilar, E. (2018). The onward workbook: Daily activities to cultivate your emotional resilience and thrive. John Wiley & Sons.
Principals’ Social & Emotional Competence:
A Key Factor for Creating Caring Schools
Summary
This brief provides a conceptual model of the Prosocial School Leader, which has two components. The first is the principal’s own social and emotional competence (SEC) and the ability to handle stress and model caring and culturally competent behaviors with staff and students. The second component is an enhanced model of leadership in which principals are the prosocial leaders whose responsibility is to ensure that all staff, students, parents, and community members feel safe, cared for, respected, and valued. Principals’ social and emotional competencies, well-being, and leadership form the foundation that influences the effective implementation of social and emotional learning, school climate, teacher functioning and well-being, family and community partnerships, and downstream student outcomes.
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This brief and accompanying reflection guide might be used by school and district leaders as they work on developing their own social emotional competence and guidance for the implementation of social and emotional learning throughout the district. Consider using this article as a companion to the research report How Principals Affect Students and Schools: A Systemic Synthesis of Two Decades of Research by the Wallace Foundation which names five essential leader behaviors including building a productive climate.
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Mahfouz, J., Greenberg, M. T., & Rodriguez, A. (2019). Principals’ social and emotional competence: A key factor in creating caring schools. University Park, PA: Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, Pennsylvania State University.
Empowering Principals: Building Instructional Leadership Skills through Coaching
Summary
This is the third in a multi-part series of essays about empowering principals to be instructional leaders from the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching.
“Coaching teachers effectively is the No. 1 skill that principals need to be a strong instructional leader. By asking reflective questions, seeking teachers' insights and expertise, and focusing on student work and student learning, principals show that they are a partner in efforts to improve teaching and learning.”
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This essay might be used by district and leadership teams as they examine strategies for consideration to push their coaching practices to the next level.
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National Institute For Excellence In Teaching. (2020, November 5). Empowering principals: Building instructional leadership skills through coaching. https://www.niet.org/newsroom/show/feature/empowering-principals-building-leadeship-skills-through-coaching
Observation Feedback Template
Summary
This template might serve as a standalone observation feedback tool. However, it is most effective when paired with clearly articulated expectations for high-quality instruction. Districts might consider adopting an instructional model (e.g. Gradual Release of Responsibility, Workshop Model, 5E Model, etc..) or engage in a process which defines what high-quality instruction looks like in the context of your district.
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This template might be used by district, building, and instructional leaders to provide feedback to teachers following an informal observation or walkthrough. When coupled with communication protocols, the tool is a potential resource for increasing the probability of ongoing dialogue around instruction and/or classroom management. The observation feedback template might also be used for peer-to-peer feedback. An observation feedback example is provided in the Supporting Resources section.
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Adapted from: Danielson, C. (2013). The Framework for Teacher Evaluation Instrument. 2013 edition. The Danielson Group.
Beyond Setting an Instructional Vision
Summary
In this 3:27 video, Professor Meredith Honig discusses her research on superintendents' leadership practices, which she presented at the 2018 meeting of the American Educational Research Association.
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District and building leadership teams might choose to view this video and individually complete the reflection guide questions in order to consider ways in which to lead for better instruction with a focus on equity. ISD and MDE partners might choose to utilize the video and reflection questions as they partner with district leadership in their quest for positive results in terms of educational equity.
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University of Washington College of Education. (2018, April 15). Meredith Honig: Beyond setting an instructional vision [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0uLgf1lZTI
What is collective leader efficacy?
How can we best develop it among our leadership teams?
Summary
This 13-minute video from best-selling author Dr. Peter DeWitt explains the concept of collective leader efficacy (CLE). There are 3 necessary components to the CLE process, which include the research, drivers for improvement and a cycle of inquiry. In this video, Peter DeWitt, Ed.D draws from his new book Collective Leader Efficacy: Strengthening Instructional Leadership Teams to explain those 3 necessary components.
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This video and reflection questions might be used with an administrative team to self assess, identify successes, and uncover challenge areas to work on. Districts might consider engaging in this process several times throughout the year in order to continually examine collective leader efficacy.
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DeWitt, P. (2021, August 20). What is collective leader efficacy? How can we best develop it among our leadership teams? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsYe6dl3nmI