Instructional Leadership in a Standards-based Reform

Abstract

The spotlight of educational leadership is on instructional leadership. As pressure for improving student performance in the current standards-based accountability environment swells and test results are increasingly scrutinized, school principals are being urged to focus their efforts on the core business of schooling--teaching and learning. But what does it mean to be an instructional leader? What do principals that are instructional leaders do differently than other principals? How do they spend their time? How do they shape the cultures of their schools? How knowledgeable are they of subject-matter content? How do they work with, and develop, other leaders in their schools? In this study we sought to find answers to these questions by exploring the collective wisdom of several effective instructional leaders.Instructional leadership, not just by the principal but by a wider cast of individuals in both formal and informal leadership roles, can play a central role in shifting the emphasis of school activity more directly onto instructional improvements that lead to enhanced student learning and performance. By contrast, the status quo in most schools is diffuse attention to instruction scattered amidst a variety of environmental, social, and organizational distracters that lead to fragmented and uneven instructional focus. Principals are typically engrossed in organizational care-taking and the responsibility for instructional decisions falls to individual teachers. When individual teachers independently determine the kind and type of instruction in their classrooms, three things tend to occur. First, the instructional culture of the school tends to splinter, as there is no overriding instructional guidance and no coherent glue to tie instruction to a larger whole. Second, the quality of instruction varies widely, as teachers bring different experiences and have different notions of what is good teaching. Third, the content that students receive, even in the same grade, differs from classroom to classroom, as each teacher prioritizes what students ought to know.

Fostering department chair instructional leadership capacity: laying the groundwork for distributed instructional leadership

“…However, the responsibility for advancing a school's instructional capacity, historically borne by principals (Hallinger 2003, Barnett andAagaard 2007) is seen by many as simply too complex and overwhelming a job for a single leader given the myriad non-instructional issues that consume school leaders' attention (Portin 2000, Supovitz and Poglinco 2001, Fink and Resnick 2002, Fullan 2002, Gronn 2002, Lambert 2002, Resnick and Glennan 2002, Copland and Boatright 2006, Barnett and Aagaard 2007, Chrispeels et al 2008). These obstacles are often even more challenging for principals in urban high schools (Portin 2000, Resnick and Glennan 2002, Copland and Boatright 2006.…”

The principal as instructional leader: Guiding schools to improve instruction

“…Leithwood, Jantzi, Silins and Dart (1993) find that principals, who focus on developing a school vision, setting group goals, holding high expectations and providing individual support for teachers, positively influence school culture and climate. Supovitz and Poglinco (2001) find that instructional leaders organise their schools around an emphasis on instructional improvement supported by a distinct vision of instructional quality; cultivate a community of instructional practice in their schools by creating a safe and collaborative environment for teachers to engage in; and deepen their work to support instructional improvement.…”

“…Recent research has shown that organisational restructuring alone does not increase the likelihood that groups will develop communities of instructional practice (Supovitz 2001).…”

School Leader Professional Socialization: The Contribution of Focused Observations

“…These behaviors are consistent with dimensions of effective school leadership noted by others. This new style of principal is expected to be: an instructional leader who promotes high expectations for student achievement and translates these expectations into daily practice (Murphy, 1990); an organizational leader, who is a collaborative builder of relationships and structures in the process of creating a learning community focused on transformation and reform through problem solving (Marsh, 2000); a public leader who builds partnerships with other schools, parents, and the community (Sarason & Lorentz, 1998), and an evidence-based leader who engages in continuous inquiry into the performance of the organization through gathering and analyzing a variety of organizational data (Schmoker, 1999;Supovitz & Poglinco, 2001). Moreover, this new style of principal engages in reflective practice and the ongoing process of examining his or her actions by being open to criticism and change and encourages others within the organization to adopt this stance (Schon, 1983;Argyris, 1990).…”