Distributed Leadership…A Tool for the School Improvement Journey

1. Distributed Leadership…A Tool for the School Improvement Journey Gauger-Cobbs Middle School and Glasgow High School Presented by: Todd Harvey…Principal Glasgow High School harveyt@christina.k12.de.us Amy Levitz…Principal Gauger-Cobbs Middle School levitza@christina.k12.de.us

2. 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 and GCMS are pursuing related to distributed leadership • To create an awareness of forms of Distributed Leadership that are already in practice within schools

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. Activity One: ReflectionLeadership As We Know It… • Describe in written form or diagram typical leadership models that exist in most secondary schools • Describe typical secondary faculty/department meeting formats • Report out to large group • Big Ideas/Insights/Questions/Implications

7. 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)

8. A Picture is worth 1,000 Words…Teacher to Teacher Talk…

9. Teacher to Teacher Talk…

10. Teachers Teaching Teachers…

11. Teachers Teaching Teachers…

12. Teachers Organizing and Implementing Initiatives…

13. Teachers Leading Professional Development for other Teachers…

14. Collaboration In Progress…

15. 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

16. What are We Working On at Gauger-Cobbs Middle School and Glasgow High School… • Professional Learning Communities (PLC) • Working on the Work -Student Engagement and Teacher Collaboration Framework (WOW) • Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) • Differentiated Instruction (DFI) • Revitalizing Site Council/Action Teams • Restructuring department (Instructional Focus) • Elective Course Fair • Measuring Academic Progress (MAP) • Smaller Learning Communities (SLC) Design Team • International Baccalaureate (IB) Applicant School Team • Exploring Positive Behavior Support (PBS)

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. Final Thoughts… • Distributed Leadership is a framework not an initiative • Distributed Leadership may already exist in various forms within your school • As a Distributed Leadership model expands within the school the need to review other practices and structures will become on-going • Remember…it is all about positively impacting student achievement-to that end your data and results will be paramount to measuring your success