Elementary principals’ development of distributed instructional leadership

Elementary principals’ development of distributedinstructional leadership WERA Conference Daniel W. Lysne

Session Overview • Leadership Theory • Eraut’s Area of Knowledge • Study Design and Setting • Qualitative Data Points from Study • Findings

Principals Matter • Measurable impact on Schools • Enhance teacher work and collaboration • School culture is shaped and enhanced • Vital to improving teacher and student learning

Leadership Theory • Transactional Leadership—(Burns, 1978) • Transformational Leadership—(Burns, 1978) • Distributed Leadership—(Spillane & Camburn, 2006) • Instructional Leadership—(Alvarado, Elmore & Resnick, 2001; Darling-Hammond, Hightower, Husbands, LaFors, Young, & Christopher, 2003; Gallucci, Boatright, Lysne, & Swinnerton, 2005) • Other forms of principal leadership—Moral, Critical, Managerial, Charismatic, Top-Down, Visionary

Instructional Leadership—(Alvarado, Elmore & Resnick, 2001; Darling-Hammond, Hightower, Husbands, LaFors, Young, & Christopher, 2003; Gallucci, Boatright, Lysne, & Swinnerton, 2005) • Leithwood and Duke (1998) view instructional leadership as, “typically focused on the behaviors of teachers as they engage in activities directly affecting the growth of students” (p. 47). • Portin, DeArmond, Scheider, and Gundlach (2003) identify instructional leadership as, “Assuring quality of instruction, modeling teaching practice, supervising curriculum, and assuring quality of teaching resources” (p. 18). • Blase and Blase (1999) suggest that, ideally, instructional leadership initiates teacher learning of adaptable mastery of flexible alternatives rather than enforcing rigid procedures and methods. • Leiberman (1995) views instructional leadership as supporting teachers in developing their teaching skills.

Instructional Leadership in Practice • Personnel actions that illustrate instructional leadership • Are knowledgeable about instruction • Provide support for teachers (For example: consultants or coaches) • Provide feedback to teachers • Conduct classroom observations • Emphasize instruction (during meetings or evaluations) • Design or deliver professional development • Review student work and student data to make decisions about how to improve instruction • Hold teachers accountable for making improvements in instruction • (Source: Marsh, Kerr, Ikemoto, Darilek, Suttorp, Zimmer, and Barney, 2005)

Research Questions • What does distributed instructional leadership look like in practice? • How does context factor into distributed instructional leadership? • What key events support distributed instructional leadership? • What lessons can be learned for future leaders about distributed instructional leadership?

Reflective Practice • Reflective practice theory offers a way to understand how individuals make sense of new ideas and new roles for themselves and others within specific contexts. • Reflective practice allows for a connection to be made by learners between the theoretical underpinnings of a profession with the day-to-day activities of a profession (Barak, 2005). • Eraut (1994) suggests that reflective practice can potentially cover five knowledge areas that shape the way leaders craft their vision for a school.

Eraut’s Areas of Knowledge A principal understands her staff based on the formal and informal interactions she has with them. She sees strengths and areas of future development. • Personnel • Situational • Educational Practice • Conceptual • Control

Eraut’s Areas of Knowledge • Personnel • Situational • Educational Practice • Conceptual • Control Principals’ situational knowledge is shaped by where they focus their energies. A principal responds to situations based on the experiences and knowledge she has.

Eraut’s Areas of Knowledge Knowledge of educational practice is understanding the range of possible policies and practice available for educators to use (Eraut, 1994). • Personnel • Situational • Educational Practice • Conceptual • Control

Eraut’s Areas of Knowledge • Personnel • Situational • Educational Practice • Conceptual • Control Conceptual knowledge represents the ideas, theories, and concepts that a person uses to solve problems (Eraut, 1994).

Eraut’s Areas of Knowledge • Personnel • Situational • Educational Practice • Conceptual • Control Eraut (1994, p.96) notes, “More fundamental still is the knowledge of one’s strengths and weaknesses, which guides the way one delegates and the types of task one assigns to oneself.”

Eraut’s Areas of Knowledge • Personnel • Situational • Educational Practice • Conceptual • Control

Case Study • Two sites of identified instructional leadership • Interviews, observational field notes, and document analysis • Used a conceptual framework and a semi-grounded theory approach

Two Cases of Instructional Leadership • Ordal Elementary • Affluent “on the hill” Neighborhood • Veteran and Highly Recognized Staff • Mrs. Janssen completing her second year as principal • Tingelstad Elementary • High Poverty “in the valley” Neighborhood • “Young” staff • Mrs. Olson has taught and led at the school for eight years

Tingelstad Elementary • We don’t want to smatter our employees with a bunch of latest greatest trends, phrases, or research. We want to go deep in what we believe inand try to improve the overall quality of something…not this year we are going to study math…next year we are going study the six traits…and that typically happens in education. (Building Coach)

Ordal Elementary • Marcia and I met with each grade level. We said here was your goal. This is where your kids were. This is where they are now. Let’s talk about that. What is the data saying to you? Do we need to reevaluate? What are we going to do with those kids that are nowhere near meeting the goal? At that time we sat down and had that discussion. It was really interesting because the staff are very familiar with writing goals and writing out those target. (Janssen Interview #2, 5/24/07)

Personnel Knowledge--Tingelstad Elementary • Anita Olson was involved in the classroom whenever she was in the classroom. She was seeing how things were going and would say, ‘this is what I think and let me help you out here.’ I felt that this was a great place because you could make mistakes but you learned from them. And you weren’t afraid to make mistakes. (Quinten Interview #1, 2/13/07) • If she has come in and observed you she also sends people to you specifically. Or if there is something she has observed that you need some help with…nicely and kindly in your observation…she’ll say I think it would be beneficial for you to go and watch so and so. (Richards Interview #1, 2/19/07)

Personnel Knowledge-- Ordal Elementary • My goal was to also be in their classroom at least three times a month for some sort of just informal, being able to see what they were doing. Through those, through that, really came a lot of my discussions afterwards talking about where peoples’ interest, what were they working on, what were they working on outside of school? Their classes, the things that they had been involved in. (Janssen Interview #1, 2/5/07) • I try to steer away from Marcia Kline and doing anything like observations together. In the sense that people start to fear that if Marcia and I are talking about anything along those lines that somehow it is going to be in their evaluation. So I really try to keep whatever Marcia arranges to do with teachers separate. (Janssen Interview #1, 2/5/07)

Situational Knowledge--Tingelstad Elementary • We have stayed with Strategies That Work, it is Stephanie Harvey’s book, and we are in our fifth year. We use that with best practices, what matters most…everything is researched based” (Olson Interview #1, 2/5/07). • Having the staff hear it from an outside expert was so powerful because then they hear it from me and hear it from the outside expert. The teachers then ventured off to their classrooms and they would start hearing that same kind of talk…it’s what we do” (Olson Interview #3, 6/12/07).

Situational Knowledge-- Ordal Elementary • I have that trust built with people and also the questions had been asked before so I was able to come in with a quicker decision and say this is the way we are going to do it instead of waiting to hear from everybody else” (Janssen Interview #2, 5/24/07). • When she wants to get those goals sets…I then have to figure out how to make that happen at the professional development meeting” (Kline Interview #2, 5/10/07). • Nora Janssen is about moving the student achievement but getting consensus from the team to do that” (Kopervik Interview #1, 3/13/07).

Educational Knowledge--Tingelstad Elementary • When I came on board, we decided to do a little philosophy change. I talked to the staff about the whole child. So we talked about school relationships because we needed to do that before we could tackle academics. We talked about relationships, resources. We, as a staff, came together and we went to Love and Logic classes. We created a language. (Olson Interview #1, 2/5/07) • We feel like if we become very strong in what we have in the classrooms then math comes along, science comes along, social studies and so on. We brought in a Stephanie Harvey consultant; we couldn’t get Stephanie. (The consultant) came in and we had her come in several times. She modeled in the classrooms and the teachers were just in awe because she did our expectations and our behavior but the academics were so involved in the classrooms that there were no behavior issues at all. Kids were learning. We saw the power of that kind of really focused lesson. Then the consultant was no longer going to be available and so Bevin Patterson talked with Stephanie Harvey and said ‘oh I can do this.’ So Bevin is now a consultant for Stephanie Harvey. (Olson Interview #1, 2/5/07)

Educational Knowledge-- Ordal Elementary • And we had a meeting a couple of months ago where they got subs so the grade levels could sit down with Nora Janssen and Marcia Kline for an hour and talk about our goals…you are there what are you doing about it…what is your next step… (Marston Interview #1, 2/13/07) • What we’ve done is try to stay with, we have a certain theme that goes through the year, and it is differentiated instruction. And from there, that’s what we build all of our professional development on. So we can be talking about math, but we are talking about how we differentiate instruction for those low learners, those high learners, those medium learners…what are we doing for kids. And then the next session we can be talking about writing or reading. (Janssen Interview #2, 5/24/07)

Conceptual Knowledge--Tingelstad Elementary • At that time, Anita Olson knew that poverty was an issue and she said she sometimes didn’t feel like a principal, she felt like she was a social worker because she had to deal with so many social issues when parents would come to school drunk or inebriated or drugged. And she had to deal with those issues in a positive way so they would not impact negatively the student or the student’s relationship with the family. (Kopervik Interview #1, 3/13/07) • She sometimes will bring articles and will say, ‘Have you seen this one or have you thought of this? Or this is what another school is doing.’ After a principals’ meeting she might say, ‘Have you thought about this?’ (Patterson Interview #1, 2/12/07).

Conceptual Knowledge-- Ordal Elementary • Janssen didn’t feel the need to ‘be the principal’ and be in charge. She was able to delegate that to other people. And I think that is true leadership when she was able to do that” (Kopervik Interview #1, 3/13/07) • Conceptual knowledge: Janssen’s conceptual understanding of how teams set goals, monitor goals, and reassess goals.

Control Knowledge--Tingelstad Elementary • “I am the light and she is the heat” (Patterson Interview #1, 2/12/07) • What gets inspected gets respected” (Patterson Interview #1, 2/12/07).

Control Knowledge-- Ordal Elementary • I think it is and it should be the largest part of my job because building that capacity within teachers is…even if I covering a classroom so they can get out and go to another classroom or work with Marcia Kline. I look as that as part of my job of instructional time…so that is freeing them to go do the things they need to be able to do to build themselves up. (Janssen Interview #1, 2/5/07)

Instructional Leadership in Practice • Personnel actions that illustrate instructional leadership • Are knowledgeable about instruction • Provide support for teachers (For example: consultants or coaches) • Provide feedback to teachers • Conduct classroom observations • Emphasize instruction (during meetings or evaluations) • Design or deliver professional development • Review student work and student data to make decisions about how to improve instruction • Hold teachers accountable for making improvements in instruction • (Source: Marsh, Kerr, Ikemoto, Darilek, Suttorp, Zimmer, and Barney, 2005)

Distribution of Instructional Leadership

Findings • Semi-Structured Support • School Coaches • Organic reflective practice • Conduit for ideas • Self-selected and prescribed • District supports were optional/varied • Buildings could build contextually relevant solutions • In contrast to top-down instructional leadership examples • New York Dist #2 • San Diego Unified • Institute for Learning

Findings • Data as a driver • Data drives instruction and vision • Principals were trained in how to utilize data to focus instruction • Data was not the sole motivator • Success supports efforts • Data validates efforts • Provides urgency

Findings • Context of students and staff • Urgency creates opportunities • Low scores and high poverty create opportunities for a specific Vision of Good Instruction • Stability allows less prescription • Well established staffs require a unifying vision but flexibility in fulfilling the vision

Findings • Organic Reflective Practice • The Coach and Principal • Distributed Leadership • Reflection on instruction-based leadership • Built-in support • On-site support • Context-specific • Grounded in practice

Findings • Cohesion • Common language • Instructional • Best practices • Differentiated Instruction • Goal Setting • Ongoing • Reflective in nature • Using real numbers and realistic targets

Limitations to Study • Small sample size • Existing “Instructional” leadership • Specific structure of district • School based coaches • Level of autonomy

Final Thoughts • Common Language • On-Site Support • Context-specific • Data-Driven

Contact Information Dan Lysne (253)862-6980 lysned@u.washington.edu dan_lysne@sumner.wednet.edu 5909 Myers Rd. E. Bonney Lake, WA 98391

Elementary principals’ development of distributed instructional leadership