• Asking the Right Questions - A Leader's Guide to Systems Thinking about School Improvement - McREL - This guidebook is designed to help school leaders, particularly principals, think systemically as they examine school improvement issues and make decisions about change.
• Balanced Leadership - What 30 Years of Research Tells Us about the Impact of Leadership on Student Achievement - MCREL - This site provides a summary of the meta-analysis that identified 21 leadership responsibilities that are significantly associated with increased student achievement. The balanced leadership framework describes the knowledge, skills, strategies, and tools leaders need to positively impact student achievement.
• Balanced Leadership - Directive, Collaborative, and Supportive Questions.  This tool identifies questions at the directive, collaborative, and supportive levels and would be helpful in mentoring or coaching the principals and leadership teams.
• Configuration Map on Leadership - AEA 267 - This configuration map was developed by AEA 267 in collaboration with the districts they serve.  This configuration map is one of nine maps developed to support quality schools.  AEA 267 has given permission to use the configuration maps with our work. 
• Creating Conditions for Leadership Effectiveness:  The District's Role - McREL - November, 2004 - This site provides guidance for districts as they work with principals' leadership skills to increase student achievement.  Four key points include the following:  (1) Review principal preparation policies to ensure that they effectively prepare principals to be instructional leaders; (2) Support novice principals, through mentoring and other programs; (3) Free up principals to focus on academic achievement; and (4) Set district priorities in view of research.
• From WHOLE SCHOOL to WHOLE SYSTEM Reform - The National Clearninghouse for Comprehensive School Reform - April, 2004 - This report outlines policy recommendations for federal, state, and district leaders charged with implementing or integrating Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) effectively within the larger context of education policy.  Recommendations are organized around the three following areas:  1) using data to align systems; 2) addressing school context issues; and 3) strengthening teaching and school leadership.  Recommendations in these three areas are made for various roles, including federal, state, and district.  The report recognizes that whole or comprehensive school reform by itself is an incomplete theory of action and that whole district reform is needed to create the environment for improving learning of all students - the central aim of policy makers at all levels.  A lesson learned is that model developers and other local intermediaries recognize that no school provides a blank slate for reform efforts.  All external change agents who wish to help schools improve must recognize the need to reconcile the many complex activities that occur in a school and district simultaneously in order to maintain coherence when new initiatives are adopted.
• How Leadership Influences Student Learning - The Wallace Foundation - The University of Minnesota and the University of Toronto were commissioned by the Wallace Foundation to review the research on how leadership influences student learning.  It turns out that leadership not only matters:  it is second only to teaching among school-related factors in its impact on student learning - and tends to be greatest in schools where the learning needs of students are most acute.  High-quality leaders achieve impact 1) by setting directions - charting a clear course that everyone understands, establishing high expectations and using data to track progress and performance;  2) by developing people - providing teachers and others in the system with the necessary support and training to succeed; and 3) by making the organization work - ensuring that the entire range of conditions and incentives in districts and schools fully supports rather than inhibits teaching and learning.
• Iowa Evaluator Approval Training Program - Iowa Department of Education - This site provides information about the teacher evaluation as it relates to the Teacher Quality legislation.  The site provides a calendar of events as well as the documents related to teacher evaluation and the Iowa Teaching Standards and Criteria.
• Leadership - NCREL - This site provides a survey tool to analyze leadership practices in a building/district, information on critical issues in leadership, supporting materials, as well as additional web site links. 
• School Administrators of Iowa - SAI - This site provides information for and about school administrators in Iowa.  There is extensive information on government relations, leadership, legal issues, publications, and resources. 
• School Leader Update - Iowa Department of Education - This site archives information sent to school administrators by the Iowa Department of Education. 
• Updating Teacher Evaluation Systems - Collaborative Effort of AEA Ed Services Directors -  This site was designed to assist school districts in the decision-making processes associated witht the review and revision of teacher evaluation systems consistent with current law.

"The job of administrative leaders is primarily about enhancing the skills and knowledge of people in the organization, creating a common culture of expectations around the use of those skills and knowledge, holding the various pieces of the organization together in a productive relationship with each other, and holding individuals accountable for their contributions to the collective result." - R. F. Elmore (2000), Building a New Structure for School Leadership.  Washington, D.C.:  Albert Shanker Institute, p.15

According to Characteristics of Improved School Districts - Themes from Research (October, 2004), leaders in improved schools/districts are described as dynamic, united in purpose, involved, visible in schools, and interested in instruction.  Leaders provide encouragement, recognition, and support for improving student learning.  The ethical and moral nature of effective leadership is demonstrated when leaders move beyond talking about the belief that student can learn to taking concrete action to change instruction so students do learn.

Leaders spur reform by doing the following:

• Publicly acknowledge that student achievement is unacceptably low.
• Accept responsibility for the problem.
• Clearly state that all stakeholders in the system need to be part of the solution
• Commit themselves to long-term efforts and support innovations even if they did not show immediate results (Togneri & Anderson, p. 3 in Leadership Brief).

District-level leadership is critical to improving student learning and school improvement.  When examining Pew Network school districts, researchers noted that "we did not find any instances in which schools on a widespread basis were able to make significant improvements in classroom practice in the absence of active support and leadership from the district" (David & Shields, When Theory Hits Reality:  Standards-Based Reform in Urban Districts, 2001, p. 37).  In a study by Educational research Service and Laboratory for School Success, the researchers write, "In no instance was a passive, laissez-faire style observed.  In most cases, the superintendent moved well beyond articulating the focus by developing staff skills through activities such as analysis of achievement data and professional development opportunities intended to support specific reform efforts" (Cawelti & Protheroe, Supporting School Improvement:  Lessons from Districts Successfully Meeting the Challenge, 2003, p 31). 

Questions for reflection:

• What is the central focus of senior administrators and building administrators?
• How do leaders demonstrate their commitment to student learning and improved instruction?
• How do leaders create political will and moral responsibility in buildings, districts, and communities to take actions necessary to provide equity and excellence in learning for all students?

This page was last updated on January 23, 2008.