Leading Learning-Focused Teacher Leadership in Urban High Schools

Abstract

Drawing on findings from a national study of learning-focused leadership in challenging urban settings, this article examines the work of teacher leadership in urban high schools. In this context, a recently emerging cadre of nonsupervisory teacher leaders, working in collaboration with supervisory leaders, exercises a form of "distributed instructional leadership," creating new channels for instructional renewal. Extensive qualitative data from four high schools in different urban districts across the United States illuminate the nature of these teacher leaders' work in support of teaching and learning, the ways they and their supervisory counterparts worked as instructional leadership teams, and the role that they played in supporting teachers in classrooms within schools that face significant challenges. Study findings highlight the unique expertise necessary for these teacher leaders-including content expertise, pedagogical coaching skill, ability to build relational trust, and capacity to link the classroom with district-and schooldetermined learning improvement efforts. In conclusion, the article sketches the implications for reconfiguring supervisory leaders' work so that the efforts of all remain productively and persistently focused on learning improvement.

Content-Specific Leadership: Identifying Literature-Based Implications for Principal Preparation

“…It may be imperative for principals to learn where expertise lies among their teaching staff and then engage teachers to ensure department- or school-wide expertise is available to support peers to improve mathematics and science instruction (Casey et al, 2012b; Cobb & Jackson, 2011; Halverson et al, 2011). This strategy may be especially valuable in secondary school settings where the mathematics and science content is more technical and sophisticated, and the departmentalized structure of the traditional high school naturally lends itself to the empowerment of department chairs to oversee instruction within specific content areas (Grossman & Stodolsky, 1995; Miller, 2010; Portin, Russell, Samuelson, & Knapp, 2013; Siskin, 1991; Zepeda & Kruskamp, 2007). Recent studies show that this may be organically happening already.…”

Exploring Relationships Between K–12 Music Educators’ Demographics, Perceptions of Intrapreneuring, and Motivation at Work

“…This was the lone instance where music educators in urban schools expressed higher confidence in intrapreneuring than their counterparts in suburban settings. Numerous scholars argue that teacher-driven pedagogical reinvention must happen to reverse the decline of urban schooling (Crocco & Costigan, 2007; Louis & Kruse, 1995; Portin, Russell, Samuelson, & Knapp, 2013). Within my sample, music educators teaching in urban settings felt the least support for intrapreneuring even though they reported the highest level of confidence in the domain most crucial to intrapreneurial innovation.…”

Learning-Focused Leadership in Urban High Schools: Response to Demanding Environments

“…• Clarifying expectations for student achievement in finer and finer detail, through the use of day-by-day pacing calendars, curriculum maps, grade-level benchmark documents, and classroom assessments-many of which were copied from the released items from the district and state summative assessments • Cultivating teachers' interest in meeting or exceeding expectations set by the district or state for students and the teachers themselves • Drawing the community's attention to the urgent need to meet external expectations • Demonstrating what high external expectations look like in practice and offering the means to learn how to reach them All these steps meant spreading the ownership of high expectations and engaging the staff on multiple fronts. To accomplish this, the principals nurtured a cadre of instructional leaders within the school (see Portin et al, 2013). Given the size and complexity of these (and many) high schools, the active engagement of teacher leaders across the school was essential to its response to accountability demands.…”

“…While all schools within a given urban district are subject to the same or similar environmental pressures, the high school is likely to experience them somewhat differently, in ways that reflect the special character of upper secondary-level public education in this country. As discussed more fully elsewhere (see Portin, Russell, Samuelson, & Knapp, 2013 [this issue]), the environment is likely to put added expectations on the high school, given its role in preparing students to graduate, its structuring by subject departments, and the enduring tensions over the purposes of schooling at this level (e.g., as preparation of all for college versus a system of sorting students into differentiated occupational tracks). Add to that the environment of concentrated urban poverty and all it manifestations in adolescence.…”

“…Drawing on detailed qualitative sources from repeated visits to these settings across a year and a half, this study strand profiled the activities of the full range of school staff engaged in leadership aimed at teaching and learning-not only those in administrative positions (principals, assistant principals) but others exercising teacher leadership, either formally or informally-while detailing the central role that principals play in this distributed leadership work. The design and methods employed by this study strand, along with more detail on the district sample, are described in a related article in this issue (see Portin et al, 2013) and in a methodological appendix of the original report (Portin et al, 2009, pp. 110-120).…”