The Boston Teacher Leadership Certificate Program: Building Resources for Reform

• In Event: Roundtable Session 90
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Leader Model Standards and Teacher Leader Preparation Programs

Abstract

Effective teachers are an important potential asset for improving teaching and learning. Yet effective teachers are not always effective teacher leaders, as the knowledge and skills required for effective teacher leadership are different than those required for effective teaching (Koppich et al, 2005). The Boston Teacher Leadership Certificate courses are designed to provide teacher leaders who hold key reform roles in the Boston Public Schools with practice-based, graduate credit-bearing courses that strengthen the skills needed to be successful in these important roles.

Teachers who complete teacher leadership development programs are often left feeling “all dressed up with no place to go,” as they are challenged to connect with meaningful leadership opportunities or to communicate how their newly-acquired skills can be utilized (Loeb et al, 2006). With this in mind, the Boston Teacher Leadership Certificate (BTLC) program is designed to connect teacher leadership development directly to Boston’s reform agenda. It is designed to build capacity for four specific reform roles, a connection that is strengthened by the certificate’s unique partnership with the Boston Public School District and by the involvement of Boston’s strong corps of experienced teacher leaders in the certificate’s design and development.

We believe that while basic leadership skills are important to any teacher leadership role, most roles require additional role-specific support. Therefore, in addition to completing a series of four courses that strengthen the core skills that all teacher leaders need, BTLC candidates must complete one of four role-specific courses that engages teacher leaders in the essential knowledge and skills for their specific teacher leadership role. In addition, all course sections are offered in role-alike cohorts, and most are taught by teachers who hold or have held that role.

To address our interest in the relationship between generic teacher leadership development and role-specific teacher leadership development, in this paper we examine the alignment of the Teacher Leader Model Standards (TLMS) with the BTLC certificate program and our four reform roles. Through an analysis of the course content and our target teacher leadership roles using the Teacher Leadership Model Standards, we determine that there is a strong alignment between the TLMS standards and the four BTLC core courses, but less alignment between the standards and our target teacher leadership roles. Qualitative data, including interviews with program participants, were used to describe how TLMS-aligned and unaligned coursework were reported to influence participants’ experiences of their roles. We observe that while the Teacher Leader Model Standards provides a useful framework for the core preparation of teacher leaders, in order to have an impact on what matters to a district, training must also provide role-specific content and support. We conclude that role-specific teacher leadership development can enable teachers to bring the capacity necessary for school and district reform and to contribute more effectively to accelerating learning for every student.

Authors

• Jill Harrison Berg, Boston Teacher Leadership Resource Center

• Phomdaen Souvanna, Brandeis University