Growing Shared Leadership in High-Poverty High Schools: The Role of Instructional Leadership Teams

• In Event: 25.047 - Role of Teachers in School Leadership and Improvement

Abstract

This study presents a comparative case study of Instructional Leadership Teams (ILTs) in three high schools identified as high-poverty and low-performing in the same large, urban district to analyze how administrators and teachers work together on these teams to benefit the larger school community. ILTs have the potential to improve educational opportunities for students by creating a structure in which teachers and administrators work collaboratively to support school improvement. My preliminary findings suggest that principals and teachers differed in their conceptions of shared leadership, and these differences led to frustration among teachers about their limited leadership opportunities. While principals characterized shared leadership for teachers as serving primarily in an advisory role, most teachers defined shared leadership as involving shared decision-making.

Author

• Elizabeth Leisy Stosich, Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education