Leading From the Classroom: Teacher Leadership in New York City Schools

• In Event: Complexity Theory, Educational Leadership, and Policy: Principles and Applications

Abstract

Objective & Purpose

This paper explores how the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) attempted to impact instruction and school quality, and institute distributed leadership practices through Teacher Career Pathways (TCP), a teacher leadership program. My investigation considers three questions: 1) How do stakeholders in schools with teacher leadership feel about organizational processes over time? 2) Do schools participating in TCP show greater improvement in school quality compared to schools that do not participate? 3) Do TCP-participating schools show greater gains in student achievement scores than schools that do not participate?

Data & Methods


To answer these questions, I use quantitative data collected by the NYCDOE, including TCP annual survey results, School Quality Review (SQR) ratings, and student achievement outcomes for ELA and math in grades 3 through 8. I apply quantitative methods, using descriptive and inferential statistics to examine changes in survey responses and SQR ratings, and difference-in-difference and event study approaches to analyze student achievement.

Theoretical Framework

To guide my analyses, I employ the complexity theory for teacher leadership framework alongside democratic policy making theory from political science. Complexity theory for teacher leadership examines how teacher leaders operate in schools to enhance systemic growth while encouraging the growth of individuals (e.g. students and teachers) (Margolis, 2020). Democratic policy making suggests that decisions made in schools are strengthened and more likely to be implemented when teachers are engaged (Woods & Gronn, 2009). These theories illuminate how a more dynamic role for teachers in schools can systematically improve a host of interrelated school outcomes.

Results

The results suggest that teacher leadership can change the relationships between stakeholders in complex organizations that impact school quality and student achievement. Preliminary analyses of survey results indicate that stakeholders in TCP schools report increasing agreement on a variety of questions related to collaboration, distributed leadership, and professional learning, suggesting that empowering teachers to lead can change how individuals converse across levels of the school hierarchy to work with each other and meet the instructional needs of students. This is reflected to some degree in the school quality results. Of the five indicators examined, schools staffing teacher leaders were more likely to experience schoolwide improvement in the areas of curriculum (p<.01) and pedagogy (p<.001). The student achievement outcomes mirrored these results: Compared to others, TCP schools observed positive, statistically significant gains in ELA and math that, overall, increased over time.


Scholarly Significance

This study contributes a critical advancement to the teacher leadership literature in drawing a connection between teacher leadership and student achievement outcomes, an underdeveloped area of study (Mangin, 2009). Additionally, complexity theory for teacher leadership is a new framework that has only been used in conjunction with qualitative methods (see Sands et al., 2022). Its application in a quantitative study illustrates its explanatory power as a new theoretical tool and its usefulness in evaluating many teacher leadership outcomes. Finally, the framework’s application in concert with political science theory demonstrates its interdisciplinary applicability.

Author

• Sara Sands, University of Houston
  Presenting Author