Leveraging Teacher Leaders to Implement Ambitious Instructional Shifts in Turnaround Schools

• In Event: 30.024 - Under Scrutiny: Redesigning the Instructional Infrastructure of "Turnaround" Schools

Abstract

LEAD Public Schools was awarded its first turnaround school in 2011.  Since then, LEAD has become a leader among Nashville Charter Management Organizations, partnering with the local school district, Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), and the state run Achievement School District (ASD) to reform three middle schools.   LEAD’s school reform process is unique because it includes hiring an entirely new staff, from the School Director and teachers to office staff, without changing the zoned enrollment catchment area.   Significant attention is paid to the improvement of instructional practice in the turnaround process. This approach resulted in our first completed turnaround school being named a Reward School by the state for its outstanding improvement in student achievement.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss LEAD’s approach to improving instructional practice.  Unlike many turnaround processes, emphasis and ownership of improving instructional practice began first at the teacher level in the classroom, with the support of the network academic team who provided instructional resources and training directly to teachers and teacher leaders.

Initial observations and survey data collected from teachers revealed inconsistent instructional quality and an extraordinary amount of time spent by teachers looking for and gathering curricular resources.  The network academic team began the process to improve instructional quality by designing and implementing Frameworks for Instruction.  These frameworks were research-based and grounded in a student-centered approach to instruction (Bybee, 2006; Frey, 2013; Reisman, 2012; Stein, 2009).  These documents provided teachers with a vision of instruction excellence in each content area.  Members of the academic team worked side-by-side with teacher leaders to help them enact the frameworks and teach others about the shifts in instructional practice.  

Second, the network academic team researched and piloted rigorous instructional materials with select teacher leaders to gain buy-in and support for the network-adopted Common Core aligned curricula. Once again, teacher leaders engaged with the academic team to create scope and sequence and other curricular documents to support implementation of the new and more ambitious Common Core aligned curricula.

After the foundation for instructional shifts had been laid, and buy-in developed, teacher leaders and Deans of Instruction became the change agents in their schools, working with peers to implement a rigorous curriculum.  Teacher leaders received targeted professional development on skills such as change management and facilitation of rigorous discourse in professional learning communities.  Simultaneously, the network academic team expanded supports to include school leadership, while teacher leaders continued to  revise and refine the network’s guaranteed and viable curriculum.  

LEAD’s story provides an alternative starting point for building instructional capacity in turnaround contexts. Rather than positioning the school principal as the driver of instructional improvement, LEAD leverages teachers and Deans of Instruction to lead the learning and implementation of the guaranteed and viable curriculum in the hopes that instructional practices will continue to be owned and refined by teachers, rather than largely dependent on principal leadership.

Author

• Amy Hunter, LEAD Public Schools