INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP

The following document is a culmination of my research on Instructional Leadership. This

research takes a look at the following topics from the point of view of a schools instructional

leader; The importance of Instructional leadership development, Students Thinking at High

Cognitive Levels, Addressing the Varied Needs of Students, Developmental Supervision,

Professional Development, Community Support and Partnerships. This research includes

information that I researched along with my own experiences acquired through eleven years as a

supervisor of an athletic department. . In order for an instructional leader to effectively lead a

campus it will be important for the leaders to be properly trained.

Why is Instructional Leadership Development Important?

As I have approached my classes in principal certification, instructional leadership is the number

one factor that I have felt is crucial for me to advance in my goals to become a great leader in

education. I feel that instructional leadership is the backbone for public education. District

instructional leaders should have a strong vision for campus instruction leaders related to the

curriculum. Campus leaders need to give clear, concise leadership related to instruction for

teachers to achieve the overall goal of successfully educating students. Spillane, Halverson, and

Diamond (2000) confirm that this important role extends beyond the scope of the school

principal to involve other leaders as well. The key players in instructional leadership include the

following: 1) Central office personnel (superintendent, curriculum coordinators, etc.) 2)

Principals and assistant principals 3) Instructional coaches.

School leaders matter for school success. Numerous studies through the past three decades link

high quality leadership with positive school outcomes. Recognition of the importance of school

leadership has led to increased attention to recruiting and preparing school leaders. Many new

principal preparation and development programs emphasize the role of principals as

“instructional leaders”. This emphasis on instructional leadership was driven mostly by the

effective schools movement of the 1970s and 1980s. This effective schools movement has been

rejuvenated due to the increase in school leaders being held accountable for student performance

(Hallinger 2005). However, while the majority agrees on the importance of instructional

leadership, there is less agreement on what instructional leadership actually looks like.

Since this is a principal certification class I will focus on the principal as the instructional leader.

Research indicates that effective principals have a “view of instructional improvement as an

ongoing process” (Chase & Kane, 1983). The following are a few keys to effective instructional

leadership for principals:

1) Effective leaders begin with the development of school wide vision of commitment to

high standards and success of ALL students.

2) Effective Principals hire and know how to retain the high performers. The atmosphere of

the school for the teachers is non-bureaucratic and teachers form part of a professional

community that is “deeply rooted in the academic and social learning goals of the

school” (Golding, Porter, Murphy, Elliott & Cravens, 2007, pp. 7-8)

3) Effective principals know they cannot go it alone. They make good use of all the skills

and knowledge on the faculty when developing instructional leadership for the campus.

4) Effective leaders focus intently on the quality of instruction in their schools.

In conclusion, the current thinking and philosophy in education centers on effective leadership

and learning for all students. In regards to these two philosophies it will be extremely important

for principals and other educational leaders to have a sound vision in instructional leadership.

They will be held accountable for the instruction that is directly responsible for student

performance.

Thinking at High Cognitive Levels

The implication of having students thinking at a higher cognitive level is the opportunity to have

a real impact on the students learning and giving the student the tool to be successful in this ever

changing fast past world. Today’s students must be taught real skills they can use to continue

their education after high school and the job market. Also, the games that students play and the

activities they are involved in after school require these skills of higher cognitive thinking.

Therefore, they do not respond well to the traditional style of teaching. I have seen and the

research we have looked at in this session shows us students respond better and learn at a more

effective level when higher cognitive thinking is developed in the lesson plans of teachers. I

know from watching my own children and my students, children’s minds are busier today and in

order to challenge them and activate their interest I believe you must have them think at a higher

cognitive level by developing concepts from the topics you have in your lesson plans. Higher

cognitive thinking invites a further understanding of content such as problem solving, making

judgments, evaluating and reflection to name a few (Alford et al. 2006). If we want our students

to be successful in this ever changing fast past world, they are going to need these skills, to have

the opportunity to be successful. The biggest factor to having students thinking at a higher

cognitive level will be, getting the teachers to buy in to this method of teaching. Research tells

us that teachers ask 300-400 questions a day (Barry & Kind 1998). These questions within the

lesson, allows teachers many opportunities to have students reach higher levels of cognitive

thinking. This will prevent students from plateauing and provide the opportunity to learn on a

higher level than just understanding and knowing a particular fact.

My responsibility as the instructional leader in the area of higher level cognitive learning for

students, is to insure the teachers have all the opportunity and resources they need to

As the instructional leader in the area of higher level cognitive learning I will need to insure

teachers have the proper training, resources and time to develop this method of teaching into

their lesson plans and then ultimately to their classrooms. The first step in professional

development and training for the teacher will be to provide real life successful examples of

teachers using these methods, activities and lesson plans in their classroom. You cannot give the

teachers a power point of statements about the importance of changing traditional learning and

expect them to buy in to this change in teaching. It’s a good start to explain the information but

ultimately you will have to give them examples of real life lessons in their subject area.

Therefore, my role as the instructional leader will be to find these types of trainings for the

teachers so that they can gain the confidence to leave behind the traditional way of teaching and

begin to develop lessons plans and lessons with the higher cognitive thinking as the guiding

factor.

I recently was involved in a Region 4 Service Center professional development where we spent 8

hours reviewing and discussing how to develop test questions using the Texas Depth and

Complexity Model along with Bloom’s Taxonomy. I think this is a great start to understanding

how to use this model not only in your daily teaching but also in your assessments. As I

researched this topic this week I came across numerous articles and power point presentations

that do a great job of explaining what this entails. This is the current trend in education and there

is wealth of information and research on the internet that would benefit teachers to beginning

researching the implications of having students think at a high cognitive level and how to

develop concepts within your lessons. Obviously this is not something that has just begun and

there are teachers currently using big concepts in our lessons plans and having students think on

a higher cognitive level. Therefore, I believe you can have teachers observe other teachers who

are currently doing this in their classrooms. This will probably be the most effective professional

development that is out there today.

Addressing Various Needs of Students

Varied needs of students and differentiating instruction is based on the philosophy that all

children learn differently and teachers need to focus on each student's individual needs by

presenting material in different ways and allowing for varying kinds of assessment. It requires

classroom management, preplanning, and knowing the needs of each of your students. I am

certain this is the correct direction for public education and will certainly change the

environment of the classroom. The traditional ways of teaching are no longer accepted and in

many situations no longer effective. Some of the disadvantages of the traditional methods, they

are inflexible, students with diverse backgrounds and disabilities often did not respond well to

this delivery; subject matter was not upgrades quickly enough to keep students’ skills and

general knowledge current; and instruction focused on memorization and less on higher level

thinking skills.

A quick summary of differentiating instruction for varied needs of students involves: Determine

each students learning style by conducting an interest inventory, “Observations and

conversations with family members, as well as formal test information, can help the teacher build

upon each child's strengths, regardless of whether the child is disabled, has a primary language

other than English, or is from an ethnic-minority group" (Dodge & Colker, 1992); An interest

inventory contains specific questions to the learner about how they learn best and what their

interests are; You can also interview or conference with each student, or look at past records to

determine how he learns best. Learn students' personal interests. You can do this with a formal

survey, or simply by spending time talking and interacting with students; discover students'

individual skill levels by pre-testing each new concept. There are a number of ways to pretest,

ranging from a pencil/paper quiz to an informal class discussion; determine any potential

behavior obstacles you might encounter during group work and plan accordingly. Assemble

student groups based on ability, skill level, prior knowledge or another factor depending on the

task at hand and the ultimate learning goal; Vary assessment methods. Use traditional exams,

skits, posters, portfolios and projects to assess students so they are able to show what they

learned in a variety of ways; allow students to make choices. Students are more likely to be

engaged in their learning when they have a say in it.

The key to meeting the varied needs of students is differentiating instruction in a learner-centered

environment. Differentiated instruction has many advantages over traditional teaching methods:

They meet the needs of diverse students with a variety of learning styles; They accommodate

students with learning disabilities and other types of disabilities; Students from different cultures

such as English language learners; Differentiated instruction stimulates creativity and helps

students understand ideas at higher levels of thinking than teaching through rote memorization

alone. This is not a new concept. However, due to a great deal of diversity being present in the

classroom today and teaches being faced with accommodating students with different ethnic

backgrounds, intellectual strengths, levels of ability and language barriers, it has become

necessary for these strategies to be implemented in order for teachers to be effective. After

researching these issues that exist and the answers these strategies offer the classroom teachers, I

believe these strategies will move education toward the goal of “learning for all”. Many

strategies and techniques exist for presenting materials and assignments in a way that is

understandable and accessible to students with diverse learning needs.

The most important aspect of all of this information and how quick communities, schools,

administrators, and teachers move forward is going to be in how it is presented to the classroom

teacher. Many teachers have had success with the traditional lecture style of teaching. If we are

going to be transformational leaders and servant leaders we are going to have to join these

teachers and provide all the resources and opportunities necessary for the teachers to train and

develop these strategies in their lesson planes and in their classroom lessons. We need to send

the positive message of helping teachers grow. We do not need to send the message teachers are

incompetent and need to “get better”. This transition will not happen overnight and should be

threaded into the processes that teachers are already using to develop their lesson plans. Research

consistently proves that "schools that establish high expectations for all students--and provide the

support necessary to achieve these expectations--have high rates of academic success" (Benard,

1995, p. 70). Therefore, we should have high expectations of our schools, administrators, and

teachers with this transition of implementing differentiating instruction, and meeting the varied

needs of all students. However, as is stated before the most important aspect of this transition is

the teacher. The teachers deliver the instruction and ultimately will be responsible for these

strategies taking place in the classroom. We as instructional leaders should deliver the support

they need to be successful with this transition. So, ultimately I believe the instructional leaders

are responsible for seeing the teachers are successful.

Developmental Supervision

In reflection of my research and study of “Developmental Supervision”, I discovered several

very important factors other than just the process itself. Obviously the Developmental

Supervision plays as vital in the growth of each individual teacher and the campus as a whole. A

part of the process that stuck out to me was being non-judgmental in your approach to the

observations and the conferences with the teacher. It would be very easy to have preconceived

notions of what you are going to see in the observation and what the actions and/or reaction of a

teacher might be in the conference. These preconceived notions or judgmental thoughts could

very well impact the way you approach the observation and the conference. For example, we

observed two teachers, one that used differentiating instruction (Cheryl) and one that used

traditional style (Kelley). We saw clips of one teacher meeting of both of the teachers. Again, the

clip on Kelley was not positive and the clip on Cheryl viewed her in a positive light. Going into

the preconference with the principal the principal was obviously comfortable with Cheryl and sat

very close to her in the conference, creating a intimate environment for the two. On the other had

she sat at a larger table away from Kelley and was clearly uncomfortable with him. This was due

to the preconceived idea that Cheryl is a very warm and inviting person and Kelley is aggressive

and contrary at times. This shows you that a principal can go into a meeting and cause tension

with a teacher with subtle body language. I do not believe a Supervisor can totally discount and

avoid their prior thoughts on a teacher but they must be careful to give the person the same

environment they would give another teacher they felt was going to be successful.

Another important part of the developmental supervision is the use of “scripting” in your

observations. It’s clear a supervisor will need to do a thorough job of documenting what they

observe in the classroom observation, both from the students and the teacher. A thorough

“scripting” or documentation of the observation allows the supervisor to use the documentation

when they are completing the evaluation and allows a thorough recall of the activities and

teacher student interaction. A supervisor will usually have several observations to perform and

several other duties that are required of them. Thus, is vital to have this documentation when the

supervisor needs to recall the observations for a particular teacher.

A supervisor’s preconference and post-evaluation conference must be well planned and offer

points of strengths and weaknesses most importantly have the teacher confirm their

understanding of what has been said in the conferences.

Through this research and session study I did develop some concern in reference to the two

hypothetical teachers we observed. It was clear we were being led to give a good evaluation of

Cheryl and a less than positive evaluation of Kelley. We based this all of the fact Kelley did not

use differentiating instruction in his lesson. That being said, I saw no evidence of Kelley being

told at the beginning of the year this was an expectation of the teachers on this campus. I saw no

evidence that Kelley had been provide training after being told this was the expectation of his

teaching style and strategies. Although I truly believe the most effective and successful way to

teach in the classroom today, is by using these techniques. I also believe it is necessary to have a

campus wide initiative to develop this style of teaching in all classrooms and provide the proper

training before the year begins. Also, during my research I was provided a model of supervision.

The differentiated model of supervision conceived by Glickman, Gordon, and Ross-Gordon

(1998) is framed in such a way that new faculty, excellent faculty, and troubled faculty are all

given individual attention best suited for their own needs. This is a great tool for a supervisor

that has already provided training for their staff. “Models for teacher supervision do exist for K–

12 school systems. It is our contention that a differentiated model can be adapted and be

appropriate for faculty supervision in education. Such a model of supervision can take into

account the varying and idiosyncratic needs of each individual teacher when the supervisor

attempts to provide meaningful and substantive professional development” (Rettig, Lampe, &

Garcia, 2000). The most successful business gives their employees extensive training when they

are going to change the way they do their job. They also, insure that new employees are trained

properly when they are hired. They do not simple rely on their college degree to teach them how

to perform their job. Therefore I believe that the most schools districts and campuses that

provide this meaningful and substantive professional development to teachers will see the fastest

growth in the classroom of teachers providing differentiated instruction, addressing varied needs

of students, developing topics into concepts and using the complexity model to develop their

lessons and assessments. Training leadership to pass down the information is not an effective

approach to professional development. As stated above, it must be meaningful and substantive.

Having a curriculum director do a professional development for a group of teachers for a half a

day is not going to help teacher fully understand and grasp the concepts.

Developmental supervision is a must when it comes to providing feedback and developing

teachers. Proper and well planned observations will benefit the teacher and the students.

Establishing high expectations for teachers is also a part of the developmental supervision but

must include professional development and training along with these high expectations.

Professional Development

During my research and study of professional development I was introduced to the Continuous

Improvement Process for Campus and Individuals. This includes a cycle of; Needs Assessment,

Goals and Objectives, Implementation, Professional development, Formative Assessment,

Summative Assessment and cycling back to Needs Assessment. When you use this approach to

look at improving a campus or individual the most vital step is the “Professional Development”

step. You must provide training for teachers and staff members if the campus and the individual

are going to grow. However, I do believe this training has to be extensive and meaningful.

We have looked at several different types of professional development. The first is “Self Study”,

which includes an individual doing research alone using a computer, taking classes at a

university, and reading articles and books. I think this is definitely a positive type of professional

development but I think it’s important that a school district or a campus provide a list of where a

teacher can find the different topics and strategies that will help them grow as a teacher. Rather

than spending time search for the information the teacher can spend their time reading and

learning the information. “Mentor/Coach” is a type of professional development that can benefit

teachers by pairing a mentor or coach with a teacher to give each other feedback and offer

insight into each other’s lessons. The teacher and “coach” teach the class together and learn

from each other while they teach. I like this type of professional development because it provides

an opportunity within the campus and using your campus resources to grow. We know there is

not an unlimited amount of money that can be spent on professional development. This enables a

Principal to help his teachers grow without bringing in outside help. And, a principal can access

this type of professional development at any time. “Group Planning Process and Study Groups”

are very similar and I believe provide the most valuable and effective professional development

of all the types. Research done by Bruce Joyce for the National Staff Development Council

shows that “coach/study groups/peer visit” have the highest percentage impact on teachers for

applying the knowledge they gained from the professional development. This type of

professional development involves teachers working together by sharing ideas, studying new

strategies and applying new strategies in the classroom together. Teachers learn the same way

students do. When a new concept is being taught it they should be active not passive. You learn

much quicker when you are working with the knowledge and applying it in the training. Again,

this is something a principal can access at any time on his campus. Another aspect I like about

this type of training is the fact teachers are in control of their learning and applying the

knowledge can happen at the teachers own pace. I feel this is non threating approach to helping

the teachers grow along with their peers and can help to bring them together as a team, helping to

create that team environment all successful campus’ have. Another type of professional training

is “Instruction”, which involves lectures, workshops and/or conferences. I know that these are

effective ways for people to learn and should not be left out of the process to train your teachers

and staff. However, this is more expensive, requires teachers to possibly miss class and/or do

this on their own time and as I pointed out teachers learn in much the same way students do.

When you have teachers listening to a lecture in a conference room, they will not be able to

apply as much of the knowledge as if they were working with the knowledge in a collaborative

effort with a peer. There are definitely times it will be required of the principals to bring in

experts or have staff attend a conference in order to bring training to the staff that is not

accessible with district resources.

In the coming years, schools will be hit with many different reforms including: teacher

evaluations that will include student test scores, widespread adoption of higher academic

standards, and the development of high stakes standardized tests aligned with these new

standards. Each of these reforms challenges the status quo, demanding that schools move away

from traditional styles of teaching and continuously improve student performance, marking and

measuring their progress each and every step along the way. Therefore, professional

development is only going to grow in its importance to the success of a school district. Schools

can’t count on colleges to prepare new teachers for these reforms and current teachers are going

to require extensive training to keep up with the ever changing environment of public education.

Rallying the community and parent support will be an important factor in facing these changes

and helping teachers develop these new strategies in the classroom.

Community Support and Partnerships

In today’s public education environment we face changes and challenges on a yearly basis. The

expectations are changed and influenced by many different factions. It is vital that a school and a

school district develop meaningful and relevant partnerships with parents and community groups

in order to face the challenges with your parents and the community. This involves more than

just collaboration among school district and other community organizations.

Having been an Athletic Director for eleven years at two different school districts, I know there

are differences from one school district to another in regards to, parental involvement, the way

you communicate, and the expectations of these different communities. Therefore, I believe you

can go in with a general outline of how you want to involve parents, how you want to

communicate with them and how you want to get the community involved. However, you will

need to research your school and the community in order to put the particulars to your outline.

Researching the past methods that worked, the methods that did not work, what are the

expectations of the community and what community groups have been involved and what

community groups are out there that you can tap into. Also, simply just having collaborative

meetings will not develop the trust and meaningful relationship with parents and community

groups that will result in success for the school and ultimately the students. For a school to

develop an effective partnership with parents it will need to consider parent involvement and

parent engagement as a top priority and seek ways to provide meaningful and relevant

opportunities for parents to fully participate as allies, advocates and leaders in their children’s

education.

Bringing schools parents and communities together is not easy and often reflects school

environments that have found it hard to connect with students’ families. I currently work at an

urban school and urban schools in particular have very little involvement with the families they

serve. This leaves them in a place they are unable to communicate effectively with students and

their families. In addition, while these schools’ students may be increasingly diverse in race,

class, and ethnicity, many teachers and administrators are White, come from middle-class

backgrounds, and have little cultural knowledge of students and their families (Hong, 2006).

Confirming this statement, the urban school where I currently work is predominately minority

and the majority of the teachers are White with backgrounds that are not similar to the students

they teach. Along with these situations and the school being very large, it can often result in

schools having low parent participation, or unequal power relationships between parents and

school staff can leave families feeling unwelcome or uninvited to participate in their child’s

education (Hong, 2006). 

While researching community and parental involvement in public education, one of the most in

depth readings was, Developing Effective Partnerships to Support Local Education School

Communities that Work: A National Task Force on the Future of Urban Districts. This report is

very in depth and is a good recourse to develop that outline I mentioned. Some of the more

practical approaches to developing partnerships would be to look at your faith groups and

universities within your community and outside your community.

When developing partnerships with the community and the parents, I believe the leaders should

also look outside the district for partnerships. In particular a university would be a great partner

for any school district. Tapping into a university for teachers and providing information to a

universities education department regarding the skills and knowledge teachers need to have

coming out of college, would benefit both parties. Another community group to develop

partnerships with is the faith groups and churches in your community. Many faith communities

partner with schools to provide tutoring, safe havens, after-school programs, mentoring, and

summer activities. Faith communities often inspire their membership to volunteer in behalf of

children, youth, and families in the nation’s schools. In this way, community groups, businesses,

family organizations, and local government agencies join the partnership, resulting in a broad-

based effort to help educate children.

One of the toughest challenges of developing partnerships with parents and the community is the

fact parents move on with their children through graduation and different community members

and leaders change. You have a new set of parents each year. Once you have established your

partnerships with the parents and community, a big part of what these partnerships accomplish,

has to be continually reaching out to new members in the community and parents.

Finally, no one can debate that every child has a right and deserves to have the opportunity for a

quality education. Also the expectation of our legislature and the public puts the responsibility

squarely on the school’s shoulders and the teacher. We know public education faces many

challenges, ranging from politics, funding, safety and ever changing processes of measuring

success. Therefore in order for school districts, schools, instructional leaders, and teachers to be

successful, the parents and the community are going to have to be involved in meaningful ways

that will help in the success of educating all students. The old style of occasional collaboration a

meeting here and there, an occasional open house or parent’s night is not going to develop the

trust and partnerships that will create lasting success. They must provide different ways for

parents and community groups to be involved and these avenues must provide the parents and

groups meaningful position to impact the learning.

Conclusion

There are many important facets that an effective Instructional leader must consider when

building an effective academic plan for their campus including: developing expectations and

providing guidance for teachers in the area of higher cognitive thinking activities and

assessments for students, lesson plans that address the varied needs of the different student

learning styles and abilities, plans for the professional development of the teachers and methods

to measure their growth from these opportunities, and develop a plan of action that creates

community and parental support. Properly training instructional leaders in all these areas will be

as important as the teachers they train. These strategies and processes will forever be changing

and effective instructional leaders must approach these with the thought in mind that all students

can learn and the expectations of society today is that all students grow and learn in a safe

environment.

Resources

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