Distributed Leadership

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Distributed LeadershipA Tool for the School
Improvement Journey

• Glasgow High School
• Presented by
• Todd HarveyPrincipal, Glasgow High School
• harveyt_at_christina.k12.de.us
• Ed MayfieldSLC Coordinator, Glasgow High
  School
• mayfielde_at_christina.k12.de.us
• Rhonda JanekaNinth Grade Academy Team
  Member and SLC Design Team Member, Glasgow
  High School
• janekar_at_christina.k12.de.us
• Dane HollandSite Council Chairperson, Glasgow
  High School
• hollandd_at_christina.k12.de.us

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Objectives

• To simulate discussion and reflection about
  current secondary school leadership practices
• To stimulate discussion and reflection about the
  concept of distributed leadership as it applies
  to secondary schools
• To share practices and plans GHS is pursuing
  related to distributed leadership
• To create an awareness of forms of Distributed
  Leadership that are already in practice within
  schools

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Where We Are Now

• New principals to our schools
• Under academic watch
• Focusing on assessing school culture and
  leadership capacity
• Traditional leadership model currently in place
• Co-recipients of the leadership grant with
  Christina School District matching funds (and
  very thankful!)
• Initial grant efforts focused on targeted
  professional development initiatives and teacher
  leadership of those initiatives

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Guiding Principles/Points of Emphasis

• Think BigStart Small
• Avoid being resource rich /implementation weak
• It is about student achievement, student
  achievement, student achievement..
• It is equally about teacher quality, teacher
  quality, teacher quality
• School reform is a journey

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More Guiding Principles/Points of Emphasis

• No silver bullets found hereour story and
  interpretations fit our school situation
• Be able to identify staff strengths and
  weaknesses as they relate to leadership capacity
• Have self awareness of your strengths and
  weaknesses
• Teacher to teacher talk and teachers leading
  teachers is powerful

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So What is Distributed Leadership What might
it look like in a secondary school

• Distributed leadership centers around a different
  model within the school where the distinctions
  between followers and leaders tends to blur
  (Gronn, 2000)
• It incorporates the activities and efforts of
  multiple groups in a school who work at guiding
  staff in the instructional change process
  (Spillane, 2001)

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A Picture is worth 1,000 WordsTeacher to
Teacher Talk
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Teacher to Teacher Talk
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Teachers Teaching Teachers
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Teachers Teaching Teachers
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Teachers Organizing and Implementing Initiatives
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Teachers Leading Professional Development for
other Teachers
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Collaboration In Progress
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What Distributed Leadership is Not

• It is not one more committee for people to serve
  on
• It is not one person single handedly reforming a
  school
• It is not a top down leadership model
• It is not possible with out building leadership
  capacity among your faculty

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What are We Working On at Glasgow High School

• Professional Learning Communities (PLC)
• Working on the Work -Student Engagement and
  Teacher Collaboration Framework (WOW)
• Differentiated Instruction (DFI)
• Revitalizing Site Council/Action Teams
• Restructuring department (Instructional Focus)
• Measuring Academic Progress (MAP)
• Smaller Learning Communities (SLC) Design Team
• International Baccalaureate (IB) Applicant School
  Team

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Activity Two Someone Once Said..

• Leadership is the capacity to translate vision
  into reality Warren G. Bennis
• You manage things, you lead people Grace
  Murray Hopper Admiral, Us Navy (Retired)
• A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what
  ships were built for No Name
• People support what they help create No Name

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Activity Two (Continued)

• No man will make a great leader who wants to do
  it all himself, or to get all the credit for
  doing it Andrew Carnegie
• A good leader surrounds himself with other great
  leaders No Name
• It is important when the people believe in their
  leader, but it is more important when the leader
  believes in the people No Name
• My responsibility is to be a supervisor, not a
  super worker Fred Smith

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Keeping it RealHow does this relate to our
guiding principles.

• Read and discuss the University of DE Education
  Policy Brief found in your packet. Suggest an
  improved practice to off set this finding.
• Read over the 3 phases of school improvement.
  Number them in the correct order from least
  distributive to the most distributive related to
  leadership

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Final Thoughts

• Distributed Leadership is a framework not an
  initiative
• Distributed Leadership may already exist in
  various forms within your school
• Rememberit is all about positively impacting
  student achievement-to that end your data and
  results will be paramount to measuring your
  success