Elementary principals development of distributed instructional leadership

1
Elementary principals development of
distributedinstructional leadership

• WERA Conference
• Daniel W. Lysne

2
Session Overview

• Leadership Theory
• Erauts Area of Knowledge
• Study Design and Setting
• Qualitative Data Points from Study
• Findings

3
Principals Matter

• Measurable impact on Schools
• Enhance teacher work and collaboration
• School culture is shaped and enhanced
• Vital to improving teacher and student learning

4
Leadership Theory

• Transactional Leadership(Burns, 1978)
• Transformational Leadership(Burns, 1978)
• Distributed Leadership(Spillane Camburn, 2006)
• Instructional Leadership(Alvarado, Elmore
  Resnick, 2001 Darling-Hammond, Hightower,
  Husbands, LaFors, Young, Christopher, 2003
  Gallucci, Boatright, Lysne, Swinnerton, 2005)
• Other forms of principal leadershipMoral,
  Critical, Managerial, Charismatic, Top-Down,
  Visionary

5
Leadership Theory

• Transactional Leadership(Burns, 1978)
• Transformational Leadership(Burns, 1978)
• Distributed Leadership(Spillane Camburn, 2006)
• Instructional Leadership(Alvarado, Elmore
  Resnick, 2001 Darling-Hammond, Hightower,
  Husbands, LaFors, Young, Christopher, 2003
  Gallucci, Boatright, Lysne, Swinnerton, 2005)
• Other forms of principal leadershipMoral,
  Critical, Managerial, Charismatic, Top-Down,
  Visionary

6
Leadership Theory

• Transactional Leadership(Burns, 1978)
• Transformational Leadership(Burns, 1978)
• Distributed Leadership(Spillane Camburn, 2006)
• Instructional Leadership(Alvarado, Elmore
  Resnick, 2001 Darling-Hammond, Hightower,
  Husbands, LaFors, Young, Christopher, 2003
  Gallucci, Boatright, Lysne, Swinnerton, 2005)
• Other forms of principal leadershipMoral,
  Critical, Managerial, Charismatic, Top-Down,
  Visionary

7
Instructional Leadership(Alvarado, Elmore
Resnick, 2001 Darling-Hammond, Hightower,
Husbands, LaFors, Young, Christopher, 2003
Gallucci, Boatright, Lysne, Swinnerton, 2005)

• Leithwood and Duke (1998) view instructional
  leadership as, typically focused on the
  behaviors of teachers as they engage in
  activities directly affecting the growth of
  students (p. 47).
• Portin, DeArmond, Scheider, and Gundlach (2003)
  identify instructional leadership as, Assuring
  quality of instruction, modeling teaching
  practice, supervising curriculum, and assuring
  quality of teaching resources (p. 18).
• Blase and Blase (1999) suggest that, ideally,
  instructional leadership initiates teacher
  learning of adaptable mastery of flexible
  alternatives rather than enforcing rigid
  procedures and methods.
• Leiberman (1995) views instructional leadership
  as supporting teachers in developing their
  teaching skills.

8
Instructional Leadership(Alvarado, Elmore
Resnick, 2001 Darling-Hammond, Hightower,
Husbands, LaFors, Young, Christopher, 2003
Gallucci, Boatright, Lysne, Swinnerton, 2005)

• Leithwood and Duke (1998) view instructional
  leadership as, typically focused on the
  behaviors of teachers as they engage in
  activities directly affecting the growth of
  students (p. 47).
• Portin, DeArmond, Scheider, and Gundlach (2003)
  identify instructional leadership as, Assuring
  quality of instruction, modeling teaching
  practice, supervising curriculum, and assuring
  quality of teaching resources (p. 18).
• Blase and Blase (1999) suggest that, ideally,
  instructional leadership initiates teacher
  learning of adaptable mastery of flexible
  alternatives rather than enforcing rigid
  procedures and methods.
• Leiberman (1995) views instructional leadership
  as supporting teachers in developing their
  teaching skills.

9
Instructional Leadership(Alvarado, Elmore
Resnick, 2001 Darling-Hammond, Hightower,
Husbands, LaFors, Young, Christopher, 2003
Gallucci, Boatright, Lysne, Swinnerton, 2005)

• Leithwood and Duke (1998) view instructional
  leadership as, typically focused on the
  behaviors of teachers as they engage in
  activities directly affecting the growth of
  students (p. 47).
• Portin, DeArmond, Scheider, and Gundlach (2003)
  identify instructional leadership as, Assuring
  quality of instruction, modeling teaching
  practice, supervising curriculum, and assuring
  quality of teaching resources (p. 18).
• Blase and Blase (1999) suggest that, ideally,
  instructional leadership initiates teacher
  learning of adaptable mastery of flexible
  alternatives rather than enforcing rigid
  procedures and methods.
• Leiberman (1995) views instructional leadership
  as supporting teachers in developing their
  teaching skills.

10
Instructional Leadership(Alvarado, Elmore
Resnick, 2001 Darling-Hammond, Hightower,
Husbands, LaFors, Young, Christopher, 2003
Gallucci, Boatright, Lysne, Swinnerton, 2005)

• Leithwood and Duke (1998) view instructional
  leadership as, typically focused on the
  behaviors of teachers as they engage in
  activities directly affecting the growth of
  students (p. 47).
• Portin, DeArmond, Scheider, and Gundlach (2003)
  identify instructional leadership as, Assuring
  quality of instruction, modeling teaching
  practice, supervising curriculum, and assuring
  quality of teaching resources (p. 18).
• Blase and Blase (1999) suggest that, ideally,
  instructional leadership initiates teacher
  learning of adaptable mastery of flexible
  alternatives rather than enforcing rigid
  procedures and methods.
• Leiberman (1995) views instructional leadership
  as supporting teachers in developing their
  teaching skills.

11
Instructional Leadership(Alvarado, Elmore
Resnick, 2001 Darling-Hammond, Hightower,
Husbands, LaFors, Young, Christopher, 2003
Gallucci, Boatright, Lysne, Swinnerton, 2005)

• Leithwood and Duke (1998) view instructional
  leadership as, typically focused on the
  behaviors of teachers as they engage in
  activities directly affecting the growth of
  students (p. 47).
• Portin, DeArmond, Scheider, and Gundlach (2003)
  identify instructional leadership as, Assuring
  quality of instruction, modeling teaching
  practice, supervising curriculum, and assuring
  quality of teaching resources (p. 18).
• Blase and Blase (1999) suggest that, ideally,
  instructional leadership initiates teacher
  learning of adaptable mastery of flexible
  alternatives rather than enforcing rigid
  procedures and methods.
• Leiberman (1995) views instructional leadership
  as supporting teachers in developing their
  teaching skills.

12
Instructional Leadership in Practice

• Personnel actions that illustrate instructional
  leadership
• Are knowledgeable about instruction
• Provide support for teachers (For example
  consultants or coaches)
• Provide feedback to teachers
• Conduct classroom observations
• Emphasize instruction (during meetings or
  evaluations)
• Design or deliver professional development
• Review student work and student data to make
  decisions about how to improve instruction
• Hold teachers accountable for making improvements
  in instruction
• (Source Marsh, Kerr, Ikemoto, Darilek, Suttorp,
  Zimmer, and Barney, 2005)

13
Research Questions

• What does distributed instructional leadership
  look like in practice?
• How does context factor into distributed
  instructional leadership?
• What key events support distributed instructional
  leadership?
• What lessons can be learned for future leaders
  about distributed instructional leadership?

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Reflective Practice

• Reflective practice theory offers a way to
  understand how individuals make sense of new
  ideas and new roles for themselves and others
  within specific contexts.
• Reflective practice allows for a connection to be
  made by learners between the theoretical
  underpinnings of a profession with the day-to-day
  activities of a profession (Barak, 2005).
• Eraut (1994) suggests that reflective practice
  can potentially cover five knowledge areas that
  shape the way leaders craft their vision for a
  school.

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Reflective Practice

• Reflective practice theory offers a way to
  understand how individuals make sense of new
  ideas and new roles for themselves and others
  within specific contexts.
• Reflective practice allows for a connection to be
  made by learners between the theoretical
  underpinnings of a profession with the day-to-day
  activities of a profession (Barak, 2005).
• Eraut (1994) suggests that reflective practice
  can potentially cover five knowledge areas that
  shape the way leaders craft their vision for a
  school.

16
Reflective Practice

• Reflective practice theory offers a way to
  understand how individuals make sense of new
  ideas and new roles for themselves and others
  within specific contexts.
• Reflective practice allows for a connection to be
  made by learners between the theoretical
  underpinnings of a profession with the day-to-day
  activities of a profession (Barak, 2005).
• Eraut (1994) suggests that reflective practice
  can potentially cover five knowledge areas that
  shape the way leaders craft their vision for a
  school.

17
Reflective Practice

• Reflective practice theory offers a way to
  understand how individuals make sense of new
  ideas and new roles for themselves and others
  within specific contexts.
• Reflective practice allows for a connection to be
  made by learners between the theoretical
  underpinnings of a profession with the day-to-day
  activities of a profession (Barak, 2005).
• Eraut (1994) suggests that reflective practice
  can potentially cover five knowledge areas that
  shape the way leaders craft their vision for a
  school.

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Erauts Areas of Knowledge
A principal understands her staff based on the
formal and informal interactions she has with
them. She sees strengths and areas of future
development.

• Personnel
• Situational
• Educational Practice
• Conceptual
• Control

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Erauts Areas of Knowledge

• Personnel
• Situational
• Educational Practice
• Conceptual
• Control

Principals situational knowledge is shaped by
where they focus their energies. A principal
responds to situations based on the experiences
and knowledge she has.
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Erauts Areas of Knowledge
Knowledge of educational practice is
understanding the range of possible policies
and practice available for educators to use
(Eraut, 1994).

• Personnel
• Situational
• Educational Practice
• Conceptual
• Control

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Erauts Areas of Knowledge

• Personnel
• Situational
• Educational Practice
• Conceptual
• Control

Conceptual knowledge represents the ideas,
theories, and concepts that a person uses to
solve problems (Eraut, 1994).
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Erauts Areas of Knowledge

• Personnel
• Situational
• Educational Practice
• Conceptual
• Control

Eraut (1994, p.96) notes, More fundamental
still is the knowledge of ones strengths and
weaknesses, which guides the way one delegates
and the types of task one assigns to oneself.
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Erauts Areas of Knowledge

• Personnel
• Situational
• Educational Practice
• Conceptual
• Control

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Case Study

• Two sites of identified instructional leadership
• Interviews, observational field notes, and
  document analysis
• Used a conceptual framework and a semi-grounded
  theory approach

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Two Cases of Instructional Leadership

• Ordal Elementary
• Affluent on the hill Neighborhood
• Veteran and Highly Recognized Staff
• Mrs. Janssen completing her second year as
  principal
• Tingelstad Elementary
• High Poverty in the valley Neighborhood
• Young staff
• Mrs. Olson has taught and led at the school for
  eight years

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Tingelstad Elementary

• We dont want to smatter our employees with a
  bunch of latest greatest trends, phrases, or
  research. We want to go deep in what we believe
  in and try to improve the overall quality of
  somethingnot this year we are going to study
  mathnext year we are going study the six
  traitsand that typically happens in education.
  (Building Coach)

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Ordal Elementary

• Marcia and I met with each grade level. We said
  here was your goal. This is where your kids
  were. This is where they are now. Lets talk
  about that. What is the data saying to you? Do
  we need to reevaluate? What are we going to do
  with those kids that are nowhere near meeting the
  goal? At that time we sat down and had that
  discussion. It was really interesting because
  the staff are very familiar with writing goals
  and writing out those target. (Janssen Interview
  2, 5/24/07)

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Personnel Knowledge--Tingelstad Elementary

• Anita Olson was involved in the classroom
  whenever she was in the classroom. She was
  seeing how things were going and would say, this
  is what I think and let me help you out here. I
  felt that this was a great place because you
  could make mistakes but you learned from them.
  And you werent afraid to make mistakes.
  (Quinten Interview 1, 2/13/07)
• If she has come in and observed you she also
  sends people to you specifically. Or if there is
  something she has observed that you need some
  help withnicely and kindly in your
  observationshell say I think it would be
  beneficial for you to go and watch so and so.
  (Richards Interview 1, 2/19/07)

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Personnel Knowledge-- Ordal Elementary

• My goal was to also be in their classroom at
  least three times a month for some sort of just
  informal, being able to see what they were doing.
  Through those, through that, really came a lot
  of my discussions afterwards talking about where
  peoples interest, what were they working on,
  what were they working on outside of school?
  Their classes, the things that they had been
  involved in. (Janssen Interview 1, 2/5/07)
• I try to steer away from Marcia Kline and doing
  anything like observations together. In the
  sense that people start to fear that if Marcia
  and I are talking about anything along those
  lines that somehow it is going to be in their
  evaluation. So I really try to keep whatever
  Marcia arranges to do with teachers separate.
  (Janssen Interview 1, 2/5/07)

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Situational Knowledge--Tingelstad Elementary

• We have stayed with Strategies That Work, it is
  Stephanie Harveys book, and we are in our fifth
  year. We use that with best practices, what
  matters mosteverything is researched based
  (Olson Interview 1, 2/5/07).
• Having the staff hear it from an outside expert
  was so powerful because then they hear it from me
  and hear it from the outside expert. The
  teachers then ventured off to their classrooms
  and they would start hearing that same kind of
  talkits what we do (Olson Interview 3,
  6/12/07).

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Situational Knowledge-- Ordal Elementary

• I have that trust built with people and also the
  questions had been asked before so I was able to
  come in with a quicker decision and say this is
  the way we are going to do it instead of waiting
  to hear from everybody else (Janssen Interview
  2, 5/24/07).
• When she wants to get those goals setsI then
  have to figure out how to make that happen at the
  professional development meeting (Kline
  Interview 2, 5/10/07).
• Nora Janssen is about moving the student
  achievement but getting consensus from the team
  to do that (Kopervik Interview 1, 3/13/07).

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Educational Knowledge--Tingelstad Elementary

• When I came on board, we decided to do a little
  philosophy change. I talked to the staff about
  the whole child. So we talked about school
  relationships because we needed to do that before
  we could tackle academics. We talked about
  relationships, resources. We, as a staff, came
  together and we went to Love and Logic classes.
  We created a language. (Olson Interview 1,
  2/5/07)
• We feel like if we become very strong in what we
  have in the classrooms then math comes along,
  science comes along, social studies and so on.
  We brought in a Stephanie Harvey consultant we
  couldnt get Stephanie. (The consultant) came in
  and we had her come in several times. She
  modeled in the classrooms and the teachers were
  just in awe because she did our expectations and
  our behavior but the academics were so involved
  in the classrooms that there were no behavior
  issues at all. Kids were learning. We saw the
  power of that kind of really focused lesson.
  Then the consultant was no longer going to be
  available and so Bevin Patterson talked with
  Stephanie Harvey and said oh I can do this. So
  Bevin is now a consultant for Stephanie Harvey.
  (Olson Interview 1, 2/5/07)

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Educational Knowledge-- Ordal Elementary

• And we had a meeting a couple of months ago where
  they got subs so the grade levels could sit down
  with Nora Janssen and Marcia Kline for an hour
  and talk about our goalsyou are there what are
  you doing about itwhat is your next step
  (Marston Interview 1, 2/13/07)
• What weve done is try to stay with, we have a
  certain theme that goes through the year, and it
  is differentiated instruction. And from there,
  thats what we build all of our professional
  development on. So we can be talking about math,
  but we are talking about how we differentiate
  instruction for those low learners, those high
  learners, those medium learnerswhat are we doing
  for kids. And then the next session we can be
  talking about writing or reading. (Janssen
  Interview 2, 5/24/07)

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Conceptual Knowledge--Tingelstad Elementary

• At that time, Anita Olson knew that poverty was
  an issue and she said she sometimes didnt feel
  like a principal, she felt like she was a social
  worker because she had to deal with so many
  social issues when parents would come to school
  drunk or inebriated or drugged. And she had to
  deal with those issues in a positive way so they
  would not impact negatively the student or the
  students relationship with the family.
  (Kopervik Interview 1, 3/13/07)
• She sometimes will bring articles and will say,
  Have you seen this one or have you thought of
  this? Or this is what another school is doing.
  After a principals meeting she might say, Have
  you thought about this? (Patterson Interview 1,
  2/12/07).

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Conceptual Knowledge-- Ordal Elementary

• Janssen didnt feel the need to be the
  principal and be in charge. She was able to
  delegate that to other people. And I think that
  is true leadership when she was able to do that
  (Kopervik Interview 1, 3/13/07)
• Conceptual knowledge Janssens conceptual
  understanding of how teams set goals, monitor
  goals, and reassess goals.

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Control Knowledge--Tingelstad Elementary

• I am the light and she is the heat (Patterson
  Interview 1, 2/12/07)
• What gets inspected gets respected (Patterson
  Interview 1, 2/12/07).

37
Control Knowledge-- Ordal Elementary

• I think it is and it should be the largest part
  of my job because building that capacity within
  teachers iseven if I covering a classroom so
  they can get out and go to another classroom or
  work with Marcia Kline. I look as that as part
  of my job of instructional timeso that is
  freeing them to go do the things they need to be
  able to do to build themselves up. (Janssen
  Interview 1, 2/5/07)

38
Instructional Leadership in Practice

• Personnel actions that illustrate instructional
  leadership
• Are knowledgeable about instruction
• Provide support for teachers (For example
  consultants or coaches)
• Provide feedback to teachers
• Conduct classroom observations
• Emphasize instruction (during meetings or
  evaluations)
• Design or deliver professional development
• Review student work and student data to make
  decisions about how to improve instruction
• Hold teachers accountable for making improvements
  in instruction
• (Source Marsh, Kerr, Ikemoto, Darilek, Suttorp,
  Zimmer, and Barney, 2005)

39
Distribution of Instructional Leadership
40
Distribution of Instructional Leadership
41
Findings

• Semi-Structured Support
• School Coaches
• Organic reflective practice
• Conduit for ideas
• Self-selected and prescribed
• District supports were optional/varied
• Buildings could build contextually relevant
  solutions
• In contrast to top-down instructional leadership
  examples
• New York Dist 2
• San Diego Unified
• Institute for Learning

42
Findings

• Data as a driver
• Data drives instruction and vision
• Principals were trained in how to utilize data to
  focus instruction
• Data was not the sole motivator
• Success supports efforts
• Data validates efforts
• Provides urgency

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Findings

• Context of students and staff
• Urgency creates opportunities
• Low scores and high poverty create opportunities
  for a specific Vision of Good Instruction
• Stability allows less prescription
• Well established staffs require a unifying vision
  but flexibility in fulfilling the vision

44
Findings

• Organic Reflective Practice
• The Coach and Principal
• Distributed Leadership
• Reflection on instruction-based leadership
• Built-in support
• On-site support
• Context-specific
• Grounded in practice

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Findings

• Cohesion
• Common language
• Instructional
• Best practices
• Differentiated Instruction
• Goal Setting
• Ongoing
• Reflective in nature
• Using real numbers and realistic targets

46
Limitations to Study

• Small sample size
• Existing Instructional leadership
• Specific structure of district
• School based coaches
• Level of autonomy

47
Final Thoughts

• Common Language
• On-Site Support
• Context-specific
• Data-Driven

48
Contact Information

• Dan Lysne
• [phone]
• lysned_at_u.washington.edu
• dan_lysne_at_sumner.wednet.edu
• 5909 Myers Rd. E.
• Bonney Lake, WA 98391