Trusting Teacher Decisions

Research Brief: What does the research tell us about Teacher Leadership? The Center for
Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement (2005) conducted a study about teacher
leadership and how the experience of a teacher leads to school improvement. The participants
were a variety of smaller, qualitative studies taken from literature in the past two decades. The
setting of these studies was the school. The findings were that there are three main areas that
leads to the growth of these teacher leaders: school culture and context, roles and relationships,
and structures. The article defines school culture and context as a focus on teamwork, teachers
being valued as role models, and a strong community. Roles and responsibilities contribute to
teacher leadership when there is trust, respect, and an understanding of shared responsibilities
between teacher-leaders and administrator-leaders. The structure also added to teacher leaders by
giving them the resources they needed to be successful, like professional development
opportunities. The author’s suggested six main ways that teacher leadership can be improved in
schools, all of these lead to greater student success. First, teachers are respected and have a
desire to learn how to be leaders. Second, teacher leaders are valued by their peers. Third, the
school culture supports these teacher leaders and gives them the means to be successful. Fourth,
teacher leaders continue their focus on teaching and learning. Fifth, teacher leaders work to make
sure others have the opportunity to improve, by attending professional developments and other
collaboration efforts. Sixth, teacher leadership creates positive relationships between all parties
(other teachers and students), leading to student engagement and participation.
While these are great ways to improve the leadership in a school setting, the article also
acknowledges that there are challenges in making these efforts come to life, such as not enough
time to collaborate, teachers who are reluctant to change, and top-down leadership structures as
they don’t allow teachers to develop and grow. The author’s final takeaway from analyzing these
studies is that the traditional management structures of administrator to teacher needs to be
adapted to be “more horizontal and less hierarchical for teacher leadership to flourish.”

Teacher Leadership is Linked to Higher Student Test Scores in New Study. Will (2017)
directed a study about the correlation between teacher leadership roles and student success on
standardized tests. The participants included about one million teachers and the setting was over
25,000 schools in 16 states from 2011 to 2015. that were reviewed by researchers from a
graduate school of education. The lead author of the study, Richard Ingersoll, considered two
questions in his research: “1) Do school leaders have an instructional focus, where teaching and
learning is at the center of their decision-making? 2) Are teachers included in decision-making
beyond the classroom?” The findings were that the more decisions teachers were allowed to
make, the greater their students did on these standardized assessments, in fact they scored over
10 percentile points higher (in English and math) than schools where teachers made fewer
decisions. The issue we see in schools is that there is an “imbalance between elements of
leadership.” Administrators tend to focus on standards, teacher evaluations, and performance, not
giving teachers a say in what is taking place at the school.
The author’s suggested that schools will be most successful if they have both: continuing to have
high standards for teachers but also having an improvement team made of administrators AND
teachers, where everyone gets to share their ideas. I appreciated the quote by Ted Kolderie:
“When the teacher roles are larger, the relationships are better, the student interest is higher, the
student engagement is higher.”
Promoting the social and emotional learning of millions of school children. Weissburg
(2019) conducted a study about school-based social emotional learning (SEL) programs.
Research analyzed 265 reports on student outcomes, and participants were in one of two groups:
students who were taught in conjunction with SEL programs in school versus students who were
not exposed to any SEL programs in school. The setting was the school. The findings were that
the SEL students had better outcomes in the six domains (social emotional skills, attitude
towards self and others, positive social behavior, conduct problems, emotional distress, and
academic problems.) The study also showed that the SEL schools saw an overall 11% gain in
achievement compared to the non-SEL schools. It is clear that the students who are taught how
to successfully manage their emotions are more successful in school, as they have been taught
appropriate strategies when things do get challenging. The author’s suggested that all schools
consider this “significant movement in education,” social and emotional learning. Dr. Weissburg
continues to support implementing evidence-based SEL programs in schools across the United
States and internationally.

Compare and Contrast Articles: These three articles suggest the importance of teachers
advocating for their students, and giving them the resources to do so. However, whereas The
Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement (2005) of the first article
recommends that the traditional structure of a school be shifted in order to see success, Will
(2017) of second article recommended that teachers are given greater roles when it comes to the
decision-making of the school, perhaps merging the two groups (administrators and teachers) to
create a well-balanced improvement team. Weissburg (2019) of the third article recommends that
social emotional learning should be implemented in all schools as a way to improve student
academics and overall outcomes.

These three articles inform my teaching practice by reminding me of the value that the teacher
has. I believe that teachers should be treated as leaders, and that administration should not be the
only individuals who are making decisions for a school, rather, teacher leaders and
administrators should work together to improve on school goals. I also believe that teachers
should always advocate for the needs of their students since they know them best, and I will
continue to do so by promoting the use of social emotional learning strategies within my
classroom and school.

Citations:
The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement (2005). "Research Brief: What
does the research tell us about Teacher Leadership?" Washington, DC

Weissberg, R. P. (2019). Promoting the social and emotional learning of millions of school
children. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(1), 65–69.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691618817756

Will, M. (2017).  Teacher Leadership is Linked to Higher Student Test Scores in New

Study. Education Week Teacher.