Issues in Teacher Leadership

First Article: Calderone et al., (2016) conducted a study about the effects of middle school
science and math students having teachers that were considered teacher leaders.. The participants
were 173 eight graders and their eight teachers. Four teachers were considered to be teacher
leaders, and the other four were not. The setting of the study was a middle school in Alabama.
The findings were that when the students were tested, the advanced students that were taught by
teacher leaders had significantly higher achievement than the advanced students taught by
teachers that weren’t teacher leaders. The study showed a strong correlation between having a
teacher leader as your teacher and having high achievement for students in advanced math and
science. The authors suggested teacher leaders have a large effect and great impact on student
achievement in advanced math and science. I think the biggest limitation of this study was the
small sample size of teachers and how the teachers were selected. There were only eight teachers
and the way that the teachers were identified as being leaders was through the principal of the
school, which seems to be a less than objective way of selecting teachers. 

Second Article: Will, M. (2007) wrote an article highlighting the relationship between student
performance and teacher leadership. The article describes the findings from research that looked
at survey responses from just under one million teachers from 25,000 schools in the United
States. The findings were that the schools with higher levels of teacher leadership scored higher
on achievement tests. Schools that had higher levels of teacher leadership were schools that gave
teachers more authority within the school. Teachers at these schools reported in the survey that
they had power when it came to making decisions about school policies. The author suggested
that teachers being involved in the decision making of school policies, beyond those of their
classrooms, is correlated to higher student achievement. While this article focuses on surveys
and data that shows correlation, there is a lot of data that suggests that teachers being involved in
policy-making and decisions beyond the walls of the classroom can have positive and
meaningful effect on student learning.

Compare/Contrast Articles:  These articles suggest that teacher leaders are making a positive
impact o student learning and performance. Students that have teachers involved in policy-
making and have authority in their schools are correlated with higher test scores. However,
whereas Calderone et al. (2016) suggests that this impact mostly affects advanced learners,
Will’s (2007) analysis implies that this impact affects students more universally. The data that
Will (2007) uses comes from a larger sample, which I believe impacts these two author’s
differing analysis.
How Articles Inform Your Teaching Practice: Both articles suggest that teacher leaders are
making an impact on student learners. Teachers that are involved in changing school policy,
advocating for instructional changes, and looking for innovative ways to meet students’ needs,
are better meeting the needs of their students. I have seen this myself at my school. The teachers
that are out there discussing improvements and advocating for their students are also innovating
in their classrooms and engaging their students in meaningful ways. Reading these two articles
reminds me of why being a teacher leader matters and made me consider how I can continue to
be the best teacher I can be for my students.

 
 Works Cited

Calderone, S., Kent, A., & Green, A. (2016). Teacher Leaders and Student Achievement: can the
dots be connected? Revista Eletrônica de Educação, 12.  

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