Teacher Leadership as a Key to Educational Innovation

This fall, a brief was released that identifies teacher leadership as an imperative to educational innovation. Now more than ever, policymakers and higher education institutions are looking to build upon years of "behind the scenes" teacher practices to create formalized teacher-leader roles throughout the profession.

The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality released this brief as "a call to action." Teacher leadership is linked to the retention of highly qualified professionals and, ultimately, successful schools. When viewed as an aspect of overall staffing models, discussions concerning teacher leadership can provide the springboard to meaningful systems change.

This brief reviews the national conversation regarding teacher leadership, from state policy to teacher preparation programs. Some recent examples toward formalized teacher-leader roles include:

• State initiatives that address differentiated teacher certification and teacher-leader endorsements, such as The Teaching in Kansas Commission. It guided new teacher-leader certification policy and published state-wide standards.  
• Pathways offered to teacher-leader conversations between district administrators and union officials, like California's San Juan Unified School District and the teachers union. Together, they created a new contract with differentiated compensation for teacher leadership teams.
• Teacher preparation programs that provide specific coursework for teacher-leaders, such as The Center for Teacher Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University. It offers coursework tailored to new leadership roles combined with specialized mentoring programs.
• A nationwide group, called the Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium, that conducts discussions with state policymakers to create model standards. These standards may guide the development of coursework, specific to teacher leadership, in education programs throughout the United States.

The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality, or TQ Center, is a collaborative effort among ETS, Learning Point Associates, and Vanderbilt University funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Their mission is to improve teacher quality, particularly inhigh-poverty, low-performing, and hard-to-staff schools, by assisting policymakers, regional comprehensive centers, and other stakeholders.

Download the brief, in its entirety here.