Lessons Learned From an MSP: Invest in Teacher Leadership
We currently see these themes falling into two categories - lasting impacts that are due to tangible resources actually "left" in the districts and lasting impacts that are due to "new learnings" as a result of the MSP project. Of the 7 themes that have "emerged" so far in our work, it is noteworthy that 5 of them are related to our work with in-service teachers developing teacher leadership. The 5 themes related to "developing teacher leadership" are:
- Teacher leader expertise has continued to have lasting impacts in districts;
- The network/learning community of lead teachers that was established through the life of the project has continued as a resource/source of support;
- Developing teacher leaders' expertise in working 1-on-1 with colleagues focused directly around the work of teaching math has had lasting impacts on the work that teacher leaders have continued to do beyond the project;
- Administrators have recognized the value of math teacher leadership and are aware that formal training is needed to develop/support them;
- District/building leadership has recognized the need to institutionalize math leadership positions.
Each of these "early emerging themes" is described in more detail with some supporting evidence below.
Teacher leader expertise has continued to have lasting impacts
In each of districts analyzed so far, one of the key pieces that has emerged as having had lasting impacts on districts' reform efforts has been the knowledge and expertise gained by the teacher leaders. Having this "working knowledge" of the teacher leaders has continued to move some district reform efforts forward, whether it be used in facilitating formal professional development experiences such as in faculty meetings, or more informal interactions with colleagues or parents. For example, one principal noted:
"Staying power is the fact that I have Tony and that he can do this work with staff because I can't - it's impossible for me-but Tony and the training he received is going to keep this going, because he is a key person who has the ability" (Avon, Int. 1).
And a teacher leader noted,
"I will miss the learning opportunities - all of them, every one of them I walked away just so full of great stuff - and I would like more people to have that opportunity. Everything I've learned - it's still alive everyday when I sit down and work with a teacher and try to help them to look at math as not just being a teacher manual-" (Livonia, Int. 1).
A "word of caution" that we have also noted, however, is the impact on small districts when the teacher leader who developed this knowledge and expertise leaves the district. As one principal stated, "When you have somebody who has a tremendous knowledge base and the capacity and they move on, then you have to back up and begin to re-train the others" (Mt. Morris, Int. 1).
The network/learning community of lead teachers that was established through the life of the project has continued as a resource/source of support
One of the pieces that has been mentioned in almost all interviews with lead teachers is the powerful network and source of support that was developed through the project's leadership development program. Almost all teacher leaders mentioned calling or e-mailing or getting in touch with other teacher leaders outside of their own schools for some type of support after the project has ended.
As one teacher leader described,
"The other piece is the peer group that you created-[we are] still in contact and [we] could help each other out with problem solving - what do you think - which has been phenomenal to set up that network" (Livonia, Int. 1).
Developing teacher leaders' expertise in working 1-on-1 with colleagues focused directly around the work of teaching math has had lasting impacts on the work that teacher leaders have continued to do beyond the project
Many of our lead teachers reported having done some "coaching work" with colleagues after the project ended. While they did not talk about this specifically as "Lucy West's Content-Focused Coaching" - the specific work that we did together as a leadership team during the final year of the project - they did talk about working one-on-one with colleagues planning lessons, working with them in their classrooms, and de-briefing lessons. As one principal noted,
"We've had great success with a coaching model. We can see the validity of it. Having release time for a teacher who has a strong background to be able to look at it, work with, coach teachers and move them in that direction is very helpful" (Mt. Morris, Int. 1)
This is beginning evidence to us that focusing our work with lead teachers on these individual interactions (beyond the typical "stand and deliver professional development") was an important component of our leadership development program. This was focused on not only in the content-focused coaching work, but in some additional work that we did with Mark Driscoll (EDC) and Grace Kelemenick on communication skills and styles and how to effectively interact with colleagues during year 4.
Administrators have recognized the value of math teacher leadership and are aware that formal training is needed to develop/support them
In addition to identifying the "staying power" of the knowledge and expertise that the teacher leaders developed through the life of this project, many administrators in these interviews also noted the value of having these "experts" in the district and also recognized that it was critical that they received formal training provided by experts outside the district.
"If there's one thing that you pull from today, I hope its that you are hearing me say and Bonnie say that critical to our whole math movement was the development of a key math person for the district. I would venture that anybody that climbed on the program that didn't have somebody that trained internally or that opted out or that didn't do the full thing - they're not going to have the same level of success that we did" (Livonia Superintendent, Int. 1).
Almost all district principals interviewed mentioned the desire to have more of their teachers participate in some type of leadership development program, and some time was spent in these interviews brainstorming how this could happen so that the work the district had done would be further supported. This is particularly noteworthy, since typical past practice is to not necessarily provide training for teachers moving into leadership positions, but let them "figure it out on the job." We are excited about this recognition by administrators of the leadership development provided by the project.
District/building leadership has recognized the need to institutionalize math leadership positions
In a number of the MSP partner districts, either while the project was taking place or afterwards, district and/or building leadership put forth proposals to institutionalize math leadership positions so that they were not directly tied to the project. Unfortunately, while some of these positions were established and remain as either full or part-time release positions, some were not. In all cases where they were not established it was due to a lack of funds available to support the positions. In these challenging economic times it is becoming increasingly difficult to fund positions such as these. However, on the positive side, we have been pleased that many district administrative leaders have recognized the value of the teacher leaders in these positions (as noted above), and then worked to try to institutionalize them.