Excellent teachers can assume leadership roles that enable them to expand their impact beyond their own classrooms by helping peers. The roles these teacher-leaders take vary greatly from school to school, and in some cases teacher-leaders do not have a formal title. Effective teacher-leaders do have a common purpose, however: to enable their peers to improve and ultimately increase their students’ learning.
Below you will find links to resources on the following topics:
Defining Teacher-Leader Roles and Responsibilities:
Coaching for Impact: Six Pillars to Create Coaching Roles That Achieve Their Potential to Improve Teaching and Learning: Report looks at six essential elements to create high-quality coaching for all teachers
https://learningforward.org/docs/default-source/pdf/coaching-for-impact.pdf
The Whole Package: 12 Factors of High-Impact Teacher-Leader Roles: Brief offers a quick list of the common pitfalls of designing such roles, and a chart of the 12 essential factors for creating high-quality, lasting teacher-leader roles
http://publicimpact.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/The_Whole_Package_12_Factors_of_High-Impact_Teacher-Leader_Roles-Public_Impact.pdf
Teacher-Leader Roles: Chart lists common teacher-leader roles and gives brief descriptions; accompanying job characteristics checklist shows some of the ways those roles vary
http://opportunityculture.org/teacher-led-professional-learning/defining-teacher-leader-roles/
Teacher Career Advancement Initiatives: Lessons learned from Eight Case Studies: Report from NNSTOY (National Network of State Teachers of the Year) and Pearson on key principles for developing sustainable initiatives, studying eight rural, urban, and suburban school districts
http://www.nnstoy.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/RINVN829_Teacher-Career-Adv-Initiatives_Rpt_WEB_f.pdf
Ten Roles for Teacher Leaders: Educational Leadership journal article on common roles, with vignettes describing each
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept07/vol65/num01/Ten-Roles-for-Teacher-Leaders.aspx
Teacher Leader Model Standards: Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium model standards to guide development of teacher-leader roles intended to improve student achievement
http://teacherleaderstandards.org/downloads/TLS_Brochure.pdf
Creating Sustainable Teacher Career Pathways: A 21st Century Imperative: Report from National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY) and the Center for Educator Effectiveness at Pearson reviews lessons from other countries and professions and gives recommendations for sustainable pathways
http://www.pearsonk12.com/content/dam/ped/penak12/US/PearsonK12/images/CSTCP_21CI_pk_final_web.pdf
Teach to Lead: Website for U.S. Department of Education initiative to spur teacher leadership with the National Board includes resources and examples
http://teachtolead.net
Policy Points: The Teacher Leadership Landscape: Charts from ASCD including states that have teacher-leader certification endorsements in place or planned
http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/siteASCD/publications/policypoints/Teacher-Leadership-Nov-2014.pdf
Leading from the Front of the Classroom: A Roadmap to Teacher Leadership that Works: Aspen Institute and Leading Educators brief on redistributing leadership tasks to teachers
http://www.aspendrl.org/portal/browse/DocumentDetail?documentId=2402
Building a Lattice for School Leadership: Report focuses on England’s school system reforms leading to three leadership levels, including middle-level teachers who take responsibility for teaching and leading in a grade level or cluster, or subject area
http://edexcellence.net/publications/building-a-lattice-for-school-leadership
Developing School Leaders: What the U.S. Can Learn from England’s Model: Report on England’s reforms highlights how middle-level teacher-leaders are curriculum experts who lead teaching teams, offering instructional support and taking accountability for the performance of the team and its students
http://edex.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/publication/pdfs/DevelopingSchoolLeaders_FINAL.pdf
School and District Capacity Tool to Support Teacher Leadership: Tool from a Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession (CSTP) toolkit to help school and district leaders determine systems readiness for teacher-leaders, and to help support their work and aid their professional development
http://cstp-wa.org/cstp2013/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/CSTP_tool_school_district_capacity.pdf
State Teacher Leadership Toolkit: Toolkit from Leading Educators helps state teams focusing on teacher leadership study other states’ approaches to find useful strategies, with process for making the case for teacher leadership, helping districts, and monitoring effectiveness
http://education-first.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Education-First-Leading-Educators-State-Teacher-Leadership-Toolkit-Jan-2017.pdf
Teacher Leadership as a Key to Education Innovation: Report from the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality looks at how teacher-leaders can improve student outcomes, reduce teacher turnover, and encourage innovation, with recommendations for states and districts to expand teacher leadership programs
http://www.gtlcenter.org/sites/default/files/docs/TQ_Policy-to-PracticeBriefTeacherLeadership.pdf
Teacher Leadership: The Pathway to Common Core Success: Center for American Progress report makes recommendations for districts implementing the Common Core State Standards based on its study of teacher-leaders’ role in implementation in six school districts
https://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CCTeacherVoiceFinal.pdf
Building Bridges: Connecting Teacher Leadership and Student Success: Details: Leading Educators report considers elements of effective teacher-leader role design, including scheduling, clear priorities and goals, and clear roles and authority for teacher-leaders
http://www.leadingeducators.org/resource/1433366881000/pubs_2015_apr/LE_Building-Bridges_050715.pdf
Teacher Leader Competency Framework: Overview of the five components of Leading Educators’ Teacher Leader Competency Framework
http://www.leadingeducators.org/resource/1433366881000/pubs_2015_apr/LE_Teacher_Leader_Competency_Framework_CCBYNC4_2015.pdf
Developing Shanghai’s Teachers: Minxuan Zhan, a key architect of Shanghai’s education system, shares his insights on teacher development, a key element of the system, comparing it to a triangle with each side—the career ladder, in-service training and development, and performance evaluation—reinforcing the others
http://www.ncee.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/DevelopingShanghaiTeachersWEB.pdf
Beyond PD: Teacher Professional Learning in High-Performing Systems: Report from the Center on International Education Benchmarking considers professional learning policies and practice in Shanghai, British Columbia, Singapore, and Hong Kong, where students consistently score well on PISA assessments, finding that their professional learning is a part of daily life
http://www.ncee.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/BeyondPDWeb.pdf
Great to Influential: Teacher Leaders’ Roles in Supporting Instruction: National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY) report explores how teacher-leaders can contribute to instructional improvements in their schools, plus policy recommendations to support teacher leadership
http://www.nnstoy.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/15-4132-GTL-NNSTOY-GreatToInfluential-03288-004-04-lk-FNL4-002-FINAL.pdf
Finding a New Way: Leveraging Teacher Leadership to Meet Unprecedented Demands: From Human Capital Strategies for Urban Schools, paper profiles school systems that have created teacher career pathways to help transform school cultures, plus process for developing and implementing new teacher-leadership roles and structures
http://www.aspendrl.org/portal/browse/DocumentDetail?documentId=1574&download
Professional Development School Partnerships: An Instrument for Teacher Leadership: Qualitative study of professional development school partnership between a state university and a K–5 inner-city school in the southeastern U.S., focusing on professional development opportunities, co-teaching, and collective teacher efficacy, and school culture elements that supported teacher leadership
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ974371.pdf
Transforming Schools: How distributed leadership can create more high-performing schools: Bain & Company report identifies best practices in schools where distributed leadership is helping to improve teaching and learning
http://www.bain.com/Images/BAIN_REPORT_Transforming_schools.pdf
Emerging Options for New Teacher-Leader Roles:
T3 Turnaround Teacher Teams: Teach Plus description of eligibility criteria, application process, and roles and responsibilities of master teachers in its T3 program
http://www.teachplus.org/programs/t3-initiative
Multi-Classroom Leadership: Detailed description and examples of the Multi-Classroom Leadership model, financing, and staffing from Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture initiative
http://opportunityculture.org/reach/multi-classroom-leadership-in-person/
Detailed Role Descriptions:
Examples of grade-level/department chair’s roles
Template for Creating Grade-Level Chair Job Description: Boston Plan for Excellence sample job descriptions for hiring grade-level chairs for Boston schools
http://www.bpe.org/files/Teacher%20Leader%20Role%20Description%20Template_GradeLevel%20TL_0.doc
KIPP Leadership Progression Roadmap Teacher to Grade Level Chair: Detailed explanation of changes in teachers’ responsibilities as they progress to grade-level chair positions within KIPP charter school network
http://tntp.org/assets/tools/KIPP_Leader_Progression_Teacher_to_Grade_Level_Chair.pdf
Grade Level Chairs, Department Chairpersons and Team Leaders: Sample job description from Miami-Dad County Public Schools
http://outreach.dadeschools.net/Handbook/2.1__Department__Chairperson__Duties.pdf
Examples of curriculum specialist roles
Public Schools of North Carolina: Curriculum Instructional Specialist: Sample job description
http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/docs/work4ncschools/employment/jobdescrip/curriculumjob.pdf
Curriculum and Instruction Specialist Job Description and Career Outlook: General resource with typical job requirements and responsibilities
http://www.teachercertificationdegrees.com/careers/curriculum-instruction-specialist/
Examples of mentor roles
The Mentoring Leadership and Resource Network: ACSD-supported resource to provide information about promising practices in mentoring and induction
http://www.mentors.net/about.php
Examples of instructional specialist/coach roles
Instructional Coaches: Job description from District of Columbia Public Schools
http://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/publication/attachments/IMPACT-2014-Grp15f.pdf
Examples of data coach roles
Ontario-Montclair School District (K-8) Data Coach: Job description
https://www.edjoin.org/JobDescriptions/623/Data%20Coach-20150331084725.pdf
Examples of professional learning facilitator roles
Professional Development Facilitator Talent Pool K–8: Overview, application for this job from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/Jobs/Pages/ProfessionalDevelopmentFacilitatorTalentPool.aspx
Examples of master teacher roles
Leadership Initiative for Teachers (LIFT)—District of Columbia Public Schools: Overview of the LIFT five-stage career ladder that provides opportunities to advance within the classroom
http://dcps.dc.gov/page/leadership-initiative-teachers-lift
The T3 Initiative: Overview of Teach Plus Turnaround Teacher Teams teacher-leader program for low-performing schools
http://www.teachplus.org/programs/t3-initiative
Task Force on Teacher Leadership and Compensation: Final report from Iowa Department of Education on new teacher compensation system and career ladder
https://www.educateiowa.gov/sites/files/ed/documents/Final%20Report%20of%20the%20Task%20Force%20on%20Teacher%20Leadership%20and%20Compensation.pdf
Examples of lead teacher roles
Teacher Development: Lead teacher program: New York City Department of Education description of lead teacher job (split between leading other teachers’ professional learning and teaching)
http://schools.nyc.gov/AboutUs/workinginNYCschools/leadershippathways/Opportunities/teacherleadership/ClusterBased.htm
Redesigning Schools: Models to reach every student with excellent teachers: Multi-Classroom Leadership: Model description for Multi-Classroom Leader role in Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture initiative
http://opportunityculture.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Multi-Classroom_Leadership_School_Model-Public_Impact.pdf
Baltimore City Public Schools teacher contract: Provides career pathways that let teachers develop into teacher-leaders
http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/domain/5151
Case Studies:
Department/content chair
Career Pathways Let Top HISD Teachers Lead Without Leaving the Classroom: Brief description of career pathways from the Houston Independent School District
http://blogs.houstonisd.org/news/2013/08/13/career-pathways-let-top-hisd-teachers-lead-without-leaving-the-classroom/
Data coach
The Data Coach: Profile of a data coach in Teachers Teaching Teachers and challenges associated with the position
http://learningforward.org/docs/leading-teacher/feb08_killion.pdf?sfvrsn=2
Lead teacher
Improved Professional Development Through Teacher Leadership: Evaluation of a professional development model given high marks by teachers, which used excellent teachers to deliver training usually given by non-district experts
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ783830.pdf
Untapped: Transforming Teacher Leadership to Help Students Succeed: Report considers early results from the New Leaders “Emerging Leaders” teacher leadership program, finding that teacher-leaders need appropriate preparation strategies and clear expectations to be as effective as possible
http://www.schoolturnaroundsupport.org/sites/default/files/resources/NewLeaders_Untapped.pdf
Building Bridges: Connecting Teacher Leadership and Student Success: Report from Leading Educators uses feedback from its teacher-leaders to consider how teacher-leader practices best affect student outcomes, and highlight scheduling, a cohesive team to lead, and carefully developed priorities and measurable goals
http://www.sai-iowa.org/Schreifer_Building%20Bridges.pdf
Multi-classroom leader: Case study from Public Impact of a multi-classroom leader in his first year leading a math and science middle school team in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
http://opportunityculture.org/qa-meet-an-opportunity-culture-excellent-teacher/
Teach to Lead: Website for U.S. Department of Education initiative to spur teacher leadership with the National Board; includes resources and examples
http://teachtolead.net/
Career Pathways, Performance Pay, and Peer-Review Promotion in Baltimore City Public Schools: Harvard Business School case study on Baltimore four-tier career pathway linking performance to pay and promotion, with teacher-leader roles
http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=44946
How Principals Use Multi-Classroom Leadership in School Turnarounds: Vignette series and video from Public Impact profiles principals at three Opportunity Culture schools and their use of Multi-Classroom Leadership to create and lead a team of teacher-leaders
http://opportunityculture.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Principal_Vignettes_Three_Principals_Experiences-Public_Impact.pdf http://opportunityculture.org/three-principals-experiences/
Teacher Leadership Pilot Overview: Delaware Department of Education report describes state’s new Teacher Leader program and its five teacher-leader roles and timeline http://www.doe.k12.de.us/cms/lib09/DE01922744/Centricity/Domain/424/20160406_TeacherLeaderPilotApplication_PilotOverview_FINAL.docx