School Leadership Team Development

Who Should Participate

This workshop series is intended for multiple school leadership teams from the same district. Teams from different districts can also be accommodated in certain circumstances. Teams can include

• Teacher leaders
• Leaders from schools, school districts, and institutions of higher education
• Leaders of content reform efforts (math initiatives, literacy initiatives, special education initiatives)
• Those interested in starting a leadership development program in their own settings

Goals of the Workshop Series

The workshop series guides school leadership teams to take sustained action on local goals. Teams use research, data collection, analysis, professional collaboration, and continuous improvement strategies to build the commitment and skills that focus the work of the school on improving student learning results.

Format of the Workshop Series

Teams come together eight times over the course of a school year for daylong sessions. Additional sessions are scheduled for principals only. During the sessions teams work on their school improvement plans and participants meet in role-alike groups.

What You Learn

Team members develop skills for building and maintaining collaborative working groups among teachers, administrators, parents, community members, and others. Participants learn how to support standards-based teaching and learning and the changes in classroom practice that may be required. Additionally, participants learn how to apply leadership practices to specific content areas. Teams use data from classroom, school, and district profiles to make strategic decisions that sustain improvement.

Who Facilitates Your Learning

Nick Hardy and Cheryl Williams of Learning Innovations at WestEd share over 30 years of experience working in schools to build a collaborative culture of school improvement. The leadership model that they present is a combination of best practice, their own experience, and research. Other colleagues contribute content area expertise.

What Resources Support Your Learning

Each workshop series is supported with relevant research and professional reading, models and templates, and practice and application exercises. Facilitators also draw on the work of key leaders in the field:

• Leadership Capacity for Lasting School Improvement by Linda Lambert
• The Adaptive School by Robert J. Garmston and Bruce M. Wellman
• Implementing Change: Patterns, Principles, and Potholes by Gene E. Hall and Shirley M. Hord
• Data-Driven Dialogue: A Facilitator's Guide to Collaborative Inquiry by Laura Lipton and Bruce Wellman
• The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner

What the Research Says

A characteristic of high achieving schools is the combination of an effective principal and an effective school leadership team. The past focus has been on individual, positional leadership. While that is important, it is not enough in today's challenging environment. Current research emphasizes a team approach with multiple opportunities for leadership (Lambert, 2003; Fullan, 2004; Kouzes and Posner; 2003).

What Participants Report

"New-initiative buy-in has always been a problem in our school. We identified specific strategies presented in the workshop and applied them to our school improvement plan. For the first time we have whole school buy-in for the math initiative."

"As a building principal, I knew I couldn't do it all by myself. The workshops were informative, challenging, and practical and just in time for what we needed in my school. As a result of the workshops we are far ahead of where we would have been otherwise."

Cost

Cost is dependent on the size of the team and the number of teams. For example, a workshop series with ten teams of six would cost each team approximately $5,000.

Contact Information

Cheryl Williams
781.481.1113
cwillia@wested.org