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New Leader: Practical strategies for student achievement

Developing Principal Instructional Leadership: Enhancing the Quality of Teaching and Learning in Classrooms

By P. Toffanello
Director of Education, Northeastern Catholic DSB
and
K. Rowe
Field Team Leader, The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat

Our effort to enhance student achievement in schools was premised on the well-established belief that principal instructional leadership is second only to teacher influence on student learning. We support this critical belief at Northeastern Catholic DSB, and we recognized early the primary importance of strengthening our principals as instructional leaders in order to maximize student learning.

Given the increased demands on principals in their complex roles, we deemed it necessary for our principals to come to understand the elements of instructional leadership that would yield the greatest results in changing teacher practice to maximize student learning. As in many boards, our principals' knowledge, understanding and practices varied, and we honoured this in our approach to helping them grow professionally in this endeavour.

We began with a dialogue with principals about their beliefs, and we closely examined their practices. In many cases, there was a clear disconnect between beliefs and practices. They supported fostering higher quality teaching in our schools, yet many of them were unable to identify when a teacher failed to provide optimal learning opportunities for students. As well, where some of them did recognize when a teacher was failing to provide optimal learning, for many complex reasons, we found that they would not address the concern.

This compelled us to challenge the assumptions they held of their own instructional leadership. It was within these sometimes difficult conversations where many of our principals made the greatest strides in their growth as they began to admit to the gaps in their own knowledge and capacity and then to begin asking for help specific to their needs. Our principals came to understand that it would take not only expertise to enhance student learning, but also courage and stamina as they took on the task of engaging teachers in professionally responsible conversations about teacher practice.

Our principals began to understand and develop the emotional resilience required to be successful in their leadership. They came to understand they had to trust this resilience would be tested over and over again. It would be in this effort where they came to de-personalize and objectify their own instructional practices to benefit teachers and students.

We created an opportunity for each of our principals to examine their own leadership through a collective review of each school's EQAO results. At this time, each principal was asked to provide commentary about his or her school's EQAO results through the lens of their instructional leadership in the presence of their colleagues. We guided them in a principled conversation that prevented them from citing traditional excuses (i.e. weak group, socioeconomic realities, low social capital, etc.) to rationalize poor school results. We challenged them to think more critically and to foster peer-to-peer support and accountability. We were challenging the default mentality of laying blame and attempting to replace it with a responsible sense of ownership.

We also needed to initiate a fundamental shift in our monthly principals' meetings. Where traditionally we had followed an agenda which was exclusively managerial, we turned the meetings into professional learning and leadership opportunities. It was important that we create a low-risk environment where principals felt safe and where they could share vulnerabilities.

Simultaneously, we began to engage each of our principals in a series of one-on-one discussions to determine their levels of confidence, discern whether they had a good understanding of where their schools and teachers were with respect to the quality of teaching and learning, and getting right down to the  elements of their leadership. Some of our principals struggled unwittingly, we believed, with the idea that being liked was easier and more important than being respected on a professional level.

We offered principals opportunities to develop the professional language, to rehearse and to be coached in their engagement with teachers about classroom practices. Recognizing excellence in teaching, as well as challenging teachers and providing effective support through follow-ups was, and continues to be, an ongoing effort. Our principals began to realize that the longstanding closed-door culture – what Richard Elmore refers to as the “default culture” - was as hard for them to permeate as it was for teachers to recognize. We also challenged their notion of a 'good' teacher by peeling back our ideas about what really constitutes good teaching. We asked the questions: Who were the teachers who provided high quality teaching and learning opportunities and how do we know this?

At the classroom level, there was increased expectation for a comprehensive literacy program in all schools. In this, a high premium was placed on the highest quality of teaching and learning. Principal leadership at the school-based Catholic Professional Learning Community table was a clear expectation, as was principal presence in classrooms to monitor and support teachers, but also with the expectation of their own learning and growth.

Throughout our efforts, it was, and continues to be, our intention to surround our principals with support. We do not believe there is an end to this endeavour, but a need to constantly offer support for professionals who lead our schools each day. This is essential for any effort at enhancing principal instructional leadership. We are proud of our efforts to support them and proud of them as they continue to grow as strong, effective instructional leaders.

Supports you may wish to offer principals:

• Modify budgets to enhance teacher release during instructional time
• Allow principals who were not qualified in Part I Reading (AQ Course) to take at board expense
• Provide them with continued sources of strong research material for their own learning
• Provide them with system level supervisors who offer full support in curriculum, special education, student success, school operations
• Provide the services of special assignment teachers responsible to assist teachers in their growth, each designated to specific schools
• Provide, at board expense, half  time literacy coaches in each school
• Offer opportunities for school-to-school visits by teachers to share and observe best practices
• Provide them with support from student achievement officers from the LNS, as well as support and direction from field team leaders
• Engage them in a board-to-board project to share successful practices
• Engage in the Leading Student Achievement initiative
• Utilize the services of a retired master principal to provide one-on-one coaching and mentoring to new principals and vice principals.

-- For more information contact Karen Rowe at 705 672-5000.