Leadership magazine Jan/Feb 2016 V45 No 3 | Page 20

Building Strong School Leadership Teams to Sustain Reform Effective Instructional Leadership Teams can be integral to helping underperforming schools strengthen their leadership, professional learning systems and core instruction. 20 Leadership Administrators in low performing schools face many challenges, but they do not have to tackle them alone. By bringing a small group of teachers and instructional coaches together to form an Instructional Leadership Team (ILT), a principal can tap into the collective wisdom and energy of the staff to help move a school forward. An ILT works on behalf of the whole school to develop a vision, set goals, design strategies and monitor progress. Specific projects might include creating an intervention system for students falling below grade level, setting up peer coaching opportunities among teachers or analyzing student achievement data to evaluate programs. Establishing such systems as a team generally leads to more robust implementation by the staff because teachers have been given a voice in designing those efforts, and ILT members have planned the implementation from a variety of perspectives. Designing solutions collaboratively also tends to sustain re- form. Broadly shared goals and strategies tend to outlast those held by a single school leader. Having an Instructional Leadership Team also benefits the principal because it gives her greater insight into teachers’ successes and challenges. It also helps staff members get to know the principal and her responsibilities better, which tends to foster trust and create allies for her as she leads school improvement efforts. Ensuring ILTs are effective In our work at Partners in School Innovation, we help underperforming schools strengthen their leadership, professional learning systems and core instruction. We believe that effective ILTs are integral to helping schools improve in all three of those areas, and we have learned that strong ILTs are marked by several characteristics. By Brian Edwards and Jessica Gammell