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How Districts Can Support Teachers as Instructional Leaders

“Students benefit from mirrors and windows: the mirror represents the story that reflects their own culture and helps them build their own identity, and the window offers them a view into someone else’s experience. Diversity makes us smarter.” Saroja Warner weighs in on how schools can serve students better by creating a diverse and culturally responsive teacher workforce.

A recent infographic from the REL West K–6 Literacy Improvement Partnership shows how inquiry cycles can improve teacher collaboration and student outcomes by focusing on instructional practice. The infographic details how the inquiry process works, lists seven guidelines for productive collaboration, and offers an example of a discussion protocol that teachers can use to discuss data.

This research-based framework is designed for those educators and policymakers — at all levels of the charter school system — who believe that improvement is in reach for identified charter schools. In particular, the framework focuses on improvement within and across four areas of school operation shown by research and practice to be critical to student learning: improvement leadership, talent development, instructional transformation, and culture shift.

The REL West Educator Effectiveness Alliance helps states build their capacity to support school leaders. In meetings facilitated by the alliance, SEA teams and REL researchers come together to discuss findings on, for example, how principals influence student achievement or how to maximize the impact of principal supervisors. The researchers also conduct workshops that guide SEA teams in bridging research and practice.

The Center for School Turnaround and Improvement (formerly the Center on School Turnaround) at WestEd is a leader in the research and development of solutions that support systemic improvement for all schools. Our team of experts works with educators at all system levels to identify and help sustain evidence-based, promising practices that ensure equity and drive systemwide change for rapid improvement.

Hear about best and promising practices in our three presentations: Margit Birge will examine how family engagement can improve student outcomes. Aida Walqui will explore how to engage English learner students in deep learning. And Terry Hofer will discuss how Delaware educators successfully employed the Four Domains for Rapid School Improvement.