For Best Results, Leadership Teams Need Support, Too
In addition to improving and refining specific skills and strategies for classroom efficacy, high quality professional learning in schools builds the leadership capacity of everyone in the organization. Leadership should not be entirely role specific. However, when establishing annual professional learning priorities, many districts mistakenly invest almost exclusively in teachers and neglect supporting the growth of those in formal leadership positions who are held accountable for ensuring outcomes are met. According to Marzano, Waters, and McNulty (2005), leadership does matter, but the type of leadership matters most. Instructional leadership has an effect size of .42 as compared with .11 for transformational leadership. High quality classroom teaching has always been critical to student learning, but as teaching becomes increasingly complex, even the best teachers do not thrive to the maximum extent possible in mediocre schools. High quality leadership ...