Supporting World Class
Leadership for Learning in
North Carolina
Changes in Societies are Creating
Pressures for School Change
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
1900
Low skill jobs
1950
2000
Knowledge work jobs
Mean task input as percentiles of the 1960 task distribution
How the demand for skills has changed
Economy-wide measures of routine and non-routine task input (U.S.)
Routine manual
Nonroutine manual
Routine cognitive
Nonroutine analytic
Nonroutine interactive
65
Non-routine interactive
60
Non-routine analytic
55
50
Routine manual
45
Routine cognitive
40
1960
Non-routine manual
1970
(Levy and Murnane)
1980
1990
2002
The dilemma of schools:
The skills that are easiest to teach and
test are also the ones that are easiest to
digitize, automate, and outsource
20th Century Teaching Cannot Meet
21st Century Demands
PISA 2009 Results
Reading
Korea
Finland
Singapore
Canada
New Zealand
Japan
Australia
US is #14
Mathematics
Singapore
Korea
Finland
Lichtenstein
Switzerland
Japan
Canada
Science
Finland
Singapore
Japan
Korea
New Zealand
Canada
Estonia
US is #25
US is #17
500
U.S. (<10%)
Korea
Finland
U.S. (10-24.9%)
Canada
New Zealand
Japan
Australia
Netherlands
Belgium
Norway
U.S. (25-49.9%)
Estonia
Switzerland
Poland
Iceland
U.S. (Average)
Sweden
Germany
Ireland
France
Denmark
United Kingdom
Hungary
Portugal
Italy
Slovenia
Greece
Spain
Czech Republic
Slovak Republic
Israel
Luxembourg
U.S. (50-74.9%)
Austria
Turkey
Chile
U.S. (over 75%)
Mexico
U.S. Reading Results by School Poverty
600
0-10%
10-25%
25-50%
Average
50-75%
75%+
400
300
200
100
0
Poverty Rates of PISA Participants
25.00%
Poverty Rate
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
What are the Highest-Achieving
Nations Doing?
 Societal supports for children’s welfare
 Equitable resources with greater investments in
high-need schools and students
 Equitable access to a rich, thinking curriculum
 Substantial investments in teacher and leader
education and ongoing support
 Schools designed to support teacher and
student learning
 Systems designed to cultivate collective
improvement and leadership
Nations / States Achieving Gains by
Focusing on Educator Effectiveness
 Finland (about the size of Wisconsin)
--Top Scoring Country on PISA
 Singapore (about the size of Kentucky)
-- Top Scoring Country on TIMSS & PISA
 Ontario, Canada (about the size of New York)
-- Top Scoring Jurisdiction in PISA & TIMSS
Teaching and
Leadership in Finland
 Top choice profession
 2 year master’s degree
 Free to candidates
 Research-oriented
 Teacher Training Schools
-- Specially staffed
-- Clinical curriculum
 Collaborative practice
 Hybrid roles, including
“Principal teacher”
Teaching and Leadership
in Singapore
 Fully funded MA
“Just as a country is as good as its
people, so its citizens are only as
good as their teachers.”
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong,
Teachers Day Rally, 2006
degree plus stipend
 High salaries
 Intensive mentoring
 Collaboration time
20 hours / week
 PD -100 hours/year
 Action research and
lesson study
 Career ladders
13
Evaluation and Career
Development
 Focus on whole child development
 Observation and feedback on practice by
expert teachers and principals
 Examination of curriculum and student work
 Emphasis on collaboration and contributions
to whole-school improvement
 Development of talent
 Support for sharing of
expertise
A Framework for Teacher Development
Teaching and Leadership in Ontario
“Achieving results without
ranking or rancor”
• A coherent framework of
teacher development
programs and resources
funded by the province
• All programs respect
principles of self-directed
learning and are modeled on
best instructional practices.
• Programs also reflect various
stages, roles, profiles that
teachers move through during
their professional career.
15
Capacity Building With A Focus on Results:
Leading Learning – Supporting the Instructional Core
BIP: Board Improvement Plan
SIP: School Improvement Plan
SEF: School Effectiveness Framework
A Framework for Leadership Development
 In 2005, Ontario changed its expectations for the role of the
principal from administrator to instructional leader.
 Ontario developed a Principals’ Qualification Program of
training, plus 2 years of mentoring for every principal and VP
 Each school board develops a succession and talent
development plan to:
 Identify and recruit the most talented teachers
 Train and develop aspiring leaders
 Select and match new leaders to posts
 Support professional learning & evaluation
80
70
Pe
rce
nt
at
Lev
els
3&
4
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
200
2/0
3
All
200
3/0
4
Gir
ls
200
4/0
5
200
5/0
6
BoYear
ys
200
6/0
7
Sp
ecE
d
200
7/0
8
17
200
8/0
9
ES
L/E
LL
17
Building Collective Capacity
 Literacy and Numeracy Strategy:


Shift from large-scale provincial training to job-embedded
professional learning for teams
Focus on building professional capacity through teacher
collaboration focused on student work to inform instructional
change
 Student Success/Learning:


Appointment of 800 Student Success Teachers at school level
and Student Success Leaders at school board level
Student Success Teams work collaboratively to support
curriculum, instruction, and student engagement
18
During the 1980s-’90s, NC built
many elements of such a system
 Raised & equalized teacher salaries
 Raised standards for teaching and teacher
education to respond to student standards
 Funded professional development schools
 Offered service scholarships to attract and
prepare high-need teachers (later, leaders, too)
 Required mentoring for beginners
 Invested in high-quality professional development
including Teaching Academies and National
Board Certification
State Trends in Student Math
Achievement, 1990s
233
231 Maine
229 North Dakota
228 MN, WI
228
227 Connecticut
North
Carolina
223
218 National Average
215 KY
GA WV
218
213 North Carolina
212 South Carolina
213
210 Arkansas
1988
208
1992
1996
State Trends in Student Reading
Achievement, 1990s
235
232
CT
230
225
222
220
215
210
205
200
195
215
North Carolina
US
215
Average
Connecticut’s Reforms
Added Leadership
The Recent “Discovery” of School Leadership
• School leadership matters
because the quality of
teaching depends on it
• Most teacher learning
takes place after initial
certification
• Schools that succeed are
sites of successful adult
learning: schoolwide
How Principals Matter
• Hiring and retention of high
quality teachers
• Strategic curriculum design
• Instructional improvement in
each classroom AND across
classrooms
• Schoolwide systems and
routines for assessing and
supporting student learning
• Teacher ownership of
professional learning
communities and school
improvement
Different Theories
of Change
 Theory X:
The key problem is
motivation. People respond only to rewards
and sanctions (“carrots and sticks”).
Incentives are the major element of reform.
 Theory Y:
The key problem is learning. People want to
be competent. They respond to information
about how to succeed in doing their work.
Investments in knowledge and capacity are
the major elements of reform.
Incentives Alone Do Not Improve
Outcomes
 Studies have found that annual bonus pay for
individual teachers allocated competitively
based on student test scores has not
improved student achievement.
-- Nashville experiment (Springer, 2010)
-- New York City experiment (Fryer, 2011)
-- Portugal experiment (Martins, 2009)
What Does Work: Investments in
Teacher Knowledge and Skill
Research in NC and NY found that student learning
gains are related to:
 Strong academic background
 Quality preparation prior to entry
 Certification in the field taught
 Experience (> 3 years)
 The skills measured by National Board Certification
In combination, these skills predicted more of the
difference in student learning gains than race & parent
education combined (Clotfelter, Ladd, & Vigdor, 2008).
Policies should strengthen & equalize these features.
What Does Work: The Effects of WellDesigned Professional Development
A review of experimental
studies found that high-quality
professional development
programs of about 50 hours
on average over 6 to 12
months increased student
achievement by 21 percentile
points. (Yoon et al., 2007)
PD of <14 hours had no
effect on student learning.
Professional Learning Opportunities
that Impact Practice are:





Focused on learning specific curriculum content
Organized around real problems of practice
Connected to teachers’ work with children
Linked to analysis of teaching and student learning
Intensive, sustained and continuous over time
Supported by coaching, modeling,
observation, and feedback
Connected to teachers’ collaborative work in
professional learning communities
Integrated into school and classroom
planning around curriculum, instruction, and
assessment
But few US Teachers Get these
Opportunities
 Teacher preparation is highly variable
 Effective professional development is still rare
 Most US teachers (>90%) participate in 1 to 2 day
workshops and conferences.
 Well under half get sustained PD, get mentoring
or coaching, or observe other classrooms.
 Only 15% of U.S. teachers reported a great deal
of cooperative effort among staff members in
2008.
© Linda Darling-Hammond 2010
Instructional Leadership is Key
Great principals, teacher leaders, and
superintendents focus on:
building
professional learning communities
fostering educator professional development
providing instructional feedback
working with educators to improve teaching practices
using data to monitor school progress, identify
problems and propose solutions
redesigning school organizations
facilitating student learning beyond the test
Ensuring High Quality
Instruction at Scale
•Strong preparation programs
•Accelerated early career performance
•Each school as a high-quality adult learning
environment
•Privatized practice replaced by quality teaching
as a shared property of organizations
Implications for school leadership? Unit of work is
the school, as well as the individual teacher
A working hypothesis
Improving school leadership is the single most
cost effective way to improve student learning
at scale (2615 principals in North Carolina)
• Leadership
• School Capacity
• Effective Instruction
• Student Learning
The Results of Investing in
Principal Knowledge and Skill
*>80% Black, >95% Black/Latino and >90% low-income enrollments

In 2010 ISAT scores for UIC-led elementary schools were:
•
3.5 x more likely than CPS to score in the top 5% in value-added
 At mostly Black/mostly low-income schools, 1st-year UIC principals are 4 times more likely make gains in the top 10% of 184
•
4 x moreschools
likely(4to
score in top 10% in gain scores for high poverty African American schools
comparable
of 10)
•  At4x
more
likely tolow-income
score inschools,
top 20%
in UIC
gain
scores,
schools
mostly
Black/mostly
1st-year
principals
are 3all184
times more
likely to make gains in the top 30% of 184
comparable schools (9 of 10)
UIC Ed.D. in Urban Education
Leadership
Model: Highly selective, practice-based,
focused on information cycles in schools
* Full-year, paid, supervised residency
* Ongoing coaching for all candidates
* Capstone thesis on leadership theory
and practice
Common Features of
Effective Programs
Purposeful recruitment and selection
 Focus on instructional leadership,
organizational development, and
change management
 Robust year-long residencies
 Collaborative partnerships between
programs and schools
 Cohorts as a long-term support

The Power of the
Internship / Residency
“There is nothing, no class, no lecture, no other
experience than being in the driver seat with the
steering wheel in your hands, with the controls
right there… I was an intern and I said, ‘I love
this. It’s stressful.’ I would say that everything I
experienced in ELDA [the Educational
Leadership Development Academy] was
relevant to what I am doing today.”
Helpfulness of Professional
Development
Figure 2 - Principals' Views of the Helpfulness of Professional Development
(1= Not at all Helpful; 5= Very Helpful)
4.5
4.25
4.17
4.06
4
4.04
4.01
3.93
3.91
3.91
3.75
3.5
3.25
3
Mentoring or
coaching by an
experienced
principal
Participating in a
principal network
Peer observation /
Reading
Individual or
Workshops,
Workshops or
coaching to share professional books
collaborative
conferences in
conferences in
practice
or articles
research on a topic which you were a which you were not
of interest
presenter
a presenter
Principals’ Access to
Professional Development
Figure 1 - Principals' Access to Professional Development in Last 12 Months
(% of Principals Participating )
100
95.2
90
81.7
80
71.7
67.7
70
60
49.9
50
45.8
40
34.4
30
21.6
20
10
0
Mentoring or
University
coaching by
experienced
courses
principal
Workshops, as
a presenter
Peer
observation/
coaching
Visits to other
Individual or
schools
collaborative
research
Participating in
a principal
network
Workshops, as
a participant
In-Service Learning Opportunities
for Principals (San Diego)
Instructional
Walk-
Leader
Throughs
Learning
Communities
Peer
Coach/
Staff
Formal
Networking.
Developermer
Principal
Professional
Development
Informal
Networking
Institutes
Mentor
Principal
Informal
Formal
Principal
Conferences
Conferences
What Policies Drive
Achievement Differences?
8th grade reading scores, NAEP
Massachusetts
274
New Jersey
273
Vermont
272
Connecticut
272
USA
262
Louisiana
253
California
253
Mississippi
251
Washington DC
242
220
230
240
250
260
270
280
One Important Strategy:
North Carolina Teaching Fellows
 Are academically able candidates who receive
service scholarships to prepare to teach
 Teach high-need students upon graduation
 Raise elementary and secondary math scores
more than teachers from other programs do
 Stay in public school classrooms for 5 years or
more at much higher rates than other NC
teachers from traditional or alternative routes.
(Henry, Bastian, & Smith, 2012)
Build on, Refine, Reclaim, and Scale up
North Carolina’s Proven Successes
Make strong preparation affordable to attract a
talented, diverse teaching & leadership force
-- North Carolina Teaching Fellowships
-- North Carolina Principal Fellowships
Make all preparation programs excellent
-- Stronger expectations for program quality
-- Residencies in high-need communities
-- Teacher and Administrator Performance
Assessments
Build on, Refine, Reclaim, and Scale up
California’s Proven Successes
Maintain a strong infrastructure for learning
-- Expert mentoring for novices
-- Teaching and Leadership Academies
Create strong, useful teacher evaluation linked
to administrator preparation & evaluation
-- Standards-based examination of practice
-- Multiple sources of student learning evidence
-- Regular feedback & links to PD
-- Peer assistance and review
-- Timely, accurate decisions
Key Policy Levers
1. State priority: improving leadership prep
through provider regulation
• Learning-focused programs
• High selectivity
• School district/provider partnerships
• Extended residencies
• Public accountability for impact measures
• Performance-based licensing and
accreditation
Key Policy Levers
•
State funding of high-quality innovative
programs for high-need schools
• Investment in residencies and mentoring
• Regional infrastructure for principal
learning communities
(e.g.Teaching and Leadership Academies)
• Technical assistance for districts and
programs to “get it right” via convenings
and sharing of models