Strong teacher leaders are essential to improving our schools, and key to taking our system from good to great! Teacher leaders step up to additional responsibilities that positively shape and help grow their schools, either officially recognized or informally.
Teacher leaders are critical to school improvement!
According to Goddard and Hoy (2004), the collective efficacy of the teachers in a school is a better predictor of student success in schools than is the socioeconomic status of the students. Is your Principal a champion for the belief that having your staff operate as a cohesive group can effect substantive change? Do you look across the hallway at your colleagues and truly believe that they act and function as a teammate and that collectively when you work together, you can change the world?
I have again had the privilege to be in and out of several of our schools this week. I am especially proud to say that I ventured into elementary land at 4 different sites!
Strong teacher leaders are working hard every day to improve the lives and academic trajectory of our students. Although the professional commitment starts with you as an individual, it is the trust and collective capacity of all of us that is needed to move that achievement dial. Maybe most importantly, it takes all of us to affirm the positive focus we see, so that our own levels of self-efficacy can increase and in turn our students will feel the confidence and support they need to be successful learners.
I have again had the privilege to be in and out of several of our schools this week. I am especially proud to say that I ventured into elementary land at 4 different sites!