Education Week - March 25, 2015 - 9

Teacher-Leadership Movement Gets Boost From Ed. Dept.
Duncan cites new
effort's 'momentum'
By Ross Brenneman
Washington
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne
Duncan has pledged continued support
for the Department of Education's
Teach to Lead program, an effort
that invites teachers to come up
with ideas to promote teacher leadership
in schools and offers them
support for implementation.
Mr. Duncan had announced the
creation of Teach to Lead in March
2014 at the National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards' inaugural
Teaching & Learning conference
here, vowing he would return
a year later to be held accountable
for the program's development.
"Our hope is to accelerate the
pace of change and build upon the
sense of momentum," he said in a
March 13 speech at this year's conference.
"Our teachers and our students
simply cannot wait."
The secretary's announcement
provides some clarity about the program's
future; up until this month,
even some of its organizers were
unsure of its direction.
However, in an interview with
Education Week at the conference,
Mr. Duncan also acknowledged that
"there's no huge pot of funding" for
Teach to Lead, which relies on financial
support from nonprofit and
private-sector organizations.
"If we can use [existing] money in
smarter and more effective ways,"
he said, "we can empower great
teachers to lead this [program]; we
can be in much better shape."
Among educators who have coalesced
around the idea of teacher
leadership, the Teach to Lead initiative
has been seen as a significant
steppingstone, in part because of
its potential to add authority to a
movement that has remained stubbornly
amorphous.
A Stronger Voice
Teacher-leadership advocates say
the interest in the concept speaks
to a need many teachers feel to influence
education outside the classroom,
without leaving it, as well as
fatigue from seeing education policy
driven by people who aren't educators
and then watching those policies
fizzle.
"The eternal optimist in me thinks
that ... we're at a tipping point
where we're realizing that we cannot
have those outside education,
with no education background, with
no education experience, leading
the path for our public education
students," said Megan M. Allen,
the director of programs in teacher
leadership at Mount Holyoke College,
in South Hadley, Mass. "We've
got to be smarter than that, and let
our teachers-our experts-lead the
charge."
Supporters of greater teacher
input in education policy point to
sundry initiatives designed without
significant teacher involvement, or
things changed," said Emily Davis,
a teaching ambassador fellow at the
department. "And what I've seen a
lot of the past year is taking a step
back, taking a look at what's working,
[and] listening to the field."
The ambassador fellows, a group
of practicing teachers intended to
serve as a bridge between the Education
Department and the profession,
did much of the legwork in
designing Teach to Lead, working in
partnership with the nbpts.
While many organizations have
championed teacher leadership, the
department's involvement adds heft
to the movement.
"What separates [Teach to Lead]
is, if you have the backing of the U.S.
Department of Education, which
has connections and ties to different
districts and states, that gives
it some authority," said Geneviève
DeBose, a teacher who helped develop
Teach to Lead as a liaison for
the nbpts.
In December, Teach to Lead
launched a set of three summits
across the country, with events held
in Louisville, Ky., Denver, and Boston.
Each gathering required educators
to apply for attendance by submitting
an idea to cultivate teacher
leadership in their schools or districts.
The Teach to Lead events
emphasized group work over formal
presentations, even giving teachers
a chance to hone their elevator
pitches. Attendees also received
feedback from "critical friends," experts
brought in from the nearly 70
organizations that support Teach
to Lead, which include the major
unions, ascd, and the American Institutes
for Research.
"It's amazing to see this many
teacher leaders together, and hear
all their ideas, and to know that we
are not all so different from each
other," said Andrea Shunk, a Denver
attendee and a co-creator of the
Cadre of Distinguished Educators,
a Portland, Ore., teacher-leadership
program.
Thirty days after each summit,
participants went through a checkin
with the Education Department
to see how their ideas were
progressing. Additional check-ins
were slated for the 60- and 90-day
marks.
In addition, Teach to Lead organizers
are selecting ideas from
each event to treat as "leadership
labs," which will get extra investment
for implementation support
and possible scaling-up.
Structural Supports
Whatever Teach to Lead's success,
the federal government's interest in
teacher leadership is no guarantee
that state or district policymakers
will exhibit the same enthusiasm,
though states like Connecticut and
Tennessee have been designing
programs that bring teachers into
policymaking. If teachers expect
broader change and influence, advocates
say, they need to pursue additional
structural supports.
"Teacher leadership is not just a
policy, it's a systematic change," said
Mount Holyoke's Ms. Allen.
The structural changes needed,
experts say, start with schools proimplemented
without teachers' buyin-district-administered
programs
to transition to the Common Core
State Standards, for example, or
cuts in enrichment offerings to focus
on standardized testing. Noticeably,
they say, many such efforts have yet
to offer much proof of effectiveness.
"[Policy] implementation has been
most effective in the places where
it has been teacher-driven and
teacher-led, collaborative change,"
said Ruthanne Buck, a senior adviser
to Mr. Duncan. "And in some
places, the structure just hasn't
existed to allow that collaborative
environment."
Teach to Lead emerged, organizers
say, in part from a growing understanding
inside the Education
Department that its own ambitious
plans had outpaced implementation,
and that implementation appeared
to be smoothest when teachers had
a strong voice.
"There definitely has been a push
to get a lot of things out, a lot of
ABOVE: U.S. Department
of Education Teaching
Ambassador Fellow Emily
Davis, center, offers
instructions to a group at
the Teach to Lead summit
in Boston.
Teacher Geneviève
DeBose listens to a team
member speak during the
Teach to Lead event in
Boston. She believes
educators must build
structures to support
teacher leadership. "I
think creating this space
has been really powerful,"
she says.
viding genuine professional opportunities
to teachers.
"If you don't offer leadership opportunities
for teachers to excel in their
profession, to grow-to be frank, to
make more money-and to have elevated
roles, ... you are asking for your
best and brightest teachers to leave
the classroom in order to excel," said
Ms. Buck, Mr. Duncan's adviser.
At the same time, teacher-leadership
supporters say, administrators
need to make space in school cultures
to accommodate teacher voice,
ensuring that teachers don't have
to worry about reprisals for offering
their ideas or feedback.
Finally, advocates say one of the
best things school leaders can do to
help is give teachers space to collaborate
on projects and learn from
each other.
"Sometimes, the best thing we can
do for teacher leadership is just step
back and get out of the way," Ms. Allen
said. "I think you put a bunch of really
great, hardworking, dedicated
teacher leaders together, and they
can do great things."
EDUCATION WEEK | March 25, 2015 | www.edweek.org | 9
Photos by Charlie Mahoney for Education Week
http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - March 25, 2015

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