A brief report on leadership and achievement

"So, you want to teach?"

I'm looking at you. I know you've asked me that, or if not me, someone else who likes education or has studied education or even just anyone who has earned a liberal arts degree.

I think teaching is an incredibly rewarding and critically important profession. If living with an elementary education teacher taught me anything, it's that constructing knowledge and promoting intellectual development is something that requires a lot of time and commitment.  I remember in fifth grade that I decided I had finally found the job for me: a fifth grade teacher. Later, when I had Ms. Kincaid for English, I thought that I could be a good secondary English teacher. Teach for America was my first Alternative Break; my volunteer resume is almost exclusively with public schools. But I digress. Although I know teaching is huge (and debatably the single thing that makes the most difference for kids), I don't think it's for me.

One thing about working at Education Pioneers, and especially talking to the other interns and staff, is that you can have a heart for education and kids and social justice without that equating to a life in the classroom. I already believed this (and have build a lot of my dreams around this) but EP is founded on the premise that this is true. Part of my job has been to review resources that validate the effects of leadership on achievement of students.

So empowering, right? Here are some cool things I've learned:

“Reform in the U.S educational system is both lively and messy but, as educators grapple with emerging demands, we found that leadership matters at all levels. Leaders in education provide direction for, and exercise influence over, policy and practice. Their contributions are crucial, our evidence shows, to initiatives aimed at improving student learning, and of course ultimately to the future in which we all share” (Lewis, 283).

“There seems to be little doubt that both district and school leadership provides a critical bridge between most education reform initiatives and their consequences for students. Of all the factors that contribute to what students learn at school, present evidence led us to the conclusion that leadership is second in strength only to classroom instruction. Furthermore, effective leadership has the greatest impact in those circumstances (e.g., ‘schools in trouble’) in which it is most needed. This evidence supports the present widespread interest in improving leadership as a key to the successful implementation of large-scale reforms” (Leithman, 70).

I love augmenting my sense of self-worth through reading research about what I do. I have also had access to some really cool case studies about people who have been Education Pioneers Fellows. They deserve their own post, though. For now, I will let this absorb.

Sources:

Leithwood, Kenneth, Karen S. Lewis, Stephen Anderson and Kyla Wahlstrom. How Leadership Influences Student Learning. Rep. The Wallace Foundation, Sept. 2004. 

Lewis, Karen S., Kenneth Leithwood, Kyla Wahlstrom, and Stephen Anderson. Learning From Leadership: Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning. Rep. The Wallace Foundation, July 2010.