Building capacity by focusing on teacher leaders and supporting their development is an important part of the solution for managing the challenges facing education today. To meet the need for collaboration between principals and teachers, the authors have created a developmental approach they call learning-oriented leadership that principals and…

Many school districts find themselves with pockets of excellence: schools that stand out from the pack because their students are doing better than others in the district. Such uneven results are attributable to a number of factors. A common one is a patchwork of instructional approaches across schools. Brandon White and Ivette Rivera recognized…

Developing school leaders' skills to ensure high-quality instruction in every classroom and high achievement for every student doesn't happen overnight. It takes time, intentionality, and a cohesive set of supports that are often referred to as a principal pipeline. Research shows that when all the pieces are in place, principal pipelines can lead…

To help coaches grow into their roles, Learning Forward's Coaches Academy provides personalized support to districts and states. Offered both in person and virtually, the Coaches Academy builds coaches' knowledge and capacity through facilitated sessions with an expert coach, collaborative learning communities, tools and strategies tailored to the…

The Learning Forward Academy is Learning Forward's flagship deep learning experience, committed to increasing educator and leader capacity and improving results for students in the ever-changing landscape of education. For over 30 years, the academy has supported the problem-based learning of teachers, teacher leaders, instructional coaches,…

Inequities in education, health care, and other social services are often rooted in systemic challenges that organizations must work together to address. If not done with a focus on advancing equity, improvement efforts risk reproducing or exacerbating inequities instead of eliminating them. In response to this need, Shift, an organization…

When Noline Martin became assistant principal at Thurgood Marshall Elementary, a pre-K-6 school in Richardson, Texas, in 2017, the school was working its way up from being declared a failing campus two years earlier. It had recently improved to a "met standard" rating, but Martin knew the school could do more to help its students. Her…

Recognizing that teacher leaders play an essential role in curriculum adoption and implementation, the Chicago Public Schools Department of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) partnered with Loyola University Chicago's Center for Science and Math Education to create a system of professional learning designed to advance teachers'…

Early childhood education leaders are dedicated, resilient, and caring professionals. They are master multitaskers, seamlessly transitioning from comforting crying children to managing a plumbing problem; from writing a facilities report to meeting with a family to help them better understand their child's development. But they are often not able…

As schools grapple with the daunting challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, some leaders are galvanizing their staff to maintain focus on instruction, while others are overwhelmed by the operational logistics of constant change. What makes the difference? And what types of support can help struggling leaders to thrive despite the challenges? Through…

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) administrators at all levels, across different programs and departments, engage in coaching with a set of common goals and principles. The coaching is designed to not only help them grow professionally but also build their capacity to coach those they supervise, including teachers and staff. LAUSD's…

Teacher retention is a continuing concern. One of the reasons teachers leave the profession is that they don't feel valued or working to their potential. Developing teacher leadership is a positive way to improve job satisfaction, career development, and retention (Wixom, 2016). In addition, teacher leadership and influence in decision-making are…

The Leadership and Inquiry for Turnaround (LIFT) initiative in Utah supports turnaround leaders' development and builds resilience and capacity of school leadership teams to thrive and lead their schools to improvement, even in the face of major challenges and adversity. This article describes how professional learning can help mitigate the…

In this article, the authors highlight key elements of their new model for developing educators' capacities, as well as key takeaways about the potential of supporting adult development. Focusing on the five elements -- Theory, Culture, Pillar Practices, Feedback, and Sustainability -- of their developmental model for building capacity can foster…

In this article, the author describes their experience coaching teacher leaders as part of the NYC Continuous Learning Multilingual Learner Network, which is composed of 33 New York City middle schools working together to strengthen support and outcomes for Black and Latinx multilingual learners who experience the impact of poverty. Network…