IMPORTANCE OF LEADERSHIP

What is High Impact Leadership?

Pretend you are sitting next to an administrative colleague in a meeting.  Your colleague asks you about this term “high impact leadership” that they are hearing more about.  After reading the article, summarize and give a brief, yet powerful, response you might say to your colleague.

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Listen as Dr. John Hattie describes why the focus on instructional leadership activities is so critical to positive student achievement.

In his recent work, Hattie (2015) makes clear that just as in teacher practices, leadership practices are not are equal in terms of impact on student achievement.  In High Impact Leadership , an analysis of leadership practices was examined (Hattie, 2015).

The following practices of leaders who had a high impact  on student achievement were found to be significant:

  • Leaders who believe their major role is to evaluate their impact (ES=.91)
  • Leaders who get everyone in the school working together to know and evaluate their impact (ES=.91)
  • Leaders who learn in an environment that privileges high-impact teaching and learning (ES=.84)
  • Leaders who are explicit with teachers and students about what success looks like (ES=.77)
  • Leaders who set appropriate levels of challenge and who never retreat to ‘just do your best’ ES=.57)

Other Research on Instructional Leadership

The National Center On Educational Outcomes found that districts that have “moved their numbers” for all children have or are engaged in developing district-wide processes that allow for more collective use of relevant data to make smarter decisions, including the ongoing assessment of teaching and learning at the classroom, school, and district levels.

What works to support great teaching? That is the question the Mirage Report sought to answer. “Openness to feedback” and “ratings alignment” were significantly correlated with improved practice. In other words, teachers who were open to hearing ways to get better got better and teachers rated themselves the same as their evaluators. These two findings are part of a coherent system that promotes a culture of high expectations, increased collaborative practice, and a shared sense of commitment.

This meta-analysis identified five key leadership practices that had a positive effect on student achivement:

Establish Clear Goals and Expectations
Strategic Resourcing
Planning, Coordinating, and Evaluating Teaching and Curriculum
Promoting and Participating in Teacher Learning and Development
Ensuring an Orderly and Supportive Environment

Found that principals working directly with teachers in the use of data is more than twice as powerful as any other leadership dimension.

Found that the reliability for assessing student learning and district decision making was one critical characteristic of effective districts.

OVERVIEW OF LEADERSHIP

Mind Frames of High-Impact Leaders

Hattie identified seven mind frames that “inform high-impact instructional leadership” (Hattie, p. 38).  Instructional leaders intentionally spend the majority of their time engaged in key actions critical to development of areas of instructional focus.  Most importantly, these leaders evaluate their impact and work collaboratively with staff to make appropriate changes that will lead to greater student outcomes.

  • Understand the need to focus on learning and the impact of learning
  • Believe their fundamental task is to evaluate the effect of everyone on student learning
  • See themselves as change agents
  • See assessment as feedback on their impact
  • Understand the importance of dialogue and listening
  • Set challenging targets
  • Welcome errors

link Part of being a good building leader is also understanding which teacher beliefs are influential. Read more about those here.