Importance
Why is it critical for a leadership team to have a deep “knowledge of curriculum, instruction and assessment”?
Activity 2: Watch Heather Shellenberger, a leadership team member from the Waynesville 6th Grade Center, discuss how important it is to have representation from all grades/departments on the core leadership team when assessing the progress of the collaborative teams in a school. On the 2nd order change template, put this responsibility in your own language and then name at least one practice your leadership team can be more intentional about to support this responsibility.
Overview
Unpacking
Marzano, Waters and McNulty indicate the importance of leaders being aware of best practices involving the domains of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The focus of building leaders and leadership teams should be on the acquisition and cultivation of knowledge regarding best practices, and providing conceptual guidance to teacher teams regarding to the implementation of effective classroom practices. They further indicate that specific actions of a leadership team in developing a deep knowledge of curriculum, instruction and assessment would be to:
- Ensure that professional development is focused on agreed-upon instructional and assessment practices within the intended curriculum, and;
- Assess the knowledge needed and acquired using informal methods (e.g., observation, surveys, student work, needs assessment.) (School Leadership that Works, pg. 108)
Effective leaders and leadership teams understand the importance of moving away from random “sit and git” professional development opportunities to focused “job-embedded” professional development. Understanding what students need to know and do by addressing standards-based instruction, creating well-written formative and summative assessments to measure the degree to which students understand the content, and then structuring meaningful and effective interventions when students are struggling is complicated work. Those individuals responsible for leading this work in a school should be very intentional about identifying the supports teachers need in order to accomplish this work.
As teachers engage in the work of curriculum/instruction/assessment, leadership team representatives on each grade level/departmental collaborative team who are personally knowledgeable about this work are in a position to observe and assess the degree to which teacher teams are progressing satisfactorily. When issues or problems arise, they are then able to bring these to the leadership team meeting, where collective decisions are made as to how to most effectively provide the supports needed by the teacher teams.
