Supporting Administrators

as Instructional Leaders

Reaching every student by reaching every educator

Priorities

• Increase students’ achievement

• Close the gap

• Increase public confidence in public education

Conclusions from Research

1. Leadership, teaching, and adult actions matter.

2. Particular leadership actions show demonstrable links to improved student achievement: inquiry, implementation, monitoring.

3. Leadership is neither a unitary skill set nor a solitary activity

Doug Reeves

Instructional Leadership

“Leadership is second only to teaching in its impact on student outcomes.

Principals and vice-principals play an essential role as school leaders

to achieve this impact.”

From Purpose to Practice: Putting Ontario’s Leadership Framework into Action—A Guide for School and System Leaders

http://www.levitated.net/bones/nodeGarden/index.html

Coherence

“Coherence is what results when

complex adaptive systems

reflect common purposes,

meanings, and values.”

—Caine and Caine, 33

Marshall Clemens, ideagram, http://www.idiagram.com/examples/complexity.html

Agenda Alignment at All Levels of the System

People Vision (Goals) Strategy Status

       

P Vision Strategy Statu s

       

People

Vision (Goals)

Strategy Status

       

People

       

Ministry of Education

Literacy and Mathematical Literacy Initiative

Board

School

People     

Classroom

Architectural Analogy

“Architectural leaders in education…make connections….In schools lead

by architectural leader, everything is connected, and there is

no such thing as a ‘nonacademic’ class, assembly, or experience.”

—Doug Reeves

The Leadership Framework

Framework Purposes

• inspire a shared vision of leadership in schools and boards

• promote a common language that fosters an understanding of leadership and what it means to be a school and system leader

• identify the practices and competencies that describe effective leadership

• guide the design and implementation of professional learning and development for school and system leaders.

Domains

• Setting direction

• Building relationships and developing people

• Developing the organization

• Leading the instructional program

• Securing accountability

Leader Practices and Competencies

• Practices

• Competencies

• Knowledge

• Attitudes

Purposes of the Indicators

• What do we do?

• How do we talk about it?

• What do we need to know?

• What beliefs and guiding principles do we need to embrace?

Supports

Resources

Literacies for Learning:

Guide for Administrators and Other Facilitators of Teachers’ Learning

Guide for Administrators and Other Facilitators of Teachers’ Learning for

Mathematics Instruction

Working Documents

• The Indicators, like the frameworks, are working documents that will evolve as a result of continued research, conversations with stakeholders, and feedback

AlignmentEquity• (Literacy) Increasingly inclusive classrooms that

reflect diverse cultural knowledge and practices; support anti-discrimination education; appeal to both genders; value and build on the knowledge, experiences, and literacies all learners bring to school

• (Math) The classroom becomes increasingly inclusive by: reflecting cultural knowledge and practices; supporting anti-discrimination education; appealing to both genders; valuing knowledge, experiences and literacies all learners bring to school

Alignment

Teaching Practices• Increasingly thoughtful and coherent use of

literacy and learning strategies—explicit, systematic, understanding of the conditions for effective strategy instruction, modeling, and application

• (Math) Increasingly thoughtful use of literacy strategies—being explicit and systematic, understanding conditions for effective strategy instruction, modelling, and application

Alignment

Curriculum• Increasingly thoughtful selection and use of

literacy and learning strategies based on matching deep structure and principles to curriculum concepts and skills

• (Math) Increasingly thoughtful selection and use of literacy and learning strategies based on matching underlying structure and principles to concepts and skills

Subject-Specific• (Math) Students increasingly take responsibility

for learning of others and self. Math sense becomes the criterion for learning

• (English) Teaching, modelling and engaging learners in a range of text pertinent to the discipline, including:– Workplace and other authentic documents– Fiction, graphical and hybrid text– Informational text – Electronic text– Self-selected texts

Alignment

Learning• A shift from rote learning and recall to

developing conceptual understanding, making connections, reorganizing information, thinking critically, and engaging in the stance of critical literacy that compels social action

• (Math) A shift from rote learning and recall to developing conceptual understanding and making connections

AlignmentLearning Tools• Increasing respect for and active connecting

with technological knowledge and skills, and the digital backgrounds students bring to school

• (Math) A shift in attitudes about using tools in making sense of mathematics and in demonstrating understanding from just struggling students to all learners, and to the extent indicated in the revised Ontario curriculum for mathematics

Going Deeper

(Works-in-progress)

10-Year Frame

Video and other records of practice

• Research and research

• Rubrics

• Video

• Web-based resources for administrators, facilitators of teachers’ learning, and teachers

Math-Talk Community

Question Prompts

“I can see that you use Anticipation Guides (K-W-L charts, etc.) to support learners in accessing prior knowledge and making connections to their own experiences in preparation for reading the text.”– What is your thinking about the use of

first language other than English for pre-reading activities?

Question Prompts

“Our pre-meeting notes indicated that this lesson would focus on writing.”– Why did you decide to devote so much of

class time to talk in small groups and to develop graphic organizers?

English—Administrators and Teachers

• Building on all learners’ prior knowledge, intellectual strengths,developmental level, and personal interests, e.g.

• Anticipation Guide (CAA, 20)• Probable Passage (TLSSE L/E, 7-9, 8)• Place Mat (TLSSE E, 10-12, 106)

English—Administrators• Excerpts from The Ontario Curriculum,

English, http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/teachers/curriculum.html

• “Teachers who provide quality instruction respect students’ strengths and address their learning needs, using assessment information to plan instruction. They clarify the purpose for learning, help students activate prior knowledge, and differentiate instruction for individual students and small groups according to need. Teachers explicitly teach and model learning strategies and encourage students to talk through their thinking and learning processes. They also provide many opportunities for students to practise and apply their developing knowledge and skills.” p. 27

English—Teachers

Ministry Resources• Strategy Glossary, English Resources,

Resources for The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9-12, English, 2007, Resources, Curriculum Unit Planner, http://www.ocup.org/resources/#growpdf

• Developing Thinking Skills Through Higher-Level Questioning

“Leadership is about creating a domain in which human beings continually deepen their understanding of reality and become more capable of

participating….” Senge