Personalized professional learning
A Better Way to Finish Strong
How Collective Leadership Helps School Leaders Finish Strong
The month of May is a marathon, not a sprint. Testing, hiring, celebrations, and next-year planning. It’s all happening at once, and the pressure to “finish strong” is real.
But for too many leaders, “finishing strong” gets translated into “doing more,” and often doing so alone.
There’s another way.
What Collective Leadership Looks Like at the End of the Year
The work may not be easier, but leaders in these schools and districts aren’t just surviving the end of the year. Rather, they’re designing it with their teams to co-own the work and the results. Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Desiloed Decision-Making
Instead of tackling hiring, planning, and budgeting in parallel conversations, they bring the work into one shared frame. In our work with the University of Maryland School Improvement Leadership Academy, principals and assistant principals focus on competency-based professional learning to sharpen their skills in inclusive leadership practice.
“SILA provided research with practical skills to improve school systems. With the skills I developed in SILA, we were able to increase our attendance rate this year from 70.1% to 83.1%.” Allison Johnson, J.D., NBCT, Assistant Principal, Anne Arundel County Public Schools
Distributed Reflection
Every team, not just administrators or the central office, has space to look back, name what worked, and surface what needs attention.
As part of our partnership with the South Carolina Department of Education, 31 schools across 15 districts are implementing collective leadership practices to spur improvement and reflect on what their schools need to be a thriving learning community.
Centered co-ownership
When the temptation to “just get it done” kicks in, they ask: Who else could lead this? And more importantly, who is already leading, but hasn’t been named?
By coming together to view student data as a team, Scott’s Branch Middle School was able to share to increase its capacity to support each student.
“Student achievement was always the core of our work. But the problem was we were all on our own islands. …Doing the data walls helped us see a clear picture of what each child needed.”—Caroline Mack, Teacher of the Year, Scott’s Branch Middle High School
When leaders aren’t carrying the load alone, they’re part of a system that holds together, even in the toughest weeks.
Try this
End-of-year pressure can make us default to “just get it done.” But co-leadership requires us to slow down and shift the approach. Try this:
- Map out a key end-of-year task that’s currently sitting on your plate. It could be anything from finalizing budgets to planning PD or preparing graduation events.
- Identify two other team members already contributing to this task, whether actively or behind the scenes.
- Name one action you can take to share the ownership of this task with them publicly: acknowledging their role in a meeting, shifting responsibility, or asking for their input on key decisions.
The goal isn’t just to share the workload. The goal is to co-own the process and outcomes as a team.
Learn more about how schools are implementing collective leadership to drive real change.
The Power of School Learning Labs
Observing Collective Leadership in Practice
How do schools make meaningful, sustainable change?
It’s a question educators ask themselves every school year.
In our work with partners, we’ve learned that big, innovative ideas do not always shake up a system. It’s the small shifts in practice that lead to sustainable school improvement.
Over the last seven years, Mira Education has partnered with the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) to support schools in making small shifts for significant impact through a collective leadership approach.
Collective leadership is a research-based approach that harnesses the expertise of each team member to multiply leadership capacity and bring more perspectives into the decision-making process.
Collective Leadership Initiative
The Collective Leadership Initiative (CLI) was established in 2018, and 64 schools have participated in this partnership between Mira Education and the SCDE. As part of CLI, school teams across South Carolina come together to identify a Priority of Practice (PoP) for their schools. The PoP is a growth area for school teams will focus on for two years. Teams identify the actions needed to address their PoP and plan for small, sustainable shifts in their collective practice. To ensure there are a variety of perspectives and expertise at the table, CLI teams are comprised of educators across roles – administrators, teachers, and support staff.
But what does collective leadership look like in practice?
Learning Labs
To support teams in answering this question and to offer inspiration for shared work, CLI schools participate in learning labs. Learning labs are school visits to other CLI schools to obserce the impact of collective leadership in classrooms in real time.
Recently, Mira Education and SCDE co-facilitated four learning labs at Blythewood High School, Horse Creek Academy, J.C. Lynch Elementary School, and Maryville Elementary School. While each host campus had its own style, all participants observed classrooms, heard from staff and students, and asked questions about the host campus’ collective leadership practice.
Additionally, each school team examined its efficacy survey data. The efficacy survey is an anonymous survey administered by CLI that measures the degree to which teachers believe they impact one another and student learning.
This data-reflection is part of the CLI planning process. Schools will come together again later this month to adjust their approach and identify potential shifts to their PoP to better support their team.
Learning labs effectively allow educators to see collective leadership in practice. They help the theoretical approaches learned in CLI become tangible and, more importantly, actionable.
For support identifying a Priority of Practice and to learn more about applying a collective leadership lens to your work, email info@miraeducation.org.
3 Takeaways from Learning Forward’s Annual Conference
Education organizations have a responsibility to also be learning organizations. Recently, Mira Education staff Alesha Daughtrey and Lori Nazareno, alongside Richland School District Two principal Dr. Cassandra Bosier, had the opportunity to present at the Learning Forward’s 2023 Annual Conference. The conference theme, Evidence into Action, concentrated on evidence-based practices and bridging research and implementation to improve student outcomes.
Their session focused on, “Leading Collectively: Strategies for Effective and Inclusive Change,” and participants explored ways their districts and organizations are seeking to improve. Those changes covered almost every aspect of what schools do: teacher retention, making up for learning loss, supporting new educators, addressing needs of increasingly diverse learners, engaging students and families, and taking on new instructional approaches.
But as different as these improvement challenges sound, their success turns on the same three interlocking questions – questions not uncommon across schools and districts.
How do we find time to do the work that makes improvement possible?
There will never be enough time in the day – let alone in a school schedule – for everything educators want to do for their students. The secret to success lies not in making time for everything but getting clear about the most important thing for right now – and then systematically releasing everything that stands in the way of that focus. Leadership means presence not everywhere, but where your expertise can be most supportive. Releasing the tasks that do not require your expertise is an effective strategy for finding time to address the priority that does.
How can we intentionally set priorities?
The word “priority” means “something that comes before all other things.” If we have multiple priorities, we don’t know which of those comes before the others – and then we have no priority at all. So, the secret is in choosing a singular priority that is most critical for what we need to do and lead now, knowing we can select a new priority once we’ve tackled the first. Until then, other matters may be important focuses or things to watch, but they are not our top priority.
How do we build the idea of “one team”?
When working in a team, defining a single priority for work can feel more complex. It is also an opportunity to do two things.
First, we can acknowledge that each individual on a team has a different role, perspective, and bank of expertise that informs a distinct priority. Sometimes, we disagree about what others’ priority should be. Those disagreements can be challenging to navigate but are essential to getting to shared clarity about how each professional contributes.
Second, we do have to agree on a team priority: the singular aim to which all of our efforts add up. We may disagree on this too at times, but developing a sense of authentic collaboration and co-ownership of work relies on a shared vision. Without it, we can’t have a common identity for our teams.
If these questions sounded familiar, we invite you to join us – whether you joined our session or not. Download the session handout for a free resource for school improvement planning and more information on leading collectively.
Personalizing Professional Learning through Micro-credentials: Wake Co. Public School System
DETAILS
Who: Wake County Public School System
When: 2021 – 2023
Where: Raleigh, NC
What: PPL systems design, PPL system pilot implementation, Micro-credential development, MC assessor training
WHY
Wake Co. Public School System spent years exploring micro-credentials as a way to personalize professional learning, identify expertise among educators, and develop capacity among instructional assistants and other support professionals. Such a strategy could create the basis of a “grow your own” approach as new teachers and support professionals had opportunities to build their skills and leadership – and could provide incentives to remain in the district. But while district staff had achieved consensus on the approach, they needed a way to turn ideas into action.
WHAT
The opportunity that Wake County saw was with Instructional Assistants and 4th and 5th year teachers who were often less fully engaged with regular professional learning than certified early-career educators. The district assembled a design team including representatives of several departments. Mira Education facilitated their efforts to develop systems that would not only produce high-quality micro-credentials for the initial pilot but that could supply a replicable template for launching competency-based professional learning across their complex, large district.
Our team knew a lot about micro-credentials and what we wanted to accomplish. But [Mira Education’s] facilitation and expertise was still helpful. …Having a partnership that structured our work made a difference.
– Sonya Stephens, Senior Director of Data, Research, and Accountability, WCPSS
HOW
Mira Education facilitated a series of virtual design sessions that laid essential groundwork for the pilot: specifying a clear theory of action, naming meaningful metrics for learning and success, and framing clear language to communicate about the pilot. A series of online retreats focused not only on building the development skills of the design team, but also with an eye on equipping the team to lead this work with other departments.
By providing personalized tools and focused small-group coaching, Mira Education was able to guide the design team to create development systems that reflected the best practices cultivated by Mira and the specific needs of the Wake County Public School System. Mira Education also led members of the team through an experiential assessment training that compelled the team to think about the full micro-credential ecosystem they were creating and how they could streamline roles and responsibilities across the team.
In addition to the technical aspects of the work, Mira Education provided support and feedback to the design team as they navigated the adaptive challenges. This support led to streamlined tools that were embedded in district practices already in place, and clear communication strategies that fostered collaboration. With this support, the design team was able to enlist other departments in the effort to support instructional assistants and fourth and fifth year teachers through personalized learning.
OUTCOME
As a result of this work, Wake Co. has created comprehensive systems of micro-credential development and assessment that are embedded in the practices of a team within the district office. That team has developed several micro-credentials, consistent communications about their intended audiences, and the role that they can play in professional learning and staff retention across the district. As a result, the team that designed the initial pilot is now in deeper partnerships with two other departments, preparing for sustainability and scale in supporting instructional assistants and 4th and 5th year teachers. Additionally, Wake County is positioned to lead up to a dozen other North Carolina districts in similar efforts as the state works to retain educators.
The information presented by [Mira Education] unlocked the power of the group work time by providing us with useful context and framing so we could successfully create our micro-credentials.
– Spencer Ziegler, Performance Assessment Administrator, Data, Research, & Accountability Department, WCPSS
IMPACT
The pilot enrolled 75% of invited instructional assistants and early-career educators in 2020-21, allowing the district to identify specific knowledge and skills held by nearly 200 educators that could be leveraged to support instructional improvement and equity.
Micro-credentials and Education Policy in the United States: Recognizing Learning and Leadership for Our Nation’s Teachers
More districts and states are renewing exploration of micro-credentials as an option for personalized professional learning. But the right kind of policies are required to make the promise of micro-credentials fully scalable and systemic. This brief from CTQ and Digital Promise captures insights and essential questions for districts and states to consider.
