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Educators engage in a collective leadership discussion

What is Collective Leadership?

This blog is part of our Unlocking Collective Leadership: 7 Conditions for Lasting Impact series, highlighting the conditions that help P20 systems move from individual effort to shared leadership. 

A Lever for School Improvement

Long-lasting change doesn’t come from a program binder. It comes from people. At Mira Education, we’ve learned that unlocking a team’s full potential starts with how leadership is shared and supported.
Every school has untapped wisdom and expertise. What if we stopped overlooking it and started organizing leadership around it? Collective leadership isn’t a new program. Instead, it’s an approach that reimagines how teams work together.

From Buy-in to Co-ownership 

Collective leadership allows educators to share the work in a way that builds ownership rather than buy-in. It’s more than task delegation. It unleashes educators’ collective expertise to solve problems and serve each student better.

Leadership thrives in schools where staff culture supports shared responsibility across roles, not just titles. In this approach, a team of educators shares leadership work in ways that move learners and learning communities toward improvement and innovation.

The Mira Education collective leadership development model aligns school and systems teams’ practice to support the following seven conditions shown to build collective efficacy, educator retention, and effective instructional and leadership practice:

  • Vision and strategy
  • Supportive administration
  • Capacity and resources
  • Work structures
  • Relationships and social norms
  • Shared influence
  • Orientation toward improvement 

Collective Leadership in Practice 

Since 2017, Mira Education, in partnership with the South Carolina Department of Education, has supported schools across the state through the Collective Leadership Initiative (CLI). By building systems rooted in collective leadership, participating schools have seen measurable improvements in both staff and student outcomes.

Notably, between 2018 and 2023, the percentage of teachers who identified as leaders increased by 71%. In the 2023–2024 school year, 94% of CLI schools improved teacher retention.

These shifts in staff culture are translating into stronger student outcomes. Three CLI schools have earned national recognition for student achievement, and one school reduced office referrals by more than 75% within two years of joining the initiative.

This approach is not just about improving schools. It’s transforming how they work.

Small Shifts to Activate Collective Leadership

The best way to start reframing and reimaging your approach to leadership isn’t with a full rollout plan, but honest dialogue. The goal isn’t to have all the answers. It’s to surface the expertise already in the room and think differently about how you work together.

Here are some small but impactful next steps:

Gather a team of educators in different roles (administrators, teachers, instructional coaches, etc.) to discuss the following prompts:

  • What untapped expertise already exists in our school/district? What evidence do we have about the presence of that expertise? (Note: Avoid relying on word-of-mouth.)
  • Where and in what ways do we leverage expertise, and how can we expand those opportunities for others?
  • What ongoing challenge do we face that would benefit from leveraging expertise to explore potential solutions? 

Use the conditions matrix and this discussion tool to identify a condition your team wants to focus on to address your identified ongoing challenge.

Resources for Collective Leadership

Creating change and improvement is complex, challenging work. Collective leadership provides mutual support toward shared goals, allowing teachers and administrators to build collective efficacy and work better together. This discussion tool is a reflection guide to help you approach and navigate the Collective Leadership Conditions Matrix to gain insight into your team’s work.

Want help bringing collective leadership to life in your system? Learn more about Mira Education’s approach or reach out to start a conversation.

by mira-mariah

Two educators collaborate on vision and strategy

From Compliance to Co-Ownership

This blog is part of our Unlocking Collective Leadership: 7 Conditions for Lasting Impact series, highlighting the conditions that help P20 systems move from individual effort to shared leadership. 

Why Shared Vision and Strategy Matter

A vision statement on a poster doesn’t mean much unless the people doing the work helped write it. In collective leadership, how we build a vision matters just as much as what it says.

As Margaret Wheatley put it, “No one is successful if they merely present a plan in finished form to others…” That’s why one of the core conditions of collective leadership is co-created vision and strategy. Let’s explore what that looks like in action.

What is Vision and Strategy?

Vision and Strategy comprise the first condition of collective leadership. It’s the shared North Star that guides a team’s decisions, priorities, and daily work.

In collective leadership, this means:

  • Co-created: Developed collaboratively by the full team, across roles and titles
  • Clearly defined: Specific enough to inform decisions and drive alignment
  • Communicated and lived: Used consistently to shape culture, strategy, and practice

When teams get this right, everyone knows where they’re headed—and how they’ll get there together.

One school that embraced this condition early in its collective leadership journey is Dr. Rose Wilder Elementary School, where clarity of vision laid the foundation for deeper collaboration and stronger results.

Vision and Strategy in Practice 

While few teams have the authority to craft a new vision statement for their school or district, all should have the opportunity to define what the vision means for their team in their current time and context. As a result, they’re more likely to have the chance to develop the strategy intended to meet the goals aligned with the vision.

Take Dr. Rose Wilder Elementary in Clarendon County. When two schools merged, the leadership team knew they couldn’t just graft one school’s identity onto another. Instead, they needed to create something new, together. So they approached the moment with intention:

  • They set a mindset across the community: We’re building a new school,
  • School leaders met one-on-one with staff from the former Summerton school to learn what was working and what needed attention,
  • Committed to preserving effective practices while addressing persistent pain points, and
  • Opened up the conversation, hosting family town halls to share transparently and invite feedback.

This wasn’t vision on paper. This was vision lived out loud. And the results spoke volumes: for the first time ever, Dr. Rose Wilder earned an Excellent rating on the state report card.

When vision is co-created and strategy is shared, results don’t just improve; they stick.

Turning Vision and Strategy Into Shared Action 

Most teams don’t need a new vision. They need a shared one. Whether you’re launching a new initiative, tackling a persistent challenge, or navigating change, co-creating vision and strategy helps your team move in the same direction. 

Gather the team and start here:

  • What is our team currently working on, or something coming up, that could benefit from a co-created vision and strategy?
  • If this effort we are currently working on were wildly successful, what would you see, hear, think, and say?
  • What are the next three to five action steps to make the shared vision a reality?
  • What can each team member contribute to ensure the wildly successful vision is realized?
  • What resources and/or supports are needed to make those contributions?

Resources for Vision and Strategy

Ready to start the conversation? This facilitation guide offers step-by-step support for co-creating vision and strategy with your team, from identifying key stakeholders to building consensus. It’s designed to help teams move from ideas to shared action through a collective leadership lens.

Download the Vision and Strategy Facilitation Guide

Want tools, examples, and reflection prompts delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe to the Unlocking Collective Leadership email series to dig deeper into each condition and explore how to bring collective leadership to life in your school or district.

by mira-mariah

School leadership team reflecting together. Collective leadership in action.

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.

by mira-mariah

Education leader guiding a team through change with confidence and collaboration in a school setting.

Uncertainty ≠ Instability: 4 Key Strategies for Education Leaders to Support Staff Through Change

Change in education is constant, but uncertainty doesn’t have to lead to instability or getting stuck. Education leaders play a crucial role in navigating the unpredictable nature of school improvement, curriculum shifts, and policy changes. By focusing on what’s within your control and supporting your staff through the unknown, you can lead confidently, reduce stress, and promote a healthy, collaborative school culture.

Here are four actionable strategies to help education leaders support their teams during uncertain times and create stability in change.

1. Focus on What You Can Control: Leadership Strategies for Success

In uncertain times, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by factors beyond your control, like changes in education policy, fluctuating budgets, or evolving state mandates. However, focusing on what you can control is the most effective way to maintain stability within your team.

You can’t control everything, but you can control your leadership approach: how you communicate, how you advocate for resources, and how you support your staff. By focusing on these areas, you can avoid burnout and build a positive, proactive school culture.

Key Takeaway:

In times of uncertainty, education leaders should focus on the leadership actions and decisions within their control. If it is not yours to do, it is not yours to worry about. This maximizes the impact you can have and fosters resilience.

2. Communicate Early and Often: Building Trust with Transparent Leadership

Effective communication is one of an education leader’s most important tools during change. Proactive communication ensures that staff members are informed, reducing confusion and anxiety about potential shifts.

Whether it’s about curriculum updates, policy changes, or school-wide initiatives, keep your team in the loop early and often. By being transparent and consistent, you prevent assumptions and encourage a culture of trust. Staff should know they can rely on you for updates and information.

Key Takeaway:

Communication is the foundation of trust. Early and frequent updates are key to keeping staff informed and reducing uncertainty during periods of change.

3. Avoid Siloed Decision-Making: Promoting Collaboration Across Teams

Siloed decision-making can lead to misalignment and frustration, especially when facing uncertain times. When teams or leaders work in isolation, it often results in confusion and resistance to change. Instead, promote collaboration across teams and departments to ensure alignment and foster a shared sense of ownership.

Involve staff in decision-making processes early on and create open channels for feedback and collaboration. This ensures decisions are made with collective input, which boosts morale and reduces the risk of misunderstandings.

Key Takeaway:

Collaboration is essential for navigating uncertainty. Break down silos by ensuring decisions are made with input from all stakeholders, aligning your efforts across teams and departments.

4. Make Small Shifts for Meaningful Improvement: Sustainable School Change

Instead of waiting for large-scale changes, focus on small, incremental shifts that will drive long-term improvement. In times of uncertainty, making steady, manageable changes is more sustainable and less disruptive.

Rather than overhauling systems or processes, make consistent adjustments that can be refined over time. Whether revising a program, testing a new strategy, or making small tweaks to daily operations, these incremental changes lead to sustainable growth.

Key Takeaway:

Sustainable change comes from small, intentional shifts. Focus on incremental improvements rather than major disruptions for more significant long-term impact.

Looking for More Resources?

Leading during uncertain times doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By focusing on what you can control, communicating effectively, promoting collaboration, and making incremental improvements, you can guide your staff through unpredictable changes confidently and clearly.

For more tools and resources on leading through school change and supporting your team during uncertainty, visit www.miraeducation.org. Our free resources can help you lead for sustainable change and build a stronger, more resilient school culture.

by mira-mariah

School leadership team removing barriers to improvement

Removing Barriers to Impact: How Education Leaders Can Find Focus in the Chaos

Why Education Leaders Get Stuck

Education leadership is filled with competing priorities — curriculum implementation, teacher retention, student success, and operational challenges. With so much happening at once, even the best plans can stall.

Maybe a new initiative isn’t gaining traction. Maybe a curriculum shift hasn’t delivered the expected student growth. Or maybe, despite endless meetings, the same challenges persist year after year.

When this happens, it’s often not because the ideas are wrong — it’s because barriers, like follow-through, misalignment, and outside factors, prevent real progress.

The solution? Removing barriers to impact — focusing on what truly matters and clearing the path for meaningful change.

How to Remove Barriers and Gain Momentum

As a design and implementation partner, we’ve helped school and district leaders refine their vision and strategy to meet their unique needs. The key? Harnessing collective leadership, aligning expertise with goals, and identifying what’s standing in the way of progress.

Here are three powerful ways education leaders can remove barriers, focus their efforts, and drive sustainable impact:

1. Leverage Expertise: Leadership is a Team Sport

The best school and district leaders don’t try to do it all alone. Collective leadership ensures that the right people are making decisions in their areas of expertise. When teams collaborate effectively, they remove roadblocks that slow down progress.

Action Step: Identify key strengths within your team. Who can take the lead in specific areas? How can you build leadership capacity across your school or district?

2. Step Back & Reflect: Use Data to Identify Roadblocks

Great education leaders don’t just collect data — they use it to pinpoint barriers and adjust strategies. Reflection isn’t just about checking progress; it’s about identifying what’s holding your team back.

Action Step: Schedule a data-driven reflection session with your team. Use both qualitative and quantitative data to assess progress, celebrate small wins, and adjust your school improvement plan accordingly. Download this tool to guide your session. 

3. Turn Reflection into Action: Remove What No Longer Works

Reflection without action leads to frustration. The most effective education leaders take insights and turn them into concrete next steps—especially when it means eliminating outdated practices.

Action Step: After every strategy session, define one priority, assign ownership, and set a clear timeline for action. Removing unnecessary tasks and refining focus helps teams gain momentum. Download this tool to help you sort through initiatives and tasks to refine or remove. 

Removing Barriers to Impact: A Mindset Shift for Education Leaders

Progress doesn’t come from doing more — it comes from focusing on what truly moves the needle. By stepping back, leveraging your team, and committing to actionable school leadership strategies, you can clear obstacles and create lasting change.

Feeling stuck? Let’s remove the barriers to impact together. Connect with Mira Education to build momentum and implement high-impact, sustainable school improvement solutions.

by mira-mariah

Two seated adults talk to a student about collective leadership in practice at his school.

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.

by mira-mariah

Releasing Jargon for Innovation: Reframing the Language of Improvement

In my fourth year in education, our superintendent championed the word lagniappe as our staff mantra. At district-wide meetings, in e-blasts, and in all staff communication, he would remind us to embrace lagniappe as part of our daily routines. The word was deeply personal to him and, in turn, was meant to inspire staff to go the extra mile.

Lanyards and stickers were handed out on professional development days, and lagniappe was plastered across social media. It was the mindset we were meant to embrace as part of our staff identity. But, like several others, I had no idea what it meant or how to pronounce it. Many of us wore lagniappe on our school badges because it was a fun phrase, but we had no clue about what we were trying to embody.  

I have since learned that lagniappe, pronounced lawn-yop, is a Cajun-French word meaning a little extra on purpose. This beautiful sentiment was completely lost on me while working in the district.

It’s Time to Ditch The Jargon  

Although an atypical phrase in most of the K12 space, lagniappe is not unlike other education jargon. Too often, we use buzzwords and professional-speak to describe school improvement work without pausing to understand what those words mean in practice. 

Moreover, school improvement can be overburdened by negativity just by the words chosen to describe the process and outcomes. Words like “compliance” and “mandate” can muddy the purpose of the work, leading to confusion rather than innovation. 

How can teams overcome this confusion? Start by naming and defining the words that impede collaboration. 

Building a Glossary of Shared Language 

Collaboration and shared leadership should be accessible. If teams are talking past each other, it’s time to parse out the words that are stalling progress. Through discussion, invite team members to share words and phrases that reinforce compliance and accountability mindsets. Maybe it’s something as unique as lagniappe or as common as fidelity. Whatever the case may be, use your list to gain insight into how shared language shapes shared work. 

As your team identifies terms, note why these words may not align with innovation and what words could be used instead. Use these prompts to guide your thinking:

  • What mindset might this word or phrase evoke? 
  • How might that work against the innovation mindset we want to create across our team?
  • What’s the word or phrase that would evoke an innovation mindset that could be used in place of the original? 

Commit to Shifts 

As you assess your shared language, be intentional in your follow-through and commit to reframing your shared words. Use these three prompts to help implement your new glossary and sustain these new shifts:

  • What are some upcoming opportunities to practice these shifts in language? 
  • What will you and your team do to reinforce the use of words that support your innovation mindset?
  • Determine a time to revisit the glossary you’ve created.

Download our tool, Reframing The Language of Improvement, for a complete facilitation guide and glossary template.

by mira-mariah

District leaders in strategic planning meeting

Onboarding with Intention: 3 Shifts to Improve the Process

The start of the school year is filled with energy, optimism, and intention-setting for everyone, and especially for new staff who will teach and lead alongside us this fall.  The excitement and rush of a new year are terrific moments to engage new staff positively, but can also create special challenges for focused support that have to be addressed if we want to retain as well as onboard these colleagues.

As you prepare for new staff members, three mindset shifts can give the onboarding process fresh intentionality and purpose.

Onboarding Goes Beyond Orientation

Effective onboarding is an ongoing process that takes place over an extended period of time. Though onboarding can include aspects of orientation and training, it goes well beyond that.

Onboarding is defined as the action or process of integrating a new employee into an organization. In these times of teacher shortages and retention challenges, it is crucial that onboarding not only prepares new staff for work success but also creates a sense of belonging which can improve retention.

Consider the following questions as you design onboarding to actively engage new staff in the daily practices of your school or district.

Three Questions to Shift Onboarding Beyond Orientation:

  1. How might we learn of the expertise that new staff brings to the work and share the expertise that already exists with them?
  2. What structures might we put in place to integrate new staff members into the culture of our school/district by networking our practice?
  3. How might we build a sense of ownership and mutual responsibility for learning design and outcomes?

How your team chooses to onboard staff sets the pace and tone for the rest of the school year for not only new team members but also for all those who interact with them. While there are a number of ideas and tools for onboarding, at the end of the day, small shifts in onboarding can add up to large impacts on staff success, retention, and belonging.

What mindsets are you shifting this school year?

Connect with Mira Education to jumpstart your onboarding practices. Let’s reimagine onboarding together.

For P20 education organizations seeking solutions to complex challenges, Mira Education is a proven design and implementation partner that applies a unique collective leadership approach to sustainable systems change to positively impact leading and learning.

Learn more about how we connect the dots among expertise and resources.

by mira-mariah

An educator reflects on collective leadership using an anchor chart paper and colorful markers.

Prioritizing Teacher Agency: A Tool for School Improvement

Preparing students for success is complex work. Fortunately, we have found that teachers are ready and willing to take on the challenge of meeting the needs of this complex work alongside administrators. In fact, that is why many teachers entered the profession and continue to pioneer new approaches to learning. Teachers lead classrooms every day and seek to continuously learn and grow in their profession. 

Even a decade ago, one in four teachers indicated interest in leading beyond their classroom (MetLife, 2013). Professional autonomy remains a consideration for retaining teachers; a recent survey found that teachers cited the ability to influence decision-making at a school level as one of their considerations for professional satisfaction and retention (SC TEACHER, 2023). By tapping into educators’ talent, school and district administrators can leverage teacher efficacy and agency to better prepare students to succeed in an increasingly dynamic world.

The Collective Leadership Approach 

These factors led the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) and Mira Education to create the Collective Leadership Initiative (CLI) that explicitly supports the development of agency and leadership across teams that include teachers, coaches, and principals. 

Collective leadership leverages the capacity of educators in many roles to accomplish complex leadership work, within and across schools. We know that collective leadership is moderately to strongly correlated to collective teacher efficacy and, thereby, student outcomes (Eckert, Morgan, and Daughtrey, 2023).

Through this effort, we have witnessed collective leadership positively impact student outcomes, teacher retention, and a number of other school factors. One CLI  school, Walker Gamble Elementary, has gone from being designated as an underperforming, to receiving statewide recognition as one of South Carolina’s Palmetto’s Finest, to becoming a National Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Distinguished School. Importantly, the school continues to be a Title I campus, has not added new positions or hours to the schedule, and has not radically restaffed. Instead, its CLI team found ways to better connect the resources they already had within their building to meet student needs.

Other schools that have integrated collective leadership into how they approach their work report increases in student academic growth, student leadership, teacher leadership, positive responses about school environment, and decreases in discipline. Many are considered destination schools; when vacancies open, high quality teachers apply because they want to be a part of those teams.

Not only does collective leadership move the needle on some of the biggest challenges in education, but it creates space for leadership opportunities where teachers can exercise agency. Moreover, it signals trust in teacher professionalism. As Amanda Williamson, teacher at Walker Gamble Elementary said, “When you allow me to exercise agency and do what’s right for my students…I truly feel like I’m looked at as a trusted professional.”

So, what are some of the keys to building teacher agency and collective leadership? We suggest you begin with priority setting.

Priorities

Effectiveness over efficiency

Let’s be honest: collaboration is less efficient than agency without parameters, but collaboration done intentionally has a compounding positive impact. The hope of collective leadership is that collaboration — even if it takes longer and involves understanding the perspectives and thoughts of people who think differently — multiplies the expertise of the group and makes both collective and individual actions even more effective. When school and district leaders help groups understand the strengths of individual team members, outline roles and responsibilities, and clearly describe which tasks are collaborative and which tasks are independent, teachers are enabled to use their talents freely. 

Through CLI, the SCDE has had to figure out the balance between what we insist upon – the requirements every school must meet – and what we assist with – the supports and experiences that are unique to schools. Where we’ve landed is that every school collects the same efficacy and conditions data, but individual schools can choose where to focus their improvement efforts and what additional data they will collect to show progress toward that goal. 

Personalized over programland

In addition to prioritizing effectiveness, we must also prioritize a personalized approach toward improvement rather than a cookie-cutter solution.  We share from experience that it’s easy as a systems leader to get stuck in “programland”. In programland, our theories of action sound like this: “If our organization invests in getting schools to implement the program with fidelity, then the strength of the program will help our schools improve.” Living in programland is easy and while many programs are evidence-based and effective, they can be costly. Furthermore, to be successful, programs often need both buy-in and consistency – a lofty goal in an already demanding profession. If we view teacher leadership and agency as a one-size fits all program, we run the risk of preparing teachers for leadership roles that may never materialize in their context.  

So, if we want teacher agency to be sustainable, we must exit programland and model collective leadership with the schools and districts we serve. When shifting to collective leadership, we can start by listening and asking the questions teachers are most apt to answer. 

  • What specific needs is the school seeing? 
  • What are the leadership strengths of the faculty? 
  • What are the specific strengths and areas for growth in classroom instruction? 
  • What support or professional development would help teachers and administrators grow in their ability to improve the school? 

We encourage districts and states to start small with a group of schools that are interested in growing the capacity of teachers. A book study on collective leadership or a commitment to collecting and sharing data around a problem of practice are great places to start. Our book, Small Shifts, Meaningful Improvement offers both case studies from CLI as well as tools for teams to pilot their own collective leadership approach.  

Cost-efficient and continuous over costly and complicated 

Collective leadership that integrates teacher agency is not costly or complicated. However, it can be difficult to implement because it takes time and focus. It takes time to craft the school calendar and schedule so that teachers and administrators have opportunities to collaborate. It takes discipline to focus resources and conversation on learning and teaching. It takes sustained effort to develop teachers’ leadership. It takes skill to build the trusting relationships between and among faculty, students, and families that enable growth. What South Carolina collective leadership schools are learning is that taking the time to create systems that grow teacher leadership is worth it.

What collective leadership does NOT take is adding another thing to educators’ already full plates. It requires rethinking how educators–together–approach the complex work of preparing students. Dr. Cassandra Bosier, Principal at a CLI participating school, puts it best: “The only thing I am adding is opportunity.”

When your priorities are effective, personalized, cost-efficient and continuous, you create space for collective leadership and teacher agency to thrive.

Ultimately, preparing students to succeed in our increasingly complex world is going to require that we leverage the expertise of all educators. Prioritizing efforts that build and leverage teacher efficacy that are effective, personalized, and cost efficient are key to ensuring the student outcomes that we need and support the teachers who do the hard work every day.

To learn more about CLI visit the SCDE website and for more collective tools and resources visit www.miraeducation.org/tools.

 

Bibliography

Jonathan Eckert, Grant Morgan & Alesha Daughtrey (2023): Collective School Leadership and Collective Teacher Efficacy through Turbulence, Leadership and Policy in Schools, DOI: 10.1080/15700763.2023.2239894 

MetLife. (2013). (rep.). The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: Challenges for School Leadership. Retrieved November 27, 2023, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED542202.pdf.

Starrett, A., Dmitrieva, S., Raygoza, A., Carti!, B., Gao, R., Ferguson, S., Quiroz, B., & Tran, H. (2023 November). 2023 Teacher Working Conditions in South Carolina Rural and Town Schools. SC TEACHER. https://sc-teacher.org/documents/twc-23-rural-and-town/

by mira-mariah

Educators stand in a room collaborating on how to use collective leadership for school improvement

Doing More With Less: Preparing for the ESSER Funding Cliff

Next fall’s $190 billion federal funding cliff may be causing almost as many sleepless nights as the pandemic did. For superintendents and other K12 district leaders, early Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds were essential for one-time emergency spending. Later, districts spent more to address learning loss, staffing needs, and other capacity-building to support full recovery.

Assessments of learning loss and equity implications for communities suggest that full recovery from the pandemic is far from finished, even if ESSER funding is ending. It’s easy to build an argument that schools need more base funding to continue to hire and retain educators, restore long-vacant positions for counseling and other student supports, and provide intensive programs for targeted students.

But the reality is that districts and states will have to identify cuts with the end of ESSER funding. The sooner and more thoughtfully districts can begin planning, the better. Budget cuts are unavoidable, but district leadership teams can use this as an opportunity to focus on what is actually important. Four practices can make sure that the cliff doesn’t send you into a free-fall.

Take time to articulate priorities.

From paraprofessionals to the superintendent’s office, educators across all roles agree on one thing: they never have enough money or time. While it’s hard to make more of either, we can choose how we spend both. That means getting distinct about what is most important – not just what’s ideal or urgent – and putting all our energy and resources behind just those things.

The daily urgencies of our work can make it challenging to take the time to identify these top priorities, let alone articulate them for school communities. But it’s an essential first step. If we don’t know our priorities, we can’t protect them — and that means cuts will be felt even more deeply.

De-silo the decision-making process.

Defining “priorities” depends on your perspective.   Meeting the needs of 30 individual students and determining what works at the district scale are and should be entirely different viewpoints for decision-making, even when they both seek to center learners’ needs. When those viewpoints aren’t reconciled, leadership teams tend to rely on a combination of mandates, roll-outs, and seeking buy-in to encourage alignment with tough calls.

While leadership requires those tough calls, it need not require tough talk.

The harder the decisions are — and cuts of this type will be very hard — the more important it is to communicate about priorities with others and not just to them.

In over a decade of helping school and district teams tackle challenging changes, our organization has never seen a single “roll-out” of an important decision work smoothly based on an announcement. Rather, it requires consistent and connected communication that links back to the priorities you’ve already discussed together.

The time spent to share ideas, ask questions, and seek input is significant, but it is much less time — and much less stressful time — than the time that leadership teams otherwise need to spend in contentious bargaining tables, staff meetings, public hearings, and press conferences.

Fight the epidemic of “program-itis.”

Even evidence-based programs with robust support from skilled educators can fall short of their promise for students and schools. And that can sometimes be the best-case scenario. Many, if not most, of the programs that districts and schools plan to implement, require extensive (and expensive) training for staff before they can get off the ground or demand total fidelity to work as promised.

Sometimes there are just too many programs to be done well. In one improvement leadership network we have supported, school leadership teams identified more than 30 programs adopted in relatively small elementary schools. When staff are struggling just to name all the programs they have in place, it’s a good bet that they are struggling to run them.

Programs should support students and educators – not the other way around. Budget cuts not only offer us the opportunity to trim away what’s not aligned with priorities and getting results, but also to think about what is really sustainable. No matter how much money you have to spend on potentially effective and helpful programs, too many of them create a deficit of time and energy that contributes to stress, burnout, and attrition while doing little for student learning.

Plan proactively.

K12 education continues to be asked to do more with less. The repercussions of cutbacks are real, as is the stress that these decisions place on district leadership teams and personnel. But we can buffer those impacts if we shift from a focus on scarcity, which engenders feelings of restriction and dread, and replace it with a planned focus on opportunities to shed that programmatic “clutter” in ways that help us serve students better in the long run.

Our book, Small Shifts, Meaningful Change, offers a protocol in Chapter 4 to help you bring all these ideas together to reimagine your resources as part of a single 90-minute meeting. You can find more free tools and discussion guides on Mira Education’s website or contact our team for advice and support.

by mira-mariah

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