District Leadership That Works: Striking the Right Balance »

District leaders need not direct educational policy and progress from a distance. District Leadership That Works: Striking the Right Balance explores the research that proves district leadership does have an impact on student achievement in the classroom. When leaders strike the right balance between establishing overarching goals and supporting building-level autonomy on how to meet those goals, student achievement flourishes. The authors show how to strengthen and support the educational process through dynamic collaboration-with schools, teachers, boards, unions, and community members-that ensures every student's success.

Readers gain insight into how to:

Initiate second-order change to promote student achievement

Set district-defined nonnegotiable goals for achievement and instruction at the district and school levels through a collaborative process with stakeholders

Create defined autonomy that allows teachers creative freedom while ensuring learning

Monitor goal progress through formative assessment

Shift from past educational paradigms and respond to resistance to change

About the Authors ix

1 Does District Leadership Matter? 1

The Study 2

The Relationship Between District Leadership and Student Achievement 4

What Does a Correlation Tell You? 4

Specific Leadership Behaviors 5

Ensuring Collaborative Goal Setting 6

Establishing Nonnegotiable Goals for Achievement and Instruction 6

Creating Board Alignment With and Support of District Goals 7

Monitoring Achievement and Instruction Goals 7

Allocating Resources to Support the Goals for Instruction and Achievement 8

A Surprising and Perplexing Finding: Defined Autonomy 8

The "Bonus" Finding 9

The District, Schools, and Teachers Working Together 9

Summary 12

2 Putting Our Findings in Perspective 13

Districts and Schools as Loosely Coupled Systems 13

Issues With Site-Based Management 15

The Call for Tight Coupling Regarding Achievement and Instruction 18

The Evidence From High-Reliability Organizations 19

The Evidence From Worldwide Study of Effective Schools 20

A New View of District Leadership 21

Summary 22

3 Setting and Monitoring Nonnegotiable Goals for Achievement 23

The Context for Setting and Monitoring Nonnegotiable Goals for Achievement 24

The Need for a Formatively Based, Value-Added System 27

Characteristics of a Formatively Based, Value-Added System 29

Phase 1 Reconstitute State Standards as Measurement Topics or Reporting Topics 30

Monitoring Phase 1 36

Phase 2 Track Student Progress on Measurement Topics Using Teacher-Designed and District-Designed Formative Assessment 39

Monitoring Phase 2 42

Phase 3 Provide Support for Individual Students 43

Monitoring Phase 3 47

Phase 4 Redesign Report Card 48

Monitoring Phase 4 52

Summary52

4 Setting and Monitoring Nonnegotiable Goals for Instruction 53

Characteristics of High-Quality Teachers 54

A Focus on Pedagogy 56

Phase 1 Systematically Explore and Examine Instructional Strategies 57

Monitoring Phase 1 59

Phase 2 Design a Model or Language of Instruction 60

Monitoring Phase 2 61

Phase 3 Have Teachers Systematically Interact About the Model or Language of Instruction 62

Monitoring Phase 3 63

Phase 4 Have Teachers Observe Master Teachers (and Each Other) Using the Model of Instruction 63

Monitoring Phase 4 65

Phase 5 Monitor the Effectiveness of Individual Teaching Styles 65

Monitoring Phase 5 69

Summary 70

5 Collaborative Goal Setting, Board Alignment, and Allocation of Resources 71

Collaborative Goal Setting 71

Board Alignment and Support 75

Allocation of Resources 77

The United States Versus Other Countries 79

Summary 85

6 Defined Autonomy in a High-Reliability District 87

The Common Work of Schools Within a District 89

School Leadership for Defined Autonomy 90

District Initiative: Ensure Collaborative Goal Setting 94

District Initiative: Establish Nonnegotiable Goals for Achievement and Instruction 96

District Initiative: Create Board Alignment and Support 97

District Initiative: Monitor Nonnegotiable Goals 98

District Initiative: Allocate Resources 99

Summary and Conclusions 103

7 The Perils and Promises of Second-Order Change 105

Living Through the Tough Times 107

Some Advice for District Leaders 109

Recommendation #1 Know the Implications of Your Initiatives 109

Recommendation #2 Maintain a Unified Front 109

Recommendation #3 Keep the Big Ideas in the Forefront 110

Recommendation #4 Use What Is Know About Acceptance of New Ideas 110

Recommendation #5 Communicate With "Sticky Messages" 111

Recommendation #6 Manage Personal Transitions 112

Revisiting the Bonus Finding 113

Epilogue 115

Technical Notes 117

Technical Note 1.1 Interpretation of Correlation Between Principal Leadership and Student Achievement 117

Technical Note 1.2 General Methodology Used in This Study 118

Technical Note 1.3 Binomial Effect Size Display Interpretation of Correlations 126

Technical Note 1.4 Correlation for Five District Responsibilities or Initiatives 129

Technical Note 1.5 Correlation for Defined Autonomy 131

Technical Note 1.6 Tenure 132

Technical Note 1.7 District, School, and Teacher Effects 132

Technical Note 3.1 Standardized Mean Difference Effect Size (ESd) 138

Technical Note 3.2 Interpretation of Durlak and Weissberg (2007) Findings 139

Appendix 141

Reports Used in Meta-Analysis 141

References 143

Index 155