Literacy Leadership Teams

Collaborative Leadership for Improving and Sustaining Student Achievement

Pamela Craig

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781596671256
• eBook ISBN: 9781317926924
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

In Literacy Leadership Teams: Collaborative Leadership for Improving and Sustaining Student Achievement, Pamela Craig, a veteran English teacher and a vice-president of the Florida Council of Teachers of English, focuses on practical ways for school leaders to establish school-based literacy leadership teams. She carefully outlines each step of the process so that readers will be able to create and sustain literacy leadership teams at their own schools. Craig provides insights and tools designed to bring teachers, administrators, and other members of the school community together to set and achieve goals for improving student achievement in literacy.

Compelling Whys

Why Literacy?

Why Shared Leadership?

Why a Team?

Why One Plan?

One of the benefits of working in education is that we begin each year filled with anticipation as we welcome our new students into clean classrooms. Unfortunately, the newness wears off quickly, and we fall into our old routines, leading to a slow, steady letdown as the daily grind of schooling sets in. Despite our vision of future successes, we rarely change our way of work, which ultimately results in disappointment when the outcomes don’t change. The added pressure from an increasingly critical public fueled by reports of low student achievement based on high-stakes testing feeds our own sense of helplessness. And so we end each year looking forward to the next, destined to repeat the process.

With 70% of all 8th grade students and 65% of all 12th grade students reading below grade level and with only 70% of students earning a high school diploma (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2008), it’s easy to fall into the pit of despair rather than continue to seek options for improvement. Schools and teachers often feel bombarded with suggestions and initiatives for reform yet find it difficult to identify specific actions that will work within their own school culture. To add to our pressure, more often than not, reform initiatives are imposed upon schools rather than developed by schools. As a result, many teachers throw up their hands in despair and close their doors, effectively stalling any chance for real reform to occur.

This book shares practical ways to change the cycle from one of continuous disappointment to one based on continuous improvement by establishing collaborative, school-based literacy leadership teams (LLT). Three basic elements serve as the foundation for designing, implementing, and evaluating successful literacy plans: student achievement, research, and professional development. Each of these elements is linked to an outcome: improving student achievement, making informed decisions, and implementing professional development to change instructional practices, which, if incorporated effectively, will lead to improved student achievement. Throughout the cycle, the LLT evaluates each of these elements as it continues to make informed decisions to modify, sustain, and support the plan. In addition, I have link current research focusing on effective leadership characteristics to the specific actions suggested at each stage. Basically, my goal is to provide background and research supporting the establishment of literacy leadership teams, identify research-based leadership behaviors linked to improved student achievement, and provide specific guidelines and practices to develop and sustain a successful literacy leadership team plan.

Questions to ponder

As you read through the text, you will note that I have included thought balloons to alert you to ideas and concepts addressed in each section. The purpose of thought balloons is to guide your questioning and to help you make links between practice, research, and application.

The book is organized into seven chapters: Compelling Whys, Assembling the Team, Collecting and Analyzing Data, Developing the Plan, Implementing the Plan, Evaluating and Revising the Plan, and Sustaining the Team. Each chapter provides specific examples of possible activities and actions to guide your team through the process of developing, implementing, supporting, and revising a working plan designed to meet the needs of your individual school.

Why Literacy?

How will focusing on literacy improve student achievement?

Concerns about adolescent literacy are not new. Beginning in the early 1980s, A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) warned of a crisis in adolescent literacy. More recently, The Nation’s Report Card: Reading 2007 (Lee, Grigg, & Donahue, 2007) lamented that although the lowest performing students are making gains in reading achievement, no significant gains have been made in overall reading proficiency for 8th grade students. Additionally, significant gaps exist between reading achievement of whites and minority students. Both reports suggest adolescents lack the literacy skills necessary to participate in an increasingly complex world. Unfortunately, while much emphasis has been placed on reading in grades K-3, relatively little has been placed on struggling adolescent readers (Biancarosa & Snow, 2004), fueling the resistance of secondary teachers to adopt literacy practices within content-area instruction. Yet as educators, we cannot ignore the glaring statistics reminding us that students who are not able to read proficiently are at risk for failure, not only within the school culture but within society as well.

Significant research supports the premise that a majority of struggling adolescent readers can read words but find it difficult to comprehend increasingly complex academic texts as they progress through school (Biancarosa & Snow, 2004). Adolescents can and do read on a regular basis. They just aren’t reading academic texts at the level of proficiency required for achievement. However, they are quite comfortable reading for pleasure, or to acquire information that interests them, or that is linked to social considerations. Thus, determining how to modify instruction as a means of engaging students in academic reading becomes paramount to improving student achievement (Moje, Overby, Tysvaer, & Morris, 2008).

The complexity of literacy instruction moves beyond the basics (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) of teaching students how to read towards the goal of teaching students how to use reading as a tool for learning. This shift in thinking about the purpose of reading in secondary schools also reinforces the concept that all teachers, not just reading and language arts teachers, must address the issue of literacy within their own content areas. Secondary teachers not only require a deep understanding of the reading process, they must understand how to apply the process to their content reading.

To accomplish this lofty goal, teachers require intensive professional development and support to understand the theory and practice required to implement the instructional changes necessary for improving student achievement (Jacobs, 2008). Elizabeth Moje (2008) argues:

If those interested in secondary school education were to reconceptualize learning in the subject areas as a matter of learning the different knowledge and ways of knowing, doing, believing, and communicating that are privileged to those areas, then perhaps a more compelling argument for integrating literacy teaching and subject area teaching could be made. It may even be the case that no argument would need to be made. (p. 99)

Helping teachers and administrators understand the connection between the act of reading and the act of learning as it differs between disciplines is necessary if we are to realize improved student achievement over time.

We begin with the premise that all students benefit from direct, explicit comprehension instruction along with effective instructional principles embedded in content-area classrooms (Biancarosa & Snow, 2004). Using this premise as a base, instructional focus must then shift from the more traditional content-knowledge curriculum to the more abstract content-literacy curriculum. In essence, we are asking teachers to focus not only on what students know but also to focus on how students know.

Think of this shift in these terms. For many years, secondary content-area teachers have focused on covering the content. Recognizing that many if not most of their students are unable to read the textbook provided, concerned teachers spend hours preparing copious notes, PowerPoints, and lectures to “give” students the knowledge they need to pass the exams. Teachers work hard at covering the content and become frustrated because students often forget the teaching from one year to the next. Now, teachers are being asked to consider teaching content-specific concepts rather than content-specific concrete details. Teachers are being asked to consider how students learn and process information rather than simply providing students with information. Teachers are being asked to teach their students to become literate consumers of their content rather than trivial pursuit experts of the content. The task is not an easy one. As Moje (2008) warns:

The work and commitment required for developing an integrated approach to literacy teaching and learning in the secondary subject areas is enormous, requiring conceptual changes in our definitions, cultural changes in our practices, and structural changes in the enduring institutes of the secondary school and secondary teacher education. (p. 105)

For this shift in teaching to occur, teachers need time to work together within their content areas to design classroom instruction that motivates students to become engaged in self-directed learning. Teachers need time to share how changes in instruction are impacting student learning and, thus, student achievement. They must become experts within their discipline as well as experts in how students learn their discipline. However, it is not enough that teachers individually become experts at including content-literacy instruction within their own classrooms (Ivey & Fisher, 2006). These changes require teachers and administrators to work collaboratively and to engage in literacy professional development to more clearly define classroom instruction that leads to improved student achievement.

Why Shared Leadership?

Increasingly, administrators are being asked to become instructional leaders (Irvin, Metzler, & Dukes, 2007; Ivey & Fisher, 2006; Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005). School-based leadership focused on improving student achievement is central to any successful reform initiative. Successful schools are led by principals who are members of the school community, who participate in the development and implementation of the plan, and who support the plan with resources.

Having said this, the reality is that principals are also expected to be the budget director, head disciplinarian, facilities manager, and community liaison. One principal once complained to me that he did not have the time nor the expertise to walk through classrooms on a regular basis and identify effective teaching. Another shared with me his frustration at the changes in principal expectations from when he first became a principal to now. Clearly, many principals are overwhelmed by the expectation that they become instructional leaders rather than business managers.

Leadership Characteristics Linked to Student Achievement

One way to address the issue of principal as instructional leader is to review literature and research focusing on leadership characteristics that are linked to improved student achievement. Marzano, Waters, and McNulty (2005) conducted a research meta-analysis focused on identifying leadership behaviors linked to student achievement. They examined 69 research studies completed or published between 1978 and 2001 involving 2,802 K-12 schools and specifically measured the effect size of leadership characteristics on student achievement, eventually identifying 21 leadership behaviors that positively impact student achievement.

The researchers recognize the improbability of individual principals possessing each of these characteristics and suggest these leadership behaviors can best be addressed by distributing these responsibilities through leadership teams that allow for other members of the school community to take leadership roles and to participate in designing, implementing, and sustaining effective changes (Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005, pp. 41–61). As you read through this book, you will notice that I have highlighted the behaviors in bold print throughout as a way of reinforcing how these characteristics are implemented through the various suggested activities. Basically, incorporating the ideas and concepts suggested will provide for opportunities to implement 18 of the 21 leadership behaviors and responsibilities addressed in the research. These include:

♦ Affirmation: Effective leaders recognize and celebrate accomplishments while acknowledging failures through a fair, systematic process.

♦ Change Agent: Effective leaders are willing to challenge the status quo even if it entails temporarily creating disequilibrium within the school culture.

♦ Contingent Rewards: Effective leaders recognize and reward individual accomplishments based on individual performance versus longevity.

♦ Communication: Effective leaders develop strong lines of communication between teachers, students, and staff.

♦ Culture: Effective leaders create a school culture founded on a shared vision of the possibilities for what the school can become.

♦ Flexibility: Effective leaders adapt their behaviors and encourage individual expression of diverse opinions when the situation warrants.

♦ Focus: Effective leaders establish and maintain clear goals and provide clear direction towards achieving those goals.

♦ Ideals and Beliefs: Effective leaders possess well-defined beliefs about schools, teaching, and learning; share those beliefs with the staff; and demonstrate behaviors that are consistent with beliefs.

♦ Input: Effective leaders involve teachers in the design and implementation of important decisions and policies.

♦ Intellectual Stimulation: Effective leaders expose faculty and staff to current research, theories, and practices impacting effective schooling and provide time for systematic discussion.

♦ Involvement in Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment: Effective leaders are involved in helping teachers design curriculum, assessments, and instruction.

♦ Knowledge of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment: Effective leaders possess extensive knowledge of effective instructional, curricular, and assessment practices and are able to provide conceptual guidance for teachers.

♦ Monitoring/Evaluating: Effective leaders monitor the effectiveness of school practices and their impact on student achievement.

♦ Optimizer: Effective leaders inspire teachers, serve as the driving force behind major initiatives, and maintain a positive attitude by expressing a belief in the staff to achieve its goals.

♦ Order: Effective leaders establish and reinforce clear routines, structures, and procedures to ensure order within the school community.

♦ Resources: Effective leaders allocate resources to ensure teachers have the necessary materials and equipment and to provide teachers with appropriate staff development needed to improve instruction.

♦ Situational Awareness: Effective leaders are aware of the details and undercurrents that may impact the school and are able to intercede when necessary.

♦ Visibility: Effective leaders are highly visible to students, teachers, and parents, making frequent classroom visits and contacts with students.

Although the plan does not directly address the remaining three leadership characteristics—discipline, outreach, and relationships—I am not suggesting that these characteristics are unimportant. Rather, all three are important to ensure successful plans, but these three are more specific for the principal and his personal relationships with the faculty, staff, and community.

Shared Leadership

Expecting one person to possess and/or to effectively integrate all 21 characteristics linked to improving...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• About the Author
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Free Downloads
• 1 Compelling Whys
• 2 Assembling the Team
• 3 Collecting and Analyzing Data
• 4 Developing the Plan
• 5 Implementing the Plan
• 6 Evaluating and Revising the Plan
• 7 Sustaining the Team
• Appendix A: Reading Survey for Students
• Appendix B: Literacy Instructional Practice Survey for Teachers
• Appendix C: Suggested Resources: Annotated Bibliography
• Appendix D: Element Chart
• Appendix E: Faculty Survey
• Appendix F: Walk-Through Data-Collection Form
• Works Cited