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Meaningful improvement in schools and districts is just small shifts away. How can administrators and teachers work together in ways that lead to significant-and sustained-improvement over time? How can schools accomplish this goal without adding to the work of overstretched educators? This practical guide answers these questions with recommendations for small, practical, powerful shifts that educators can make to their daily practice.
In Small Shifts, Meaningful Improvement, P. Ann Byrd, Alesha Daughtrey, Jonathan Eckert, and Lori Nazareno define collective leadership, a set of practices through which teachers and administrators work together to improve teaching, learning, and innovation. They explore the seven conditions of collective leadership and their corresponding shifts that, when effectively implemented, make a difference:
· Adapting, not adopting, a shared vision and strategy,
· Building co-ownership, not buy-in, through supportive administration,
· Mindfully aligning resources and capacity,
· Developing supportive social norms and working relationships to build culture and continuity,
· Growing shared influence authentically and organically,
· Creating an orientation toward improvement, and
· Structuring an intentional work design to support sustainability.
The authors share stories of real schools and districts that have implemented the shifts and provide useful tools that educators can use as they begin their own efforts. Both informative and inspiring, Small Shifts, Meaningful Improvement supports leadership work that will advance how administrators and teachers collaborate, learn together, generate solutions to longstanding challenges, and make those solutions stick over time.
About the author
P. Ann Byrd serves as Executive Director and Lead Strategist for SC TEACHER, a research and resources initiative housed in the University of South Carolina's College of Education. Having formerly served the leadership team of Mira Education (then the Center for Teaching Quality, or CTQ) for 17 years as well as spent 13 years teaching high school, her work continues to be grounded in activating the collective power of educators to propel impact and advance the profession. Byrd earned her doctorate at the University of South Carolina in 2007.
