Instructional teacher leadership roles in New York City public elementary schools: Theory into practice
Abstract
As an element embedded in several school reform initiatives, public elementary schools in New York City implemented a variety of instructional leadership roles. The purpose of this study was to determine how public elementary school principals in New York City implemented and evaluated the effectiveness of instructional teacher leadership roles in building teacher instructional capacity and improving student achievement. ^ In an effort to capture the implementation processes and evaluation strategies used by school leaders, this study utilized four descriptive case studies. Included in this study were four school principal and 11 teachers serving in instructional teacher leadership roles in each of the four schools. Participating principals responded to interview questions that sought to determine their decision-making factors in implementing instructional teacher leadership roles; the criteria for selecting teachers for instructional teacher leadership roles; the implementation processes; and evaluation measures. Participating teachers responded to interview questions that sought to determine the responsibilities associated with their role; the skills and training essential for instructional teacher leadership roles; the measures they used to evaluate their impact on teacher capacity building and student achievement; and the conditions needed to maximize their effectiveness. ^ The results indicated that the four school principals identified their budgets and the needs and goals of the schools as determining factors in implementing instructional teacher leadership roles. All four school principals reported that collaborative team work was important in developing instructional teacher leadership in their schools. The school principals and instructional teacher leaders found that implementation processes were not consistently employed and evaluative measures often lacked formal structures, protocols, or processes. These findings support prior research studies, which highlighted the need to determine effective implementation and evaluation processes for instructional teacher leadership roles, given their expense in human and fiscal capital. ^ The findings of this study demonstrated a need for effective management strategies in implementing school reform, as well as an examination of the traditional roles and structures in public elementary schools in light of the instructional demands of the 21st century.^
Subject Area
Education, Leadership|Education, Policy|Education, Teacher Training
Recommended Citation
Quigley, Christabel, "Instructional teacher leadership roles in New York City public elementary schools: Theory into practice" (2011). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI3461893.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI3461893
