Leading for Instructional Improvement: How Successful Leaders Develop Teaching and Learning Expertise

Leading for Instructional Improvement

Educational experts agree that quality teaching is the single most important factor in improving educational outcomes for all students. Teaching is a highly sophisticated and complex endeavor requiring deep expertise on the part of teachers and school leaders. This book shows how teacher, school, and district leaders can cultivate the expertise of teachers to deliver high quality instruction for all students. Leading for Instructional Improvement captures the nationally acclaimed work conducted by the Center for Educational Leadership at the University of Washington in its effort to improve the quality of teaching and leadership in schools across the country. The book provides extensive practical guidance grounded in theory and research, along with powerful stories and examples from classrooms, schools, and districts. Many of the tools, protocols, and frameworks contained in this book can be accessed electronically by visiting the Center for Educational Leadership website at www.k-12leadership.org.

Praise for Leading for Instructional Improvement

"This book offers insights that are invaluable to educators who seek to enhance teacher effectiveness now. The ideas presented are practical and applicable to schools in a variety of settings."
—PEDRO A. NOGUERA, Ph.D., Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Development and executive director, Metropolitan Center for Urban Education

"A deep and thoughtful look at how the issue of expertise is cultivated. Seizing upon their Center's research-based instructional framework, the authors provide important insights and tools."
—DR. BEVERLY HALL, superintendent, Atlanta Public Schools

"In this age of intense focus on how we evaluate teachers, we have to remember that any evaluation is only as good as the evaluator. This extremely useful book provides an excellent roadmap for how principals can become more effective in the most important aspect of their work, instructional leadership."
—JERRY D. WEAST, Ed.D., superintendent of schools, Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland

"Fink and Markholt offer practitioners a guide to effective teaching. Leading for Instructional Improvement asks us to heed the lessons within and support the kind of teacher education that will improve student achievement for today's schools and those of tomorrow."
—BARNETT BERRY, president, Center for Teaching Quality

Keywords: principal’s role in building teacher expertise, cultivating positive attitudes about learning, understanding quality instruction: A Five Dimensions model, analyzing lessons, school assessments, classroom practices, conducting effective classroom walkthroughs, providing constructive teacher feedback, coaching and professional learning strategies, Leading for Instructional Improvement, Center for Educational Leadership, practical guidance for improving education, theory and research of quality instruction, district-oriented school initiatives, instructional improvement action plans