The Instructional Leader

The instructional leader elicits greatness in all students. Although the actualization of this maxim can be defined in multiple ways and can be viewed through multiple lenses, this greatness can be seen as students are able to reach their individual goals and continue to show growth. The leader guides all staff and students to see the possibilities when continuous improvement yields the desired outcomes. This is accomplished through a series of competent systems that provide students with differentiated instruction appropriate for their level of growth. Instructional leaders must see this vision and utilize the tools at their disposal to enact change that results in improved student performance. Principals are tasked with many responsibilities; however, these must be prioritized in ways that maximizes student growth.

An instructional leader’s tool-kit must not only contain the ability to cast a vision, but also the ability to diagnose problems that are preventing their school from achieving greatness. Every leader, within or outside of education, must be able to conduct a root cause analysis that accurately diagnosis issues that are preventing greatness. Along with this understanding, the leader must not work along. To properly utilize the 5-why’s, the fish bone, or other methods, the leader must place value in the input of others. Throughout this process, the leader must be willing to seek out opinions that may be hard to hear, but will contribute to truly analyzing a problem.

After the causation of the problem has been diagnosed, the leader must continue to function as a team to create a plan that addresses the hypothesized root cause. This comprehensive action plan cannot stop at basic steps, but address additional difficulties that may -arise during the process. Milestones and indicators must be shown to ensure that the plan is being followed and allow for modification for areas of the plan that are not providing the desired result. These indicators must be time based, as the roles of educators are filled with many priorities, those things without due dates are easily pushed aside by other perceived priorities. The principal must set the tone that improving instruction is the highest priority and cannot be ignored because of business in other matters.

The administrative professional must develop a strong tool-kit in supervising the processes of teaching and learning. The leader is responsible for not only having a working knowledge of the best practices in education, but must be highly capable of assisting educators in improving their instruction in techniques that result in improved learning. The principal must continue to show that their knowledge of pedagogy allows for the transcendence of subject matter to exact change despite the subject. At the most basic level, the leader of instruction must have a full understanding of the 8 strategies that Robert Marzano and John Hattie agree on. Continual development in these 8 areas has shown a strong and direct impact on student learning.

Supervision ultimately results in leading others where they are uncomfortable going. Due to this, the instructional leader must be very aware of the culture of the institution in which they work. While work in creating a positive culture may often be seen a superfluous to improving student outcomes, it is imperative that students and staff  work and learn in an environment that is conducive to doing hard things and understanding that failure in certain aspects is inevitable. Within the culture must be safeguards against individuals who are unwilling to embrace change and move towards higher achievement of students. The administrator must have systems in place to support these individuals to make change and reprimand those who are unwilling to change regardless of a high level of support.

Professional learning is the principal vehicle in which the instructional leaders have to provide direct instruction to teachers. The design of professional learning must be carefully considered, paralleling planning for student instruction. The instructional leader must utilize data to ensure the planning of the lesson is appropriate for the level of the educators under their leadership. Often times, the instructional leader must make sure that professional learning is provided in ways that are meaningful and accessible to all teachers as well as differentiated between experience, disciplines and teaching styles.

The instructional leader who selects the work of improving teaching as the highest priority must set systems in place to ensure the management of the building is in place. To be the instructional leader, the principal must have the correct policies, procedures and people in place to deal with the day-to-day situations that arise which all too often consume the principals time. Tasks that don’t result in improved student outcome must not become the primary role of the administrator. While the work is challenging, the benefits to students are extremely high.  At the end of their career, the administrator who has done the good work will have countless stories of success and have made the difference in the lives of those students who otherwise would not have actualized their own success in ways that were unimaginable prior to their educational experience.