What We Know

In the 2001 report Redefining the Teacher as Leader, a task force organized by the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) urged education decision-makers to “exploit a potentially splendid resource for leadership and reform that is now being squandered: the experience, ideas, and capacity to lead of the nation’s schoolteachers.”

In America today, the task force concluded that there are many thousands of accomplished teachers who “possess, in abundance…some of the very characteristics that shape informed leadership.” These special qualities—knowledge of children and subject matter, empathy, dedication, technique, sensitivity to communities and families, readiness to help, team spirit, and the ability to communicate—“are an essential side of school leadership. But the unique voice of teachers is too seldom heard or their views even solicited.”

Teachers possess vital knowledge about students – and because of this knowledge they can provide much needed leadership for the changes needed to improve public education. There is a history of teachers serving in formal leadership roles as department heads and union leaders, where teachers take on administrative tasks. More recently, a small percentage of lead teachers are beginning to spread their instructional expertise as staff developers, curriculum specialists, and mentors for new and under performing teachers.

What we are finding is that this is not enough. Our public schools need more teachers who act as change agents in their schools and for their communities having the knowledge and skill to push and pull an often-calcified school organization. The next wave of teacher leadership will need to focus on teachers’ voice in engaging the public and working with the policy community in advocating for more effective policies and programs. The IEL panel said it best: It is time for our best teachers to “get in the game.”

Read more about What We're Doing to promote teacher leadership.