ISEA releases report on What Leadership Roles Should Teachers Play?

DES MOINES, IA (01/10/2013)(readMedia)-- Hundreds of educators participated in a groundbreaking, online idea exchange utilizing a combination of technologies which sought to answer the question, "how would you envision a greater role for teacher leadership in schools?" Members of the larger discussion group were then invited to craft the broad ideas into a report.

The Iowa State Education Association (ISEA), working with VIVA Teachers, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to raise teachers' voices in education policy, launched an online discussion October 8 through October 30, 2012. All ISEA members were asked to share their ideas in answer to the following questions:

How would you envision a greater role for teacher leadership in your school or district and what needs to change in school culture to motivate educators to take on a bigger leadership role? How would it help students if educators had a bigger leadership role in schools and what do you think is the appropriate reward system for educators who step up to leadership roles?

In response to the questions, over 1,000 ISEA members visited the site, and 316 ISEA members added ideas in the discussion spending hundreds of hours refining them into 17 solutions for creating Teacher Leadership roles that would lead to improved student learning. The distilled ideas were used to create the report.

"We have been frustrated that those who are the most critical about education are not present in the classroom. We worked with VIVA teachers to allow a way for educators to discuss real-life examples of what ideas would work and what might not work. When you read the report you can see the practical application of some of the ideas being suggested. That's what's been missing in many of the details – the practical side of things," said Tammy Wawro, president of the ISEA. "We're proud of this report because it's a great example of what our members can do if they are asked to be at the table during the discussions," Wawro added.

Among the many ideas generated was tasking Teacher Leaders with liaising between the school and families; making the Teacher Leader the point person on Developing Instructional Strategies for Common Core Implementation; and using the Teacher Leaders as a resource for promoting best practices and Professional Development.

Re-Imagining School Leadership for the 21st Century will be used as guidance for discussions when the topic of teacher leadership and compensation is debated this legislative session. See the inished report, Re-Imagining School Leadership for the 21st Century.

-- 00 --

The ISEA is a private, professional organization made up of almost 34,000 educators who are dedicated to promoting and preserving public education for all Iowa students. Great Education. It's an Iowa Basic.