Instructional Leadership Teams Playlist

Welcome to the playlist for Instructional Leadership Teams. The resources and guidance on this page are designed to provide you with insight and reflection on the effectiveness of your ILTs. Our hope is that you find resources that will guide you in implementing more effective ILTs at your school.

School Leadership Framework Elements

The implementation of effective ILTs is closely aligned with expectations in the School Leadership Framework. Below are the elements and rubrics that most closely align with the implementation of ILTs.

Standard 2. Change Management

C) Creates a culture of continuous improvement

Standard 3. Instruction

A) Provides support for teachers to improve instruction and build leadership capacity

Overview of ILTs

• Leadership Teams and Quality Instruction - Teaching Channel module provides a step-by-step introduction to the history and development of effective leadership teams. This module provides videos and handouts that might be useful in introducing new leadership team members to the expectations of the team.
• Sample Introductory PPT on ILTs - This is a sample of how Nava Learning Academies introduced ILTs to its team
• Distributed Leadership Toolkit - comprehensive report on ILTs in schools

Adult Learning - The Why of ILTs

• Critical Elements in Adult Learning: What Will Ensure Adult Learning?
• Is Yours a Learning Organization? - Harvard Business Review Article, consider focusing on pages 3-6
• Survey for Measuring Learning Organization - a survey based on the HBR article that allows you to learn more about your perceptions towards the learning capabilities of your school team
• Distributed Leadership: What's All the Hoopla - research article about the theory of distributed leadership in schools
• A Team Approach to Instructional Leadership - Ed Leadership article from 1984 discussing the merits of a team approach
• Distributed Leadership in District Reform: A Model for Taking Linked Learning to Scale - article from Stanford outlining the value of distributed leadership for Linked Learning implementation
• CCSS Implementation Guide - developed by the Aspen Institute with specific indicators of CCSS implementation aligned with the need for ILTs to lead the work
• Choosing the Wrong Drivers for Whole System Reform - Michael Fullan's article on the right and wrong lead drivers for systemic reform (To what extent is your school developing a culture of staff who are intrinsically motivated to improve?)

Effective ILTs

• Description of Effective ILTs - from the Aspen Institute (In what ways is your team similar/different than the descriptions provided)
• Leadership Teams Transform a School - from the Teaching Channel module (Think about what this school did and its impacts on student achievement. What are the connections to Fullan’s lead drivers? To Pedro Noguera’s message regarding shared ownership?)
• Forming Aligned ILTs - ASCD article with some guidance on how to identify potential ILT members
• Community of Practice Continuum - developed by ConnectEd for Linked Learning schools to assess the quality of their ILTs (How does your ILT perform based on these rubrics?)
• CCSS Implementation Self-Assessment - developed by the Aspen Institute for ILTs to assess their schools' progress toward CCSS implementation (the pdf version of all items may be downloaded HERE)

Building Group Quality

• Norms for Leadership and Learning - Teaching Channel video (What did you observe that supported a collaborative, teaching culture? How did teams sit? What was visible? What was said that resonated with you and your school’s team practice?)
• Adaptive Schools Norms of Collaboration Toolkit - description and resources to support the assessment and support of effective norms of collaboration in your school (What norms have your ILT already adopted? Are team members willing to take risks and/or disagree with each other?)
• Sample Protocols and Activities - list of protocols from the National School Reform Faculty Harmony Education Center (How comfortable is your team with utilizing a variety of protocols to make decisions or to discuss issues?)

Strategic Planning

• High School Accountability Context - overview of school accountability in the future (How many of your team members understand the new accountability measures? Why might it be important to have a common understanding of these measures as a team?)
• Sample Strategic Plan (Blank Template) - sample strategic plan that is aligned with WASC expectations (How is your school prioritizing and planning its future goals?)
• Sample WASC Chapter 5 Action Plan - from Dr. Chau's school that earned a six-year accreditation (How is this aligned with the strategic plan template in the previous bullet?)
• Sample School Success Plan - sample strategic plan template that includes data targets from Dr. Simmons (How would the ILT communicate the school's strategic plan with all stakeholders?)
• Core-Ready School Planning Template - sample template recommended by the Aspen Institute CCSS implementation process

Data Collection and Analysis

• Instructional Rounds - see resources in Instructional Supervision Playlist
• Student Work Review Protocols - using a systematic approach to review student work, calibrate scoring and identify trends and next steps for instruction.
• Guiding Instruction Through Common Formative Assessments - Teaching Channel video on the use of common assessments (What are the benefits of looking at common assessment results?)
• ATLAS data analysis protocol - protocol that ILTs could use to analyze data together.
• Data-Driven Dialogue - this text is a guide for facilitators to guide team inquiry (What strategies do your ILT members utilize to examine and analyze data?)
• Data Driven Dialogue Protocol - example of one protocol to guide a team to examine data