High Impact Leadership

Today our admin council, which consists of MVSD senior administration, school principals, and divisional coordinators, met face-to-face for the 3rd time since early 2020. This meeting not only addressed our regular admin council agenda but also allowed us an opportunity to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Treaty 2 and build in leadership development.

As part of our PD we were presented with an article from John Hattie and had an opportunity to meet and discuss with our colleagues. The following are my own notes for reflection.

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Hattie, John. (2015). High-impact leadership. Improving Schools: What Works? 72.5, pp. 36-40.

Transformational or Instructional?

• transformational leaders focus more on teachers
  • vision, common goals, inspiration, direction setting, buffer from external demands, fair/equitable staffing, teacher autonomy
• instructional leaders focus more on students
  • impact on student learning, conduction observations, PD enhancing student learning, high academic standards, school environments conducive to learning
• 80% report they are transformational

High-Impact Mind Frames

• understand the need to focus on learning and the impact of teaching
• fundamental task to to evaluate the effect of everyone in their school on student learning
• sees teachers as change agents
• sees assessment as feedback on their impact
• importance of dialogue and listening to student/teacher voice
• sets challenging targets to maximize student outcomes
• welcome errors, shares what their learned, and environment to learn from errors without shame

Defining Impact

• is the impact valid?
• is the impact equitable?
• how great an impact are you seeking to achieve?
• what teacher practices are most related to student learning?

Approaches that Work… Better

• high impact leaders create a school climate in which everybody learns, learning is shared, and critique isn’t just tolerated, but welcomed

It Needs a Team

• teachers, students, parents, and community members needs to be in partnership

Start with the Evidence

• to what degree errors are welcomed by both teachers and students
• teacher collaboration
• teachers as visible learners
• teacher appraisals and the impact they have on student learning
• teacher observations and the impact they have on student learning

Reflection Questions

• Do you consider yourself an instructional or transformative leader (or a little of both)? 
  • Within my current role as Coordinator of ICT I would say that my position is naturally more aligned with transformational leadership.
• What high impact mind frames resonate most with you? 
  • “sees teachers as change agents”
  • I believe that teachers have a unique role in modelling tech use:
    • validating online information
    • online/offline balance
    • technology for education, creation, exploration, communication
    • digital literacy and citizenship