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High School Teacher Quality and Professional Development

Recruiting and Retaining High Quality Teachers | Instructional Leadership

Teacher and StudentHighly qualified teachers exert a strong influence on student success and, for this reason, remain a top priority for high schools. In light of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) goal of every student having a "highly qualified" teacher, more high school students stand to learn from the best-prepared instructors.

Available resources through the National High School Center related to teacher quality and professional development include supporting networking with and the development of learning communities, sharing information to promote and share best practices, and advancing the available research base.


Instructional Leadership

Leadership Succession Planning Guide for Maryland Schools
The Maryland Department of Education's Division for Leadership Development recently published a guide that focuses on how one state is building instructional leadership capacity and addressing the issue of strengthening leadership across a system. The three main components of the guide include: Catalyst for Conversation (how conversations about leadership succession in school systems may be stimulated), Outline for Planning (suggestions for school leaders on developing a succession plan), and Succession Plan for Example School System (an example of a succession plan).

Maryland Instructional Leadership Framework
Developed by the Division for Educational Leadership at the Maryland Department of Education, this framework describes outcomes expected of Maryland principals as they provide instructional leadership for their school, and provides examples of the minimum of what principals are expected to know and be able to do to achieve a respected leadership outcome.

Teacher Leadership In High Schools: How Principals Encourage It, How Teachers Practice It
This policy brief, produced by the Institute for Educational Leadership and the MetLife Foundation, highlights the importance of teacher leadership at the high school level. Principals can play an integral role in fostering teachers as leaders and as active participants in decision-making at the school level. The empowerment of teachers has the greatest effect in classrooms, and principals support this process by providing professional development opportunities and encouraging staff to collaborate, thus enabling an improved learning environment for all students. This brief provides a definition of teacher leadership and describes findings from several schools where teacher leadership is supported and practiced.

 

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