I was recently asked to answer that question in a 90 minute session for principals. What follows is the direction I took: I opened with a piece that I thought set a pretty compelling reason for principals to explore their plans for working with coaches. On average, a principal accounts for 25 percent of a […]

I am currently facilitating leadership teams at the central office and building level in several districts. As I researched for this work the critical importance of school based leaders was reinforced. Consider the following statements regarding the principal’s role: On average, a principal accounts for 25 percent of a school’s total impact on student achievement—significant […]

I have written earlier blogs about the critical partnership necessary between instructional coaches and principals for effective teacher change that produces increased student achievement. Recently I spent a day with a district wide group of instructional coaches working on the school improvement plans for their buildings. We used a backwards plan beginning with the identification […]

In last week’s blog I shared ideas from Phillip Schlechty’s book Engaging Students: The Next Level of Working on the Work. Here is some additional thinking as I finished the book. “The primary task of the teacher is not to motivate students. It is to design work they provide to students or encourage students to […]