Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

State Chiefs Take Leadership Role in Elevating Teaching Profession

  • 12/13/17

Washington, D.C. – A new policy brief from Chiefs for Change today underscores how Congress is threatening critical funding to support teacher leadership at exactly the wrong time.

Forward-looking school systems throughout the country are working to establish avenues for teacher leadership, and leading states are beginning to provide powerful models to guide that work.

With Title IIA funding – and the flexibility for its effective use under the new education law, ESSA – at stake until Congress finalizes FY18 appropriations, it is more important than ever for the most strategic and forward-thinking leaders to make investments aimed at engaging teacher leaders and embedding programs for their empowerment.

Sustained, Bold Reform: Investing in Teacher Leadership in New Mexico draws lessons from the distinct approach used by New Mexico Education Secretary Hanna Skandera and her successor Christopher Ruszkowski, both Chiefs for Change members, to modernize and elevate the teaching profession, providing an in-depth analysis of the state’s successful model for teacher leadership. With the state agency as a case study, this brief lends an insider view of the structures, systems, metrics, policies, and programs developed in the Land of Enchantment to empower teachers as leaders, advocates, and trusted partners in school and system improvement.  Bold leadership, sustained over time – and the coaching trees that help to ensure sustained leadership – matter.

Within this brief, Chiefs for Change further builds its vanguard model for planning and designing a teacher and leader advocacy continuum. The teacher leadership system in New Mexico aligns to the Chiefs for Change teacher leadership and advocacy continuum and explains how the state worked closely with educators to meet three key objectives for meaningful teacher leadership:

  1. Empowering and leveraging high-performing teachers to create and sustain effective education policies,
  2. Building a culture of innovation and shared responsibility toward constant improvement, and
  3. Leveraging teacher leaders to address and solve critical issues or challenges at the school and district levels.

About Chiefs for Change

Chiefs for Change is a nonprofit, bipartisan network of diverse state and district education Chiefs dedicated to preparing all students for today’s world and tomorrow’s through deeply committed leadership. Chiefs for Change advocates for policies and practices that are making a difference today for students, and builds a pipeline of talented, diverse Future Chiefs ready to lead major school systems.

For technical questions about the content of this brief, contact Margie Yeager, Chiefs for Change Director of Advocacy and Policy, at [email protected].

Featured

  • ZeroEyes, Academic Innovators Partner to Provide Safety Solutions

    ZeroEyes, which produces a multi-analytics weapons detection and threat intelligence platform, recently announced a partnership with Academic Innovators, according to a news release.

  • Opportunity by Design Framework

    Opportunity by Design

    Educational improvement efforts often focus on curriculum, instruction, assessment, professional development, and intervention systems while treating the physical school building as background. But school design is not a passive backdrop to learning — it is a structural lever for equity.

  • Auburn University Debuts $224M STEM + Agricultural Sciences Complex

    Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., recently opened its new $224-million STEM + Agricultural Sciences Complex, the largest research construction project in the university’s history, according to university news. The facility measures more than 265,000 square feet and brings six departments from the College of Agriculture and College of Sciences and Mathematics together under one roof.

  • Missouri K–12 District Cuts Ribbons on Two New Middle Schools

    Springfield Public Schools in Springfield, Mo., recently celebrated the completion of two new middle school facilities with ribbon-cutting ceremonies, according to a district news release. The district officially opened the new Pipkin Middle School and Reed Academy on Sept. 3, both of which were funded through the $220-million Proposition S bond program approved by voters in 2023.