Teacher

leadership
for 21st-century
teaching
& learning

Kristoffer Kohl, Kim Farris-Berg, & Barnett Berry

 CONTENTS
3 Foreword

4 Introduction

7 Stuart Foundation
grantees & their
contributions to teacher
leadership

11 Accomplished teachers:
Forging leadership
pathways

17 Micro-credentials:
Documenting impact,
spreading expertise

19 Conclusion

Photo courtesy of Katherine Delmar Burke School

2 teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership
Foreword
I t’s time for America’s young people—all, not just a privileged few—to engage in deeper learning.
But transforming how students learn and lead requires parallel changes in the systems that support
teacher learning and leadership. This policy report, drawing on the important efforts of current Stuart
Foundation grantees, frames a set of strategies to narrow the achievement gap in California by fueling
the development of a teacher leadership system.

Research evidence continues to mount,
demonstrating the tight linkages between the
right kind of teacher collaboration and student
achievement gains. At the same time, teachers
report they are more likely to improve their
instructional practices when they have time to
work closely with their colleagues. One recent
poll revealed that one in four teachers nationwide
would like to lead without entirely leaving the
classroom.
In this report, we profile the work of organizations
advancing teacher leadership in California,
documenting their contributions by highlighting
the perspectives and accomplishments of
teacher leaders they have engaged. We examine
examples of career pathways and professional
learning models for teachers—including micro-
credentialing as a means to accelerate teacher-
led learning and California’s progress toward the
state’s blueprint for K-12 improvement.
These profiles represent how much existing
capacity within school districts remains to
be leveraged. How can current professional
development resources be redirected to fuel
teacher-led learning and the documentation
of how classroom practitioners develop and
spread teaching expertise? How can the state of
California create incentives for school districts to
design organizational structures that encourage
the “right kind” of teacher collaboration? How can
more California teachers lead without leaving the
Barnett Berry
classroom? How can the state develop a system of
CEO & Partner
teacher leadership?
Center for Teaching Quality
Now is the time to answer these
questions. The education of
California’s students, and the
prospects for deeper learning for
all of them, depend on it.

Teacher leadership for 21st-century teaching & learning © 2016 teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership 3

 Introduction
T eaching is future-focused work. More than any other, the profession prepares students to secure their own well-
being—and that of the state and nation—in a dynamic global economy. This is no simple charge. Teachers must
help all students master core content knowledge and become adept thinkers, collaborators, and communicators. To
do that well, teachers must themselves be adept collaborators and communicators. And they must do it in a teaching
environment that is increasingly complex. Public schools serve ever more diverse and mobile students—often with
fewer resources and higher student-teacher ratios than in the past.

These challenges are particularly pronounced in
California, as the state with the nation’s highest
proportion of English learners1, where 53 percent of
53% students come from low-income households, and
of California where schools are among the most segregated in the
students come nation. As the California Department of Education
from low-income notes in its Blueprint for Great Schools:
households
Schools with concentrations of minority and
low-income students are among the most
under-resourced in the state, with fewer dollars,
curriculum resources, and well-qualified teachers
than others, although the needs they confront
are greater.2
Despite these challenging circumstances, California
offices of education fear that the LCFF system will
change before there is a reasonable opportunity to
make it work well.3
The administrators’ skepticism is well-grounded. In
the 1990s, Richard Elmore pointed out that many
potentially productive reform policies and practices
wither. He explained that reformers often fail to
“develop organizational structures that intensify and
focus” the new reforms, which are supported by too
few “intentional processes for [the] reproduction of
successes.”4
To sustain successful reforms, districts and schools
must develop transformative organizational structures
and partnerships, shaping collaborative cultures where

1 in 5 has developed an encouraging set of policies designed

to transform teaching and learning. The Local Control
best practices can spread readily among teachers
and administrators. Such cultures support the kind of
students in California Funding Formula (LCFF) is landmark school finance teacher collaboration that has been shown to deliver
are English learners legislation allowing districts to make local decisions meaningful student achievement gains.
about expenditures; however, based on past legislation
experiences, many administrators in district and county

4 teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership
Researchers Matthew Kraft and John Papay underscore Meanwhile, researchers have identified specific
why collaborative cultures matter: “Teachers who work characteristics of particularly effective approaches to Strong
in supportive contexts stay in the classroom longer, collaboration. Dylan Wiliam has noted that teachers .12 professional
and improve at faster rates, than their peers in less- improve instruction most when they have opportunities environments

ACHIEVE ME NT (S D)
supportive environments.”5 And what matters most to apply what they learn and to help one another take

MATHE MATICS
about those contexts, they note, are factors like “the instructional risks. They are influenced most by a Average
.10
quality of relationships and collaboration among staff, colleague who has pedagogical “credibility as a coach.”11 professional
environments
the responsiveness of school administrators, and the And Judith Warren Little argues that teachers are
academic and behavioral expectations for students.”6 most likely to learn to lead effectively in collaborative Weak
.08
When such factors are weak or absent, teacher turnover structures when they: professional
blocks sustained progress in implementing new reforms. environments
Make conscious decisions to devote their (often
Other investigators have discovered that students limited) time together on matters of teaching and .06

score higher on achievement tests when their teachers learning, and find other means to handle the many 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

have opportunities to work with colleagues over managerial chores associated with their jobs;
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
longer periods of time and spread their expertise to
one another.7 In addition, researchers also have found Remain “explicit and consistent in expressing the
that students achieve more in schools that have higher importance of working together”; Research by Kraft and Papay
levels of collaboration8 and when teachers report shows schools with the strongest
Use “specific practices and routines that organize
“frequent conversations with their peers that centered professional environments see
discussion of reform goals and problems of
on their teaching, and when there was a feeling of student achievement gains 40%
teaching and learning”; and
trust or closeness among [them].”9 Researchers have greater than schools ranking
found that when teachers taught in schools with better among the weakest professional
Develop and sustain “ties with external
collaboration, they were more effective than their environments.
organizations and groups that supply intellectual,
peers who worked in other sites with lesser-quality
social, and material resources for their work.”12
collaboration*, irrespective of their own collaborative
efforts and expertise. 10

*
In a departure from traditional working conditions surveys, this
research team defined the quality of collaboration based on
teachers’ reports of helpfulness and extensiveness of collaboration
in different instructional domains.
teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership 5
 Teachers themselves put an exclamation point on
these research findings. More than 90 percent
reported that their colleagues contribute to their
own individual teaching effectiveness—implying
the importance of leadership from the classroom
in fueling student achievement.13
Given this body of evidence, it is not surprising
that so many top-performing nations have
invested in ways for teachers to learn from
one another. A 2011 Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) report
reviewed teaching policies in top-performing
nations, concluding that the most effective form
of school leadership may very well be “self-
sustained teacher collaboration.”14
90%
of teachers agree
other teachers
contribute to their
classroom success
Nearly all teachers believe that their success is linked
to positive collaboration with and contributions from
their colleagues.
6 teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership
Consider the implications of these findings for
American schools, where principals struggle
to shoulder the burdens of leadership. As the
School Leaders Network has found, principals’
capacity to lead effectively has been undermined
by “workload and extensive managerial tasks”
and a “profound isolation on the job.”15 Even with
a small team of assistants, principals do not have
the bandwidth to take on all of the leadership
demands associated with developing a 21st-
century learning system for students.
These findings are compelling, especially
considering that the 2012 MetLife survey of the
American teacher found the vast majority of
teachers—84 percent—are not interested in
becoming principals,16 whose jobs have “simply
become not doable.”17 On the other hand, MetLife
learned that 23 percent of our nation’s teachers
are “extremely” or “very” interested in serving in
hybrid roles as teachers and leaders.18
California’s own Greatness by Design report
recognizes that teachers remain isolated “in
egg-crate classrooms and performing the same
functions after 30 years as they did when they
first entered the profession. A teaching career
has not yet evolved that regularly supports
shared learning, career advancement or enhanced
compensation.”19 Despite its encouraging work on
LCFF, California is not yet advancing coordinated
policies and practices to encourage and support
such a shift.
California needs systems that support
teachers’ collaboration—and thus their
learning, leadership, and longevity in serving
students.
We are not naïve. Blurring more of the lines
between those who teach in America’ s schools
and those who lead them will require significant
change. Many teachers have clung to workplace
norms of equality and individual autonomy at
the expense of excellence, equity, and collective
responsibility. Few administrators have been
prepared, expected, or rewarded to utilize
classroom experts to lead in bold ways. And
the system of professional development rarely
recognizes the specific learning needs of teachers
as individuals or in small teams. And while
growing numbers of teachers are connected
to external networks of colleagues, few school
systems capitalize on their potential to spread
teaching expertise.20 The challenges facing public
education call for school leadership that is well-
distributed, responsive, and grounded in the
needs of students as well as classroom, school,
and community realities.
We must give reforms a chance at sustainability
by developing systems that support teachers’
collaboration—and thus their learning,
leadership, and longevity in serving students.
And we can draw on promising efforts already
underway in California.
Stuart Foundation grantees
& their contributions to teacher leadership

O ver the last few years, Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ) has cultivated partnerships with
three Stuart Foundation grantees. We wanted to better understand how to capitalize on these
organizations’ efforts to build California teachers’ capacity to spread their pedagogical and policy
expertise and close the achievement gap. Our fellow grantees included the Los Angeles Education
Partnership (LAEP), Mills Teacher Scholars, and the National Board Resource Center (NBRC).

The Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ) is a
national nonprofit that seeks to create a high-
quality public education system for all students—
driven by the bold ideas and expert practices of
teachers.
Our work acknowledges that the barriers to
integrating teachers into school leadership
and education systems are complex. But we
believe systems-level supports (including new
approaches to professional learning) can engage
and leverage teachers as leaders. Our work—
often conducted in partnership with districts,
state agencies, and other nonprofits—includes
the following:
CTQ launched the nation’s first virtual
community of teacher leaders in 2003. Today,
the CTQ Collaboratory connects, readies, and
mobilizes more than 12,000 educators from
across the United States—supporting them to
measure their influence on their colleagues and
go public with the results of their leadership
efforts.
See video below for how CTQ, in partnership with Digital
Promise, is drawing on micro-credentials to fuel teacher- CTQ convenes teams of K-12 teachers from across the country
led learning and opportunities for classroom practitioners to develop micro-credentials.
to document their accomplishments as professionals.

Cultivating ways to deepen and assess

the impact of teacher leader,

Incubating designs for 21st-century

leadership and learning, and
teachingquality.org/microcredentials
Scaling teacher leadership by
communicating proof points to
demonstrate impact.

teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership 7
Photos on this page courtesy of Los Angeles Education Partnership
Parents as Partners: In LAEP’s Early Childhood Program, 91% of
parents improved how they helped their children with learning
in 2014-15.
Educational Equity: More than 90% of LAEP students
had individual graduation plans, compared to 45% in
LAUSD in 2014-15.
8 teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership
Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) works
as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities
to foster great schools that support the personal and
academic success of children and youth from birth through
high school. Their work is based on six core elements the
organization asserts must be present for school success:
(1) high-quality instruction, (2) teacher leadership and
collaboration (including distributed leadership), (3) college
and career readiness, (4) parents as partners, (5) youth
empowerment, and (6) educational equity.
High-Quality Instruction: LAEP Partner School Social
LAEP cultivates these elements in schools through three
Justice Humanitas Academy had a 95% graduation rate in
areas of work that consistently demonstrate positive 2015, compared to LAUSD’s overall rate of 82%.
impact on student achievement:
Transforming schools to expand the capacity of Reaching children in early childhood to promote
educators, students, and community to share their healthy development and build parents’
responsibility for producing college- and career- capacity to prepare their children for success
ready graduates and sustainable change. LAEP’s in school. More than 500 children under five and
partner schools draw on a community school model their parents participate annually. Last year, almost
to coordinate learning supports and health and 90 percent of children achieved developmental
social services for students. They provide intensive expectations in communications, gross motor skills,
school-transformation services to 22 partner fine motor skills, problem solving, and personal-
schools or small learning communities on 10 LAUSD social skills.
campuses, reaching more than 890 educators and
Providing professional development and coaching
39,000 students. Students in LAEP’s partner schools
services grounded in inquiry and reflection. More
consistently outperform other LAUSD students
than 900 teachers have attended LAEP-supported
in key areas of college and career readiness. Ten
professional learning offerings in the last year.
of LAEP’s partner schools are teacher-powered,
Rather than focusing on external mandates, these
autonomous schools that LAEP helped launch and
experiences engaged teachers in action research.
continues to serve. (In a recent paper commissioned
by the Ford Foundation, CTQ highlighted how one
of these schools, Social Justice Humanitas Academy,
supports teacher leadership to drive deeper
learning.)

Mills Teacher Scholars boldly represents the
idea that the learning needs of students, particularly
in urban districts, cannot be supported without
addressing the learning needs of their teachers. Mills
Teacher Scholars works to grow powerful teacher-led
learning communities at school sites so that teachers
can effectively respond to their students’ 21st-century
learning needs. They support teachers to use teacher-
led collaborative inquiry as a method to continuously
improve teaching.
In order to make evidence-based instructional
decisions, teachers need to learn how to continuously
gather and collaboratively analyze meaningful
classroom-based data. This includes rich, process-
focused data, such as video and audio data. Such
inquiry can reveal how students are thinking and
learning, and when there are difficulties, what is
getting in the way of their success. For Mills Teacher
Scholars, this sustained, collaborative learning
is critical to instructional improvement—and is
the pathway to developing teacher leadership. As
teachers develop partnerships with colleagues around
understanding student learning, their classroom
instruction improves and they build their capacity to
facilitate formal and informal adult learning.
Building on more than two decades of program work
and research at Mills College (and half a decade of
school-site partnerships), Mills Teacher Scholars
works to build capacity for teacher-led instructional
leadership in schools and districts primarily through
the following projects:
Photos on this page courtesy of Mills Teacher Scholars
Teacher Scholars Project: From September
to May, teachers gather once a month at
their school site or in a district-level group
to collaboratively study their students’
learning in an area that aligns with their
schools’ improvement goals. With the help
of Mills Teacher Scholars staff, teachers build
their capacity to analyze student learning data,
engage in powerful learning conversations
with their colleagues, and chart next steps for
enhancing student learning based on their new
understandings.
Mills Teacher Scholar Leaders Network:
The network convenes teachers from Mills
Teacher Scholars school sites across the East
Bay to build their capacity as teacher leaders Teacher scholars engage in a collaborative learning conversation.
who can facilitate, develop, and sustain their
professional learning communities.
Principal Inquiry Network: School leaders
build their capacity to develop goals for
teacher learning and are supported to create
the conditions for effective teacher learning
through the Principal Inquiry Network.
Scholars Writing Project: Through summer
writing sessions, teacher scholars go public
with their inquiry findings, submitting their
work to journals, conferences, and the Mills
Teacher Scholars Teacher Scholar Voices blog.
Teacher scholars closely examine student video data.
teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership 9
Photos on this page courtesy of Stanford National Board Resource Center
National Board Resource Center (NBRC) works
to offer support to candidates for National Board
certification, promote teacher leadership, and
improve the quality of teaching in California schools.
NBRC is located at Stanford University and operates
under the direction of the Stanford Center for
Opportunity Policy in Education. The support
program is staffed by Board Certified teachers and is
open to any eligible candidate. NBRC helps teachers
and administrators learn about ways to use National
Board certification to advance professional practice
and promote teaching quality in schools by providing
information and support at its sessions at Stanford
and in related outreach throughout the Bay Area.
Too often, teachers are not involved in decisions
about their professional development. NBRC
advocates for accomplished teachers to have
meaningful roles in designing and leading professional
learning, given that they are well-positioned to
identify what is needed as next steps for themselves
and their schools.
NBRC offers a model for how the expertise of
California’s 6,000 Board Certified teachers should
be leveraged toward enhancing the instructional
capacity of all teachers in the state.

NBRC operates with the rationale that National

National Board candidates, many of whom were supported by the Stuart
Foundation’s Turnaround Schools grant, analyze the Five Core Propositions.
Board certification equips teachers to reflect more
deeply on their teaching practice. The standards are
rigorous and challenging, bringing out the best in
each educator. Teachers who have become certified
are changed in the process. They have come to know
themselves as educational innovators. They know
what they do well and what they need to develop, and
many are motivated to lead their colleagues.

The most important in-school factor in a student’s

achievement is having an accomplished teacher. Even
more effective is having accomplished teachers for
several years in a row, which is why NBRC promotes
and develops cohorts of teachers from the same
school and/or district to magnify the change.
Teachers collaborate and analyze evidence of accomplished teaching.

10 teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership
 Accomplished
teachers:
Forging leadership pathways

W ith support from the Stuart Foundation, California

teachers have had more opportunities to lead. But
formal opportunities to apply leadership expertise are often
restricted to teachers’ own communities, or are offered only
to a limited number of classroom practitioners. Teacher
leadership activities are carried out in teachers’ “extra” time,
without release time or compensation.

The following five teacher leader profiles capture the potential

and challenges facing those who seek to lead without leaving
the classroom.

teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership 11
Teachers learn about the changes to California’s education landscape and discuss
leadership implications at NBRC Exploring Teacher Leadership event.
 Accomplished teacher profile:
“ In any academic
realm, you’re going to
have people you can
partner with to create
a framework for what a
micro-credential would
look like for a teacher
in that particular area.”
— Susan Deemer
Susan Deemer is a National Board Certified science
teacher and the recent recipient of a Maker Educator
Certificate from Sonoma State University. After
teaching seventh and eighth grade science for 16
years at Katherine Delmar Burke School (also known
as Burke’s), Susan transitioned into the new role
of facilitating one of the school’s two new Maker
Spaces. She leads within Burke’s as the technology
representative on the curriculum council, co-chair of
the computer coding committee, and a member of the
Board of Trustees technology committee.
Susan was one of the first two teachers at Burke’s
to pursue National Board Certification. With her
colleague Nayo Brooks, she has shared the certification
12 teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership
Susan Deemer
Susan Deemer
process with the board, administration, and
faculty. This has deepened the school community’s
understanding of the tenets of teaching expertise,
particularly NBPTS’s Architecture of Accomplished
Teaching. Susan and Nayo also coach other Bay Area
teachers who are pursuing certification at Stanford’s
National Board Resource Center (NBRC).
Susan’s ideal teacher leadership role is one that would
allow her to observe teachers in their classrooms and
follow up with coaching conversations to improve the
effectiveness of instruction. It would also make time
for her to collaborate across school sites with others
in similar roles to discuss how best practices can be
implemented among other colleagues.
What if micro-credentials provided
Susan with opportunities to
document her expertise and interest
areas, so that district leaders could
better tap her expertise to meet
instructional goals?
Listen to Susan’s thoughts
on micro-credentials...
Though the lack of time in her instructional day is the
primary impediment, Susan also identified the absence
of peer observation as normative behavior within the
profession. In the U.S., 50 percent of teachers have
never observed a colleague and offered feedback. In
Japan, a mere 6 percent can say the same.21
Susan would like to be part of a statewide effort for
teachers to demonstrate, with micro-credentials, their
expertise in creating maker spaces in their classrooms
that fuel deeper learning outcomes for all students.
Susan already leads in several teacher networks, and it
is time for California to systematically capitalize on her
talents as a National Board Certified Teacher.
Accomplished teacher profile:
Andy Kotko worked with the National Board
Resource Center (NBRC) to become a National
Board Certified first-grade teacher at Mather
Heights Elementary School in Folsom Cordova
Unified School District. He is a member of
the district’s Professional Development Cadre
of Common Core Trainers, as well as the site
lead for Technology Implementation. Beyond
his teaching context, Andy is chair of the
California Teacher Advisory Council (CalTAC),
a group formed as a means for bringing real
world classroom experience to policymakers
and others whose decisions affect the quality
of science and math education in the state’s
schools.
“ A system that
is incentivized
will be a lot
more effective
than one that
is mandated.”
— Andy Kotko
Andy Kotko
As an elementary teacher in a specialized
What if Andy could document his leadership skills and
magnet program, Andy’s ideal leadership
specialized knowledge (on topics such as Common Core,
position involves release time from instruction
technology integration, or elementary math instruction)
that allows him to spread his expertise beyond
via micro-credentials, flagging his expertise as a
his school. This is difficult to achieve in an
teacher suited to lead reforms in these areas? Might this
elementary environment where practitioners
mechanism afford his district new tools for identifying
are responsible for teaching all subjects to a
and making the most of his expertise—and recognizing it
single group of students and especially so in a
accordingly with time and money?
district where partial contracts are rare. Given
that Andy finds limited leadership opportunities
within the district, he seeks opportunities with Listen to Andy’s thoughts on micro-credentials...
groups such as the National Board, CalTAC, and
County Math Cadre that meet his desire to lead
his profession without leaving the classroom.
Andy Kotko
teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership 13
 Accomplished teacher profile: Aija Simmons
Aija Simmons

“ If we really want to talk about

benefits at the student level, we
have to support teachers to actually
make instructional changes that are
going to meet the needs of those
students. Embedded at the heart
of micro-credentials is determining
how instruction has changed.”
— Aija Simmons

What if Aija could be granted
release time and compensation
to lead cohorts of district
teachers to develop and
document their action research
skills via micro-credentials?
Listen to Aija’s thoughts on
micro-credentials...
Aija Simmons has taught fourth and fifth grade for the
last nine years at New Highland Academy, a Title I school in
Oakland. As a Mills Teacher Scholar, a Bay Area Writing
Project facilitator, and lead science teacher at New Highland
Academy, she has sought to continuously refine her practice
based on her inquiry work and has presented her action
research at various local and national conferences.
Through her work with Mills Teacher Scholars, Aija leads the
Teacher Leader Network, where she supports teachers from
across the Mills Teacher Scholars community to consider
how to improve their practice through focusing on how
their students are learning and deeply understanding what
is getting in the way of their learning. She also helps these
teachers begin to spread what they are learning among their
colleagues.
In an ideal world Aija would like to work with school
administrators to create a program that utilizes teacher
inquiry to equip teachers to develop strong practices,
teach one another those practices through professional
learning time, and monitor student growth across grades
over time. While her leadership role is not technically
considered part of her teaching position, the demands of
her full-time teacher workload make it difficult for her to meet
her responsibility for her students’ learning and also take
so much responsibility for her colleagues’ learning. This,
combined with the often-competing agendas for ways to
use scarce teacher learning time at her site, makes hers a
challenging vision to enact.

14 teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership
Accomplished teacher profile: Cheryl Suliteanu

Cheryl Suliteanu is a 19-year teaching
veteran and National Board Certified
first-grade teacher at Nichols Elementary
School in Oceanside Unified School
District. While Cheryl eagerly awaits
a career pathway in California that
recognizes and leverages her expertise,
her desire to lead the profession without
leaving the classroom means that her
leadership is often exported outside the
state. Cheryl works with colleagues across
the country to develop classroom-based
solutions for more and better learning
time—for both students and teachers—
as a Virtual Community Organizer for the
Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ).
“
Her ideal teacher leadership position
is within a teacher-powered school
like the ones in Los Angeles Unified Micro-credentials would be a
School District that CTQ’s Kim Farris-
Berg and Kristoffer Kohl profiled for
catalyst for change. We as teachers
Education Week’s ‘On California’ blog. can take control of our professional
Cheryl actively pursues her professional learning—which would develop
goal in virtual space, through the CTQ our own capacities—and create a
Collaboratory’s Teacher-Powered Schools
lab. In her district, the administrative
pathway for teachers to consider
credential is the only visible path to taking on a leadership role.”
school leadership. — Cheryl Suliteanu

What if Cheryl could lead a cohort of teachers in her district to develop

and document their skills in leading More and Better Learning Time
reforms via CTQ’s teacher-powered micro-credential? Then the district
could mobilize these educators to identify creative ways to improve
their schools’ scheduling and programming.

Listen to Cheryl’s thoughts on micro-credentials...

Cheryl Suliteanu

teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership 15
 Accomplished teacher profile: Terri Ann Sullivan
On the other end of the spectrum, Terri Ann assessments, facilitating reflection, and developing TEACHING HOURS PER WEEK
Sullivan has a wealth of leadership responsibilities annual professional development plans. Terri Sh a n gh a i
Shanghai 11
as the lead teacher and grant coordinator at Ann takes on these school-level leadership roles HHong
o n g Ko ng
Kong 17
Academy of Medical Arts (AMA) at Carson High in addition to a full 30-hour-a-week classroom SiSingapore
n ga p o re 17
School, a teacher-powered pilot school cultivated teaching load, which is unsustainable. (In contrast, SoSouth
uth Ko rea
Korea 19
by Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) in the typical teacher in Singapore teaches only 17 Po land
Poland 19
collaboration with Los Angeles Unified. hours a week.22) TAL IS Average
TALIS Average 19
Aus tra l i a
Australia 19
As lead teacher, Terri Ann conducts informal Time demands aside, Terri Ann believes she has achieved
U.K.
U.K. 20
classroom observations and facilitates her ideal teacher leadership position. She feels like a
FiFinland
nland 21
interdisciplinary collaboration across content leader within her school, district, and union while
Br iBritish
ti s h Co l um b i a
Columbia 22
areas. She leads the Instruction and Professional maintaining meaningful connections to students,
U.S.
U.S. 27
Development Committee, conducting needs their families, and her colleagues.
Jensen, 2016

What if Terri Ann could demonstrate—and be recognized for—her leadership

expertise, via micro-credentials? She could even develop new micro-credentials in
collaboration with other teachers who had similar experiences. Might the district
then be able to justify ways to make her workload more sustainable over time?
Terri Ann Sullivan

Susan, Andy, Aija, Cheryl, and Terri Ann are making
impressive contributions as accomplished teachers. Yet there
are few opportunities for them to truly leverage their know-
how for the benefit of their schools and districts, something
that most describe as their ideal work. Despite a growing
force of teacher leaders who are cultivated and supported by
Stuart Foundation grantees, California has yet to implement
a comprehensive, coherent strategy—or even pilot strategies
within specific schools and districts—for documenting the
impact of these practitioners and unleashing their expertise
to reach more students.
Micro-credentials offer a new approach that could help
districts to achieve both goals.

16 teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership
Micro-credentials:
Documenting impact, spreading expertise
Here’s how
T o do their work effectively, teachers must devote significant time, energy, and effort to their
own professional growth throughout their careers. And, as we mentioned in the introduction,
collaborative cultures that support teachers’ growth garner significant benefits for students and
micro-credentials
can contribute mightily to the ability to sustain reforms in schools and systems. work:
As we’ve shared here, California lacks a evaluated, or recognized in most districts, so 1. Educators identify the micro-credential
coherent system to support, document, system leaders know little about who has been they want to pursue. The micro-
and maximize the growth of teachers. learning what—or how much of an impact credential provides details about what
Unfortunately, the state is not alone. A recent specific activities have on student learning. they should know and be able to do,
report from the Boston Consulting Group specifies appropriate documentation,
indicates that our nation spends about $18 Digital Promise, a nonprofit organization and recommends relevant resources
billion annually on teacher learning, but very based in Redwood City, is creating a powerful and activities.
few teachers (29 percent) are highly satisfied infrastructure that could change all this. For the
with their formal learning opportunities.23 past two years, Digital Promise has advanced 2. Educators submit evidence of their
Even professional learning communities—a the design, development, and implementation competence, such as a portfolio, video,
mode with considerable potential for peer-to- of micro-credentials in partnership with dozens samples of student work, and/or other
peer learning—earn low ratings from teachers of organizations (including CTQ). Focused on documentation of their learning “in
because of inadequate implementation. competencies rather than “seat time,” micro- action.”
credentials are personalized and available
The good news? Individual teachers like Susan, on-demand; and evidence of their completion 3. Trained assessors evaluate the evidence
Andy, Aija, Cheryl, and Terri Ann are already is shareable across social media platforms and educators submit. The micro-credential
learning informally and growing as professionals other venues. can then be displayed and shared as a
every day across this country—whether digital badge.
through conversations in coffee shops or online
exchanges in virtual communities. In fact, nearly
three in four teachers report that they are
Visit https://bloomboard.com/digitalpromise to
pursuing informal learning they find satisfying.
check-out micro-credentials developed by teach-
Yet this informal learning is not tracked,
ers, in partnership with CTQ.

teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership 17
 The benefits of this kind of approach are manifold—
as CTQ has documented, micro-credentials could
offer opportunities to improve professional learning
systems, optimize system investments, and advance
teaching as a profession.
Given California’s teacher leadership assets, we find
unique opportunities to leverage micro-credentials to
accomplish the following:
Develop and verify the specific expertise of
individual practitioners to meet emerging
challenges as Aija is doing with Mills College
Teacher Scholars;
Identify a collective of educators poised to lead
shifts in teaching practice and culture from
within schools as Andy is doing with CalTAC and
Cheryl is with CTQ; and
Create structures and policies that make it
easier to spark and sustain changes in practice
and professional learning over time as Susan
doing is with NBRC and Terri Ann is with LAEP.
CTQ, with support from the Carnegie Corporation
of New York and in partnership with Digital Promise,
has already developed micro-credentials for teachers
to lead virtual professional learning communities,
disseminate high-quality publications in order
to “go public” with their ideas, and redesign and
create new school structures for personalized
learning for students. And with a new grant from
the Stuart Foundation, CTQ is working with NBRC to
develop micro-credentials for teacher leaders and
administrators to demonstrate their effectiveness in
leading high-quality professional development for the
Common Core State Standards. A new planning grant
from the Silver Giving Foundation will support the
development of a design for how school districts in
California can draw on micro-credentials to sustain a
transformed professional development system.

What if teachers like Aija could work alongside

What if teachers like Cheryl could earn school
school administrators to develop micro-credential
leadership micro-credentials to share the
pathways to develop teachers’ inquiry capacity and
demands and responsibilities of principals?
track student progress over multiple school years?

What if teachers like Susan could organize the

What if teachers like Andy could work with state’s 6,000 Board Certified Teachers to recruit and
colleagues at CalTAC to design STEM micro- support the next 6,000 National Board candidates to
credentials for elementary school teachers? transform their instruction through the profession’s
top professional development experience?

18 teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership
Conclusion
T he teachers featured in this report are exceptional, but they don’t have to be the exception. What made the difference for Susan, Andy, Aija, Cheryl,
and Terri Ann is access to communities and supports that propelled their growth and leadership. Thousands of teachers just like them in school
districts across the state are looking for opportunities to lead the profession without leaving the classroom.
The Stuart Foundation grantees profiled in this
report have something important in common:
a strong focus on developing accomplished
teacher leaders who are able to re-imagine
the possibilities for student learning and the
teaching profession. Research continues to
demonstrate the value of teacher leadership
and collaboration for student learning—and
each organization and project represented
here realizes impressive outcomes. Yet, there
are limitations to what the Stuart Foundation
grantees can accomplish on their own.
If student learning is going to be competency-
based, personalized, and available on demand,
then so must be the learning of their teachers.
With philanthropic support, the organizations
represented here—and countless others
across the state—could fuel the use of micro-
credentials to spread teaching expertise. They
could support teacher teams to develop micro-
credentials related to teacher-powered schools
(LAEP), performance assessments (Mills
College), and professional development for the
Common Core (NBRC).
Meanwhile, school districts across the state
have yet to leverage the capacity and expertise
within their teaching workforces. As we learned
from the teacher leader profiles and the
California Task Force on Educational Excellence,
the state’s current K-12 education environment
offers only limited opportunities for
accomplished teachers to document and spread
their own expertise to impact their peers’
practice, student achievement, their own career
advancement, and the overall development of
the teaching profession.
Forward-thinking district administrators could
develop unprecedented ecosystems of teacher
leadership by investing in pilot programs to test
and measure the impact of a competency-based
approach to educators’ professional learning.
Finally, a network of teacher leaders in the state
could help build a collective vision and voice
for increasing teachers’ opportunities, rooted
in their bold ideas and expert practices. The
network would exist to cultivate and lead “the
groundbreaking transformations needed [to
sustain good teaching in the Golden State in
ways that will] support each and every student
each and every day in fulfilling his or her best
promise.”
24
A supported network of teacher leaders
would make clear that here, in California,
teaching is not a dead-end job but rather a
professional career with authentic advancement
opportunities.
The organizations and accomplished teachers
profiled here suggest strategies that could help
California achieve the education transformation
it seeks. Room to collaborate, opportunities to
lead, means of demonstrating knowledge and
skills—these are professional assets teachers
seek to grow and thrive. The dividends for their
students, and California as a whole, would be
substantial.
teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership 19
 Endnotes
1
California Department of Education. (2014). English learner
students by language by grade. Retrieved from http://dq.cde.
ca.gov/dataquest/SpringData/StudentsByLanguage.
aspx?Level=State&TheYear=2013-4&SubGroup=All&ShortYear
=1314&GenderGroup=B&CDSCode=00000000000000&Recor
dType=EL
2
Transition Advisory Team. (2001, August 9). The current California
context. A blueprint for great schools. Retrieved from http://www.
cde.ca.gov/eo/in/bp/bpcontext.asp
3
Fensterwald, J. (2013, May 2). California looks to Ontario schools’
reformer for guidance. EdSource. Retrieved from http://edsource.
org/2013/california-looks-to-ontario-schools-reformer-for-
guidance/30644#.VFkdkFPF950
4
Elmore. R. (1996). Getting to scale with good educational practice.
Harvard Education Review, 66(1). Retrieved from http://ed-share.
educ.msu.edu/scan/TE/danagnos/te9206B.PDF
5
Kraft, M. A., & Papay, J.P. (2015, May 28). Developing workplaces
where teachers stay, improve, and succeed [blog post]. Albert
http://www.shankerinstitute.org/
blog/developing-workplaces-where-teachers-stay-improve-and-
succeed
6
Ibid.
7
Jackson, C. K., & Bruegmann, E. (2009). Teaching students and
teaching each other: The importance of peer learning for teachers.
National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved from http://www.
nber.org/papers/w15202
8
Goddard, Y. L., Goddard, R. D., & Tschannen-Moran, M. (2007). A
theoretical and empirical investigation of teacher collaboration for
school improvement and student achievement in public elementary
schools. Teachers College Record, 109(4), 877-896.
9
Leana, C. (2011). The missing link in school reform. Stanford Social
Innovation Review, 9(4), 30-35.
20 teachingquality.org/21stcenturyteacherleadership
10
Ronfeldt, M., Farmer, S. O., McQueen, K., & Grissom, J. (2015). Survey-2012.pdf
Teacher collaboration in instructional teams and student
achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 52(3), 475-514. 19
California Department of Education. (2012, September). Greatness
by design: Supporting outstanding teaching to sustain a Golden
11
Wiliam, D. (2014). The formative evaluation of teaching State. Retrieved from http://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/documents/
performance. Centre for Strategic Education. Retrieved
from
Publicationsfiles/The%20formative%20evaluation%20of%20 20
Berry, B. (2016). Teacher leadership and deeper learning for all
teaching%20performance%20(CSE%202014)%20secure.pdf students. Center for Teaching Quality. Retrieved from http://www.
teachingquality.org/deeperlearning
12
Little, J. W. (2003). Constructions of teacher leadership in
three periods of policy and reform activism. School Leadership & 21
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2014).
Management, 23(4), 415-416. Results from TALIS 2013: United States of America. Retrieved from
http://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/TALIS-2013-country-note-US.pdf
Markow, D., & Pieters, A. (2010). The MetLife survey of the
13
American teacher: Collaborating for student success. MetLife. 22
Jensen, B., Sonnemann, J., Roberts-Hull, K., & Hunter, A. Beyond PD:
Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED509650.pdf Teacher professional learning in high-performing systems. National
Center on Education and the Economy. Retrieved from
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2011).
14
http://www.ncee.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/BeyondPDWeb.pdf
Building a high quality teaching profession: Lessons from around the
world. Paris: OECD. 23
Boston Consulting Group. (2014). Teachers know best: Teachers’
views on professional development. Retrieved from http://
15
School Leaders Network. (2014). Churn: The high cost of principal k12education.gatesfoundation.org/learning/teacher_views_on_pd/
turnover. Retrieved from http://connectleadsucceed.org/sites/default/
files/principal_turnover_cost.pdf 24
California Department of Education. (2012). Greatness by design:
Supporting outstanding teaching to sustain a Golden State. Retrieved
16
MetLife Corporation. (2013). The MetLife survey of the American from http://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/documents/greatnessfinal.pdf
teacher: Challenges for school leadership. Retrieved from https://
www.metlife.com/assets/cao/foundation/MetLife-Teacher-
Survey-2012.pdf
17
Usdan, M., McCloud, B., & Podmostko, M. (2000). Leadership
for student learning: Reinventing the principalship. Institute
for Educational Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.
for%20Student%20Learning.pdf
18
MetLife Corporation. (2013). The MetLife survey of the American
teacher: Challenges for school leadership. Retrieved from https://
www.metlife.com/assets/cao/foundation/MetLife-Teacher-
Interested in using
micro-credentials
to scale teacher
leadership efforts in
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or organization?

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