Leadership for Learning

Annotated Bibliography

Jane Clark

Curtis Taylor

Omar Zavalza

University of California, San Diego

Alan J. Daly, Ph.D.

Knapp, M.S.Copland, M.A., & Talbert, J.E. (2003). Leading for learning: reflective tools for
school and district leaders. C enter for the Study of Teaching and Policy, 5-33.

A framework of reflective tools for educational leaders to refer to on how to improve student
learning in schools and districts. This set of reflective tools describes that effective leadership
for learning exists within the context of student learning, professional learning, and system
learning. These learning contexts interplay with each other in a vertical alignment (student
learning impacts professional learning which then impacts system learning). Leading for
learning means a commitment of creating equitable learning opportunities for all participants.
Leaders should focus on five main areas of action: establishing a focus on learning, building
professional communities that value learning, engaging external environments that matter for
learning, acting strategically and sharing leadership, and creating coherence. Establishing a
focus of learning means a commitment to consistently articulate that student learning is the
central theme. This focus can be seen through ambitious standards for student learning, belief
in human capacity, commitment to equity, belief in professional support and responsibility, and
commitment to inquiry. Leaders of learning work to develop professional communities around
learning. Leaders promote various professional opportunities, such as collegial networks that
promote improving instruction and teacher development. It is also essential for leaders to extend
outside of the school and district to community members and other professional/policy
environments for learning improvement. There is an importance of creating allies within the
community to help move improvement plans, and anticipate and confront resistances. Leaders
should act strategically by identifying necessary pathways to learning. Pathways could focus
on areas on instruction and assessment, the participants of the organization, or structures in
place that affect teachers. This also allow for leaders to strategically distribute leadership to
teachers, students, and community members. Finally, coherence allows a leader to utilize
multiple pathways that allow for the building of teams around the improvement of student
learning through dialogue and collaborative work. The article brings about the process and
challenges amongst each action area. This set of reflective tools details adequately the focus
areas for the leader that is dedicated to learning. It shows an investment in how to work towards
improvement of student learning, and how to use multiple pathways to create equitable
opportunities for students.

Knapp, M.S., Copland, M.A., Ford, B., Markholt, A., McLaughlin, M.W., Milliken, & M.,
Talbert, J.E., (2003). Leading for learning sourcebook: concepts and examples. Center for
the Study of Teaching and Policy. 1 - 113.

This sourcebook is a detailed collection of the reflective tools needed for leadership for learning
coupled with case studies, and examples of how leaders can use these tools within their own
practice. The first section of the sourcebook gives a detailed overview of the five leading for
learning practices of action: establishing a focus on learning, building professional communities
that value learning, engaging external environments that matter for learning, acting strategically
and sharing leadership along pathways to learning, and creating coherence. Strongly articulated
in the reflective tools article, the sourcebook emphasizes the importance for all school and

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district leaders to have a strong vision that is focused on student learning. It cites that the core
values for all school and district leaders dedicated to student learning are the following:
establishing ambitious standards for student learning, belief in human capacity, commitment to
equity, belief in professional support and responsibility, and commitment to inquiry. The
reflective tools are connected through specific vignettes of schools that have improved student
performance by focusing on student learning, and moving through the five actions within their
schools and districts. The sourcebook provides four different cases in which each school is
presented with various issues, student demographics, environmental settings, and how the
framework was utilized by the school and district leaders. Each vignette presents the
understanding that reform for schools around student learning does not happen overnight, but
takes years of dedication. The vignettes present the progress made through strategic
distribution of leadership from superintendents, principals, to teacher leaders, and community
members. Using reflective tools to support leading for learning is emphasized in part three of the
sourcebook. Within two distinctive districts, the reflective tools are being used as a source of
inquiry. The superintendent of Seaview School District (pseudonym) utilized the reflective tools
as an inquiry process through the creation of a leadership academy in which district and school
leaders have an opportunity to carry dialogue on the implications of the framework for
learning-focused leadership. In the Northern district the reflective tools were useful in helping to
improve the districts strategic plan. Lastly, the sourcebook provides an appendix on various
pathways to learning, the participants included, and opportunities for exercising leadership and
connecting along other pathways.

Leithwood, K., Louis, K. S., Anderson, S., & Wahlstrom, K. (2004). Executive summary: How
leadership influences student learning. The Wallace Foundation, 2-15.
Researchers from the Universities of Minnesota and Toronto examined the available evidence on
how effective education leadership makes a difference on improving learning. Leadership is
suggested as second only to teaching among school-related factors in its impact on student learning.
The authors state that the impact of leadership tends to be greatest in schools where learning needs
of students are most acute. There are no documented instances of troubled schools being turned
around without the intervention of a powerful leader. Forms of leadership are usually described in
the literature using adjectives such as instructional, participative, democratic, transformational,
moral, and strategic which capture different stylistic or methodological approaches to
accomplishing two essential objectives critical to any organizations effectiveness: helping set a
defensible set of directions and influencing members to move in those directions. Drawing upon
evidence of common core practices of successful leaders, the authors express that the basic core of
a successful leadership practice includes: setting directions, developing people and redesigning the
organization. Leaders set directions by aiming to help colleagues develop a shared understanding
about the organization and its activities. Leaders develop people by offering intellectual stimulation
and individual support and models of best practices and beliefs. It is also essential for leaders to
redesign their organization in order to strengthen cultures, modify structures and build collaborative
processes. Individual leaders behave differently depending on the circumstances they are facing and
the individuals with whom they are working. Thus, there is a need to develop leaders with a large
repertoire of practices and the capacity to choose from this repertoire as needed compared to
leaders trained on only one ideal set of practices. This article brings to light three conclusions

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about how successful leadership influences student achievement. These conclusions suggest that
most leaders contribute to student learning indirectly through their influence on other people or
features of their organization, by setting attention to priority features of their organization and placing
focus on high priority parts of their organization. Effective recruitment, training, evaluation and
ongoing development should be highly considered in successful school improvement.

Leithwood, K., Day, C., Sammons, P., Harris, A., Hopkins, D. (2006). Successful School
Leadership What It Is and How It Influences Pupil Learning.

This study is a comprehensive and in-depth analysis and review of the significance and the
effects of successful leadership practices on student achievement. The authors conduct a broad
examination of leadership practices within different settings and countries that include the
United States, Canada, China, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Using
empirical, qualitative, and quantitative research methods, including careful inquiry into the
research of educational leadership, this substantial exploration of core leadership practices
includes research involving non-school organizations. L eithwood, et al., provide a comparison of
studies performed by researchers in the education field, including Hallingers Model of
Instructional Leadership, and the meta-analysis of Waters, Marzano and McNulty, which
comprise of an expanded review specific to successful leadership behaviors. Leithwood, et al.,
discuss leadership theories, including transformational leadership, distributive leadership,
participative leadership, charismatic leadership, situational leadership, among others. In this
research report, the authors posit that successful leaders demonstrate specific practices and
behaviors reaching across organizational sectors. There are four overarching influential
leadership practices when applied successfully: 1) Setting Directions, 2) Developing People, 3)
Redesigning the Organization, and 4) Managing the Instructional Programme. An effort is made
to examine and identify underlying practices successful leaders employ, which include vision
casting, goal setting, high performance expectations, establishing a collaborative culture,
developing productive relationships with families, communities and the wider environment,
staffing; and, supporting and monitoring teaching. Leithwood, et al., argue that leadership
practices in schools are influential and have a significant effect on academic achievement and
student learning.

Waters, T., Marzano, R. J., McNulty, B. (2003). Balanced Leadership: What 30 years of
research tells us about the effect of leadership on student achievement. McREL, 1-19.

There is an association with student achievement and effective school leadership. To establish
and influence the environments they lead, effective leaders demonstrate an understanding of,
and maintain an equilibrium between roles, responsibilities and compelling leadership practices.
Paying particular attention to quantitative analysis, constructing a meta-analysis of research,
researching leadership theoretical literature, and drawing from professional experience as their
body of evidence, the authors construct a balanced leadership framework wherein they identify
21 school leadership responsibilities that correspond to an increase in student performance.
Drawing upon an analysis of specific leadership functions, the authors make a distinction of

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specific, impactful leadership attributes that affect student learning. These include: culture,
order, discipline, resources, curriculum, instruction, assessment, focus, knowledge of
curriculum, instruction and assessment, visibility, contingent rewards, communication, outreach,
input, affirmation, relationship, change agent, optimizer, ideals/beliefs, monitors/evaluates,
flexibility, situational awareness, and intellectual stimulation. Leaders who have the right focus
are likely to see an increase in student achievement. Effective leaders are able to balance
change as they measure the profound effect key instructional practices have on the learning
organization. Finally, student achievement is linked to effective leadership.