At this meeting, the TLWG researched and discussed BPS and external teacher leadership programs. The internal BPS programs the team researched includes:
The TLWG also researched teacher leadership programs from Denver, DC, Somerville MA, Revere MA, credentialing programs, and teacher leader fellowships.
From this review of programs, the group collectively determined which elements of the program are most important for us to consider for our BPS teacher leadership strategy. Here are the key features of the internal and external programs that the TLWG felt are most important to consider in our work.
At this meeting, the TLWG brainstormed the key aspects that should be included in our working definition of BPS teacher leadership detailed below.
For the BPS teacher leadership strategy, we define teacher leadership as:
The formal and informal ways teachers leverage their varied expertise, diverse voices and professional agency to promote innovation and collaboration that strengthens the capacity of BPS colleagues, school leadership and the central office staff to impact adult learning and student outcomes.
Guided by this definition of teacher leadership, our BPS teacher leadership system will strategically empower...
We then applied this definition to all of the teacher leadership roles that were collected in the Teacher Leadership inventory and normed on which of these roles would be included as part of our definition of teacher leadership and which would not be included. We also dug into the interview data to identify key strategic conditions teacher leaders identified as necessary for the efficacy of their role.
Currently the TLWG is conducting an inventory of current teacher leadership roles and programs within BPS. We are also conducting interviews with teacher leaders to learn more about their experiences and perceptions of their roles and impact within these roles. The focus of our second meeting was spent:
If you are a teacher leader, please consider filling out this brief Inventory of Experiences with Teacher Leadership survey. If you are interested in being interviewed about your experiences with teacher leadership or have questions about this work, please email BPSteacherleadership@bostonpublicschools.org.
We are excited to announce that the Teacher Leadership Working Group had their first kick-off meeting on Thursday, October 17th. This group will be meeting over the next 15 months with the goal of creating a coherent, equitable, and sustainable district-wide teacher leadership strategy for BPS. The group consists of a key stakeholders and voices including: teachers, principal/headmasters, district administrators, and partners from the Boston Teachers Union. The focus of our first meeting was spent:
If you are interested in learning more or have questions about this work, please email BPSteacherleadership@bostonpublicschools.org.