UCLA

This study strove to identify promising structural, relational, resource, communication, and ideological linkages between district leadership and teacher leaders in high school districts that are perceived by these instructional leaders to positively affect student outcomes. The study was qualitative in nature, focusing on the meaning, context, and process of how district leadership engages with teacher leaders in collaborative, non-hierarchical relationships. The study population consisted of two union high school districts located within the urban Los Angeles area, both of which served at least 90% minority students and demonstrated comparable English and mathematics proficiency rates. Essential to this study, both district offices were engaged in coordinated efforts to work closely with teacher leaders to develop strategic plans for improving teaching and learning districtwide. This study employed multi-case sampling of the two comparable districts, selecting the highest achieving and lowest achieving schools within each study district as focal points for all interviews and site-based observations. The research design provided for the collection of data through questionnaires, interviews, observations, and document reviews. Data was triangulated through thematic coding of the strengths and weaknesses of each district’s critical linkages between district leadership and teacher leaders for the purpose of improving teaching and learning. The key findings of this study explicated how school-based teacher leaders brokered critical information between district leadership and teachers at large by serving as boundary spanners who bridged the organizational divide between school sites and the district office. Detailed analysis of each of these critical linkages clarified the specific role of teacher leaders in engaging teachers at large in instructional reform efforts, as well as of the means by which district leadership supported teacher leaders in this role. The key findings of this study also provided insight into the perceptions of district administrators, principals, and teacher leaders regarding districtwide instructional reform efforts that leverage teacher leaders as well as their impact on student outcomes. The promising practices revealed in this study may serve as a model for other districts to consider in their endeavors to work intentionally with teacher leaders to implement reforms designed to strategically improve teaching and learning districtwide.