There is currently considerable interest in system leadership and how it can support school change at scale. System leadership aims to move learning beyond school boundaries through leveraging experience and expertise. The success of system leadership depends on how key educational players can move effectively between and across traditional…

Black students attending US K12 school districts have predictable results (Darling-Hammond, 2007). These schools demonstrate disproportionate results in all indicators of school success. Leaders of these schools are expected to improve student outcomes that disrupt and dismantle systems that have historically perpetuated these results by leading…

A new wave of research suggests that strong, coordinated support among offices with central school districts can help to advance deeper learning for all students. However, central offices have traditionally served mainly as administrative or fiscal pass-throughs for federal and state initiatives, managing certain local operations such as…

Instructional leadership teams (ILTs) advance school improvement by building the capacity of school-based leaders to lead improvement work. The role of central office administrators, and particularly of principal supervisors, supporting the learning and development of ILTs, however, is relatively unknown. This mixed methods study explored the…

School district central offices make consequential decisions about teaching and learning every day that impact the educational opportunities and outcomes for millions of students in our nation's public schools. Given the consequential nature of these decisions, it is important that district leaders use the highest quality research, alongside other…

The George W. Bush Institute's School Leadership Initiative (SLI) District Cohort Research Project is a five-year effort with four school districts to test two frameworks--Principal Talent Management (PTM) and Effective Implementation. This collaboration is designed to improve how districts prepare, recruit, support, and retain principals. This…

This brief is one in a series aimed at providing K-12 education decision makers and advocates with an evidence base to ground discussions about how to best serve students during and following the novel coronavirus pandemic. It addresses one central question: What changes in central office systems are likely to support principals in leading for…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to research and report how highly accomplished elementary school principals in a large school district interpreted and enacted a district's instructional focus statement. The critical incident technique was used to interview four highly accomplished principals five times in semi-structured interviews…

While past studies on school district decentralization found that central office leaders can limit school leaders' decision-making power, the studies did not examine how they do so. We investigated this in eight elementary schools in two large urban school systems with official policies of school site-based decision-making. We found that even…

While past studies on school district decentralization found that central office leaders can limit school leaders' decision-making power, the studies did not examine how they do so. We investigated this in eight elementary schools in two large urban school systems with official policies of school site-based decision-making. We found that even…

Background: Many school districts are relying on instructional coaches to improve teaching and learning under the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Yet we know very little about how coaches exercise systemic leadership to support districtwide improvements in instruction. Purpose: In this study, I broadly define systemic leadership as efforts to…

This work attempts to examine instructional leadership from a peer influence perspective within a districtwide network of educational leaders. This approach to instructional leadership supplements a conventional understanding of technical core of professional collaboration. We argue from a social network perspective that individual perception is…

Emerging from concerns about "contrived collegiality" in schools is also the recognition that breaking existing patterns of collegial interaction (or lack thereof) might necessitate some level of leader-initiated (or otherwise organizational) intervention. This paper presents the case of Middleville, a high-performing Midwestern US…

In the early 1990s, the logic and policies of systemic reform launched a press to coordinate the pursuit of excellence and equity in U.S. public education, with each other and with classroom instruction. There was little in that policy moment to predict that these reforms would sustain, and much to predict otherwise. Yet, nearly three decades…

There is increasing pressure on the central office, particularly in large school districts, to improve student outcomes across schools and to close large achievement gaps between groups of students based largely on race and income (Louis, 2008; Honig 2012). Reforms intended to "raise the bar and close the gap" in student achievement are…