Teachers, Principals, and Community Members

Teachers

Teachers need to become involved in schoolwide issues rather than just the specifics of their classrooms. This new role means participating as active members on one or more teacher decision-making teams, engaging in multiple professional development activities, working to change their curriculum and pedagogical repertoire, joining professional networks to talk about and work on new aspects of professional practice, working with colleagues to develop a sense of professional community and a schoolwide set of effective teaching strategies, and taking responsibility for the student achievement results of their collective efforts.

Principals

Principals need to trade their direct leadership role for one that allows teachers to make decisions. Principals need to:

• Become expert in budgeting as the school develops its own budget

• Involve teachers in recruiting, selecting, developing, and evaluating all staff

• Become brokers of information, professional knowledge, and programs that can help teachers accomplish school goals

• Help find professional development and training opportunities

• Become entrepreneurs for additional resources

• Protect teachers from distractions originating in the school, the central office, or the community

• Help create school visions

• Foster a culture that supports shared decisionmaking and collegial approaches to school actions

• Develop reward structure that provides meaningful intrinsic and extrinsic rewards for the new efforts of teachers

• Manage a complex change process as the school restructures the organization, curriculum and instruction, and teacher jobs

• Act as a liaison between the school and its "customers," including parents, community members, the central office, and the school board

Community Members

Community members need to become involved in setting school policy by serving on a school site's council, communicating community needs and expectations for student performance through the council membership, and providing specific resources and other support for the school as it develops and implements new strategies.