The Launching Pad

Volume 4, No. 1                         Fall/Winter, 2010                         Exclusively online at www.EducationHall.com

 

Book Review: Teaching As Leadership

If we've learned one thing from engaging in the tireless battles of education over the past few decades it's that there is no silver bullet. There is neither a single district-wide organizational scheme, nor a single school-wide element, nor a single professional-development endeavor, nor a single leadership maneuver, nor a single instructional move, nor a single parenting plan that will lead to full mastery of standards, perfect attendance, 100% graduation rates, and all the other elements of high-quality schools that we strive so relentlessly towards. However, we keep looking for it.

In Teaching as Leadership, by Steven Farr, we may have unearthed a model of approaching the education profession that comes about as close as we've ever been to that elusive silver bullet. Mr. Farr, who is the CKO (Chief Knowledge Officer) for Teach For America, takes a novel approach to the school-improvement arena by blending quantitative data (over two decades' of classroom data Teach For America's vast corps of educators) with qualitative data (the approaches used by the most effective of those teachers). The result? An incredibly straightforward, tried-and-true framework for exceptional teaching...replicable anywhere, by any teacher, in any situation, at any time, in any subject, in any school.

Here at EducationHall, we read professional texts avidly, always keeping an eye toward the "next best thing." The books we select to review and publish in The Launching Pad are, without exception, books that we would recommend highly to educators wishing to make a significant difference in their classrooms, schools, and districts. It is in this spirit, with great enthusiasm, that we state that this book may be the most influential, important contribution to the achievement-gap elimination movement that we've yet encountered.

Teaching As Leadership merges theory (by including a detailed rubric covering each of the six leadership principles - which we summarize below) with action (by showing the reader, in myriad ways, how to implement the principles and their associated teacher actions). Clearly, simply, and specifically, the big ideas intersect with real-life examples in a "how-to" and "here's-why" structure. The beauty of this framework is in its appeal to every educator - seriously, every educator. We could pick up any of over 100 theoretical approaches to improving education, eliminating the achievement gap, and increasing student achievement, and those texts would only get us a quarter of the way to success. The next quarter is found on the pages of this book, with plentiful examples that every teacher - again, every teacher - can read and say, "I do that," "I could do that," "I hadn't thought of that," or "So, that's how that might look." We can all see ourselves in Teaching As Leadership, and it's that universal appeal (partnered with proven approaches that lead to tremendous results) that makes this text so impactful.

To borrow the words of 2005 National Teacher of the Year Jason Kamras in the book's foreword, this book "helps us change the debate from if the achievement gap can be closed to how the achievement gap can be closed" (p. xiii). In the six sections outlined below, Mr. Farr and his industrious TFA corps answer the question, "How do we do it?"

Part 1: Set Big Goals
Reflecting on where their students are performing at the beginning of the year and holding high expectations for their true potential, highly effective teachers develop an ambitious and inspiring vision of where their students will be academically at the end of the year. They set big goals informed by that vision - goals that when reached will make a meaningful impact on students' academic trajectory and future opportunities.

Part 2: Invest Students and Their Families
Highly effective teachers invest students in working hard for extraordinary academic achievement. With the help of students' families and other influencers, these teachers convince their students that they can reach their big goals if they work hard enough, and that doing so will make a real difference in their lives.

Part 3: Plan Purposefully
In every endeavor, from lesson plans, to long-term plans, to classroom management plans, successful teachers start by determining the end result they want to see in their students' learning and behavior. They are clear how they will know that result has been reached. Then they plan backward from that result to their starting point, creating an efficient path to success.

Part 4: Execute Effectively
Highly effective teachers take every action, large and small, because it contributes to the goal of student learning. For the sake of their students, these teachers master the elemental tasks of teaching, constantly monitoring their progress and adjusting course in light of changing realities around them.

Part 5: Continually Increase Effectiveness
Reflecting constantly on the pace of student progress toward their goals, highly effective teachers seek to improve their practice to maximize student learning.

Part 6: Work Relentlessly
Recognizing the high stakes for their students, successful teachers assume personal responsibility for dramatic student learning, even when it means going far beyond traditional expectations. These teachers think and act creatively to navigate and overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles, to increase the time and resources available for student learning, and to sustain their efforts over time.

Teaching As Leadership is much more than a guideline for good teaching. It's a recipe for excellence provided by the classrooms' master chefs - the teachers included in the anecdotes achieved ridiculous gains in student achievement, some averaging multiple years' worth of academic growth in a single school grade-level. Applicability to real-life teaching? Profound. Examples? Inspiring. Reflective questions for the reader in each chapter? Motivational. Rubric for implementation of the six principles? Thorough. Overall impression? Get it. Read it. Take some action today.

For more support, visit the website at www.teachingasleadership.org for layers of additional information, vignettes, exercises, video, samples, and more! The learning doesn't stop when you run out of pages to turn - it's built for the long run.

You can find Teaching As Leadership: The highly effective teacher's guide to closing the achievement gap, and dozens of other school leadership and instructional titles, at the secure online bookstore at: http://www.EducationHall.com/resources.htm.