Leading Student Achievement: Our Principal Purpose

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Leading Student Achievement Our Principal Purpose

• A partnership between
• The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat
• Adjointes des Écoles Franco-Ontariennes,
• the Catholic Principals Council of Ontario and
  the Ontario Principals Council

Colleen Russell Student Achievement Officer
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The Challenge

• every student in Ontario will develop reading,
  writing, math and comprehension skills at a
  higher level by the age of 12. Progress will be
  measured by ensuring that by 2008, 75 per cent of
  students reach the provincial standard.

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Shared Goal

• Partnerships hold the promise that we will
  accomplish together the things that no one entity
  could achieve by itself.

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Goals of the Research Project

• Improve student achievement
• Build the leadership capacity of principals to
  support more effective classroom practices

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The Effect of Leadership on Student Learning

• Leadership is second only to classroom
  instruction among school-related factors that
  contribute to student learning.
• The impact of successful leadership is usually
  greater in schools that are in difficult
  circumstances.
• Leithwood, Louis, Anderson and Wahlstrom (2004)

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Invitation
To truly succeed on a large scale will require
strong leadership.
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Working together to reach our shared goal of
maximizing student achievement in literacy and
numeracy
Team Leaders

• Demonstrated commitment to being an instructional
  leader
• Respected by colleagues
• Collaborated with teachers to improve achievement
  in your school

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How will we achieve our goals?

• Focus on building and extending professional
  learning communities among principals in a board
  and among teachers in a school

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Professional Learning Communities at all Levels
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The Power of Context

• Most of us will pay attention to the
• challenges faced by individual
• students if those around
• us are doing so.

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Professional Learning Communities are
characterized by

• Shared values and goals
• Collaborative culture
• Action research
• Parent partnerships
• Continuous improvement
• Focus on results

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The focus of PLCs at all levels
Literacy for Learning Report of the Expert Panel
on Junior Literacy, p.93
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Primary Goal of PLCs
To create and sustain disciplined inquiry and
action on the part of teachers
principals Fullan (2003)
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The Secretariats Strategies

• Assemble and support teams at all levels to drive
  continuous improvement in literacy and numeracy.
• Build capacity to support student learning and
  achievement.
• Demonstrate a commitment to research and
  evidence-based inquiry and decision-making.
• Mobilize the system to provide equity in student
  outcomes.

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Support Accountability

• Supervisory officers
• Principals Associations
• Student Achievement Officers
• Capacity Building Team Members

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From a system perspective, the single answer to
the question of how to increase the chances for
greater sustainability is to build a critical
mass of developmental leaders who can mix and
match, and who can surround themselves with other
leaders across the system as they spread the new
leadership capacities to others People find
meaning by connecting to others and they find
well-being by making progress on problems
important to their peers and of benefit beyond
themselves. Leadership Sustainability -
Fullan (2005)
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Know that the gap between what is imagined and
what can be accomplished has never been smaller.