Teacher-Powered Schools
Maricopa County Teacher-Powered Schools & The Shared Leadership Network
Based on educator retention rates, it is very clear that the current system isn’t working for many educators. A teacher-powered team based approach positively impacts teacher retention, the working conditions and experience of site educators, and student outcomes.
Teacher-powered is a term used to describe educator teams that have collaborative cultures and use shared decision-making structures to lead their school.
Teacher-powered schools are almost always led by a principal or other designated school leader, but those leaders share agreed-upon decision making autonomies and are guided by the Teacher-Powered Practices.
Teacher-Powered Services
The Office of the Maricopa School Superintendent, in collaboration with the national Teacher-Powered Schools network, has created a support system for districts and school teams interested in strengthening collaborative decision-making.
Two options are available:
Shared Leadership Network
The Shared Leadership Network is a series of meet-ups where school leaders and teams of teachers can connect with like-minded educators to share practices and hear from other schools about strategies and processes used to elevate teachers' voices and put their passions and ideas into practice.
Whether a leader is thinking about implementing a major initiative (Next Education Workforce™, XQ Institute, Teacher-Powered Schools, scaling a Community School model, etc.), supporting a new district/system-level adoption, or focusing on strengthening the school's culture and climate, having a network of like-minded colleagues surrounding them is critical.
The Shared Leadership Network meets monthly via video conferencing, for 90-minutes and covers the following topics:
Keeping Students at the Center of Decision-Making
Honoring Student Voice and Choice
Meaningfully Involving Families and Communities
Transparency and Collaborative Culture
Shared Leadership Structures and Reimagining Leadership Positions
Teacher-Powered Schools Cohorts
Schools interested in formalizing a team-based approach to elevate both the teacher and student voice, are encouraged to participate in a Teacher-Powered Schools Cohort. Cohorts are three-year, four-phase academies, with school teams deciding to commit after the first phase of Exploration.
Autonomies
Each teacher-powered school looks different because their team is able to create the best system and environment for their students, staff, and community. The autonomies have been identified by Kim Farris-Berg, Edward J. Dirkswager, and Amy Junge after researching and observing autonomous schools throughout the country. More information about teacher autonomies can be found on the Teacher-Powered Schools website.
Teacher-powered schools have partial or full autonomy in one or more of the following areas:
Program
1 Learning program
2 School level policy
3 Professional development
4 Determining assessment
5 Broadening assessment
Personnel
6 Selecting colleagues
7 Evaluating colleagues
8 Transferring or terminating colleagues
9 Setting tenure policy
10 Selecting leaders
Administrative
11 Budget
12 Staff pattern
13 Compensation
14 Work hours
15 Schedule
Teacher-Powered Practices
The nine Teacher-Poeered Practices are what teacher-powered teams use to design and run their schools. More information about The Practices can be found on the Teacher-Powered Schools website.
1. Keep Students at the Center of Decision-Making
2. Meaningfully Involves Families and Communities
3. Honor Student Voice and Choice
4. Cultivate a Collaborative Culture
5. Embrace Transparency in Decision-Making
6. Create Shared Leadership Structures
7. Reimagine and Rotate Leadership Positions
8. Engage in Peer Observation
9. Take On a Learner Mindset
Recorded Webinars
Teacher-Powered Schools 101 Webinar
