Article 1: Teacher Leadership Is Linked to Higher Student Test Scores in New

Study

Will (2017) wrote an article on Ingersoll, a professor at Pennsylvania Graduate school of

Education, who conducted a study about teacher leadership being linked to higher student test
scores between 2011 and 2015. The participants consisted of over 1 million teachers from more
than 25,000 schools across 16 states. What makes this study unique is that it is the first large
scale study to link teacher leadership and decision making to student test scores. The findings
were simple: Teachers are closest to students, know their students, are able to tailor
instructional needs to students, which in turn correlate (not cause) higher student interest and
engagement, leading to innovative thinkers. The authors suggest that when teacher roles are
larger and teachers are included in large scale decision making in their districts, they find their
jobs more rewarding, thus seeing a direct link between teacher-student relationships and
achievement.

Article 2: What Does the Research Tell Us About Teacher Leadership?

The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement (2005), conducted a meta-
analysis on teacher leadership in small scale qualitative studies over the past two decades. The
participants ranged from research and studies that described teacher leadership practice, it’s
characteristics, and promotion of teacher leadership. Teacher leadership is simply defined as
three major foci, including individual development, team development, and organizational
development. The findings were that teacher leaders can be fostered with the right school
culture, roles, and structures. It was also found that some challenges that may become obstacles
for teacher leaders include inadequate time for collaboration, learning, and leading, lack of
incentives, and egalitarian norms in school culture. Many other challenges may also include
hierarchical relationships, lack of teacher input, uncertainty, and traditional top-down
leadership structures. Suggestions to better the fostering of teacher leaders include overall
school improvement and traditional forms of management must be modified. Final conclusions
were inconclusive due to lacking high quality research and consistent definitions of “teacher
leadership” and what it entails.

C&C Articles 1 & 2:

These two articles suggest that teacher leadership is something that is essential for schools,
students, and education as a whole. Both articles were very different, as one was an actual study
of actual participants over the course of a few years, whereas the second article was a review of
multiple qualitative studies over the past 20 years. The first article, where the author Will
discussed Ingersoll’s study, recommends that teachers need to be more involved with decision
making when it comes to student success and expectations. However, The Center for
Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement focuses their review on how teacher
leadership can be fostered by the overall modification of school culture, structures, and
resources. Both of these articles go hand in hand because both concepts are essential to produce
and encourage more teacher leaders to come out into the light, rather than stay in the dark.