Teach to Lead

by Cynthia Carver, Oakland Schools

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Denver “Teach to Lead” Summit. For two and half busy days, roughly 100 teacher leaders from 26 states gathered to learn, to create, and to be inspired. One week later, I am still reveling in the sense of possibility that grows when teachers are given voice and agency. I truly feel honored to have been included.

Teach to Lead (teachtolead.org) is a new federal initiative coming out of the U.S. Department of Education (ED) with support from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). Its purpose is to promote and elevate the role of teacher leaders in educational reform and policy. Using a crowd-sourcing platform, teachers across the country have been (and continue to be) invited to upload their favorite ideas for promoting teacher leadership. Thirty of those ideas were selected for the Louisville Summit held in December and another sixty were selected for the Denver Summit. A third summit will be held in Boston next month.

The primary purpose of the summits is to gather together the most promising and interesting of ideas and support their development and implementation. Representing the Galileo Institute for Teacher Leadership at Oakland University, I served as a critical friend, coaching the development of teacher leaders’ ideas. One group of teachers at my table was busy brainstorming peer-to-peer strategies for gaining teacher buy-in for an instructional coaching model. Another was outlining a plan for putting instructional technology training sessions into an online format. A third was hard at work drafting a rationale and plan for teachers who wished to engage in a yearlong “problems of practice” inquiry. The Avondale group that I traveled with (Lori Sakalian, Sarah Bruha & Dr. Tim Larrabee of OU) were busy identifying steps for growing place-based learning at Auburn Elementary, ground zero for the Avondale/OU Partnership.

As I understand it, the Teach to Lead movement (and I think it’s fair to call it such) stems from Arne Duncan’s realization that teachers have to be at the table when we talk about school reform and renewal. For many, this was music to our ears. Of course teachers should be at the table. At the same time, history and experience remind us that it is one thing to be invited and another to contribute in a meaningful and substantive way. Last week reminded me that teachers desperately want a place at the table. They want to be heard and they have ideas with merit. They also need the invitation, support and encouragement to bring those ideas to fruition. My hope is that the Teach to Lead movement continues to equip teacher leaders – through intentional skill-building and coaching – to put their ideas into action.