Small Shifts, Meaningful Improvement: Collective Leadership Strategies for Schools and Districts

Meaningful improvement in schools and districts is just small shifts away. How can administrators and teachers work together in ways that lead to significant-and sustained-improvement over time? How can schools accomplish this goal without adding to the work of overstretched educators? This practical guide answers these questions with recommendations for small, practical, powerful shifts that educators can make to their daily practice.

In Small Shifts, Meaningful Improvement, P. Ann Byrd, Alesha Daughtrey, Jonathan Eckert, and Lori Nazareno define collective leadership, a set of practices through which teachers and administrators work together to improve teaching, learning, and innovation. They explore the seven conditions of collective leadership and their corresponding shifts that, when effectively implemented, make a difference:

- Adapting, not adopting, a shared vision and strategy,

- Building co-ownership, not buy-in, through supportive administration,

- Mindfully aligning resources and capacity,

- Developing supportive social norms and working relationships to build culture and continuity,

- Growing shared influence authentically and organically,

- Creating an orientation toward improvement, and

- Structuring an intentional work design to support sustainability.

The authors share stories of real schools and districts that have implemented the shifts and provide useful tools that educators can use as they begin their own efforts. Both informative and inspiring, Small Shifts, Meaningful Improvement supports leadership work that will advance how administrators and teachers collaborate, learn together, generate solutions to longstanding challenges, and make those solutions stick over time.