Wilhoit addresses school administrators

		Wilhoit addresses school administrators on teacher leadership

Gene Wilhoit

By Josh Shepherd

Gene Wilhoit, Commissioner of Education in Kentucky, challenged policy-makers, practitioners, and deans from several state universities to expand the leadership roles of teachers on Tuesday morning, May 11th, at the Hilary J. Boone Center on the UK campus. His address launched an all-day Teacher Leadership Conference co-sponsored by the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) and the University of Kentucky College of Education.

Wilhoit was one of three featured speakers that morning. In addition to the Commissioner’s opening address, the conference included presentations from Mark Simon, Director of the Center for Teacher Leadership at Johns Hopkins University, and Dr. Jo Blase, co-director of the Alliance for Teaching, Leadership, and School Improvement (ATLAS) at the University of Georgia. Each spoke on Teacher Leadership as a vehicle for a significant transformation of American public education.

As the opening speaker for the event, Commissioner Wilhoit addressed the varying ways school administrators have defined and implemented teacher leadership. He noted that research findings support the systemic model of instructional leadership and that teachers are pivotal to improving learning for our children. As Dean Cibulka commented in his introduction of the Commissioner, “the old model of imposing policy upon teachers is gone.” The new model focuses on distributing leadership for learning among teachers and building professional communities in schools.

Wilhoit advocated implementation of a common teacher leadership policy statewide. It is necessary, he said, in order to relieve principals of competing job responsibilities in school and curriculum management. A challenge before them, though, is that there is a pool of educators who don’t want the responsibility a teacher leadership position would require. “It does take a longer commitment,” Wilhoit commented.

As a launching point for discussion, Wilhoit asked conference participants to consider several questions:

How to recruit qualified teachers to assume leadership roles?
Could standards-based professional development be provided?
Considering the demands of the position, could schools afford the differentiated compensation for teachers willing to take on the responsibility?

He then introduced Mark Simon and Jo Blase to discuss practical aspects of implementing a teacher leadership model.

The afternoon was reserved for discussion groups focusing on policy issues and methods of strengthening teacher leadership as part of a school system’s culture. Rough notes of the focus group’s reports may be reviewed HERE – (Dan, link rough notes here.)

Lars Bjork, Director of the Institute for Educational Research at UK and associate professor of the Department of Administration and Supervision, organized the event with the cooperation of the KDE. “This conference promoted improved working partnerships among policy makers, agencies, universities, and school districts. One of our long term goals is to demonstrate how sharing decision-making among teachers and principals can help build professional cultures within schools and enhance student learning,” Bjork commented.

In addition to school superintendents and administrators, the conference also welcomed representatives from 22 state agencies, universities, school districts, professional associations, and non-profit entities.

For more details, see the conference notes (MS Word).