AIM at Middle Grades Results: Program Components

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Program Components > Research > Theory and Research Supporting AIM > Element 5

THEORY AND RESEARCH SUPPORTING
AIM FOR RESULTS
DESIGN ELEMENT FIVE

COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP

Instructional Leadership

Shared Leadership and Decision Making

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School restructuring involves making major changes in the school's organizational rules, roles, and relationships in order to obtain improved results (Corbett, 1990). According to Cuban (1988), second-order change--i.e., change that goes beyond making what already exists more efficient and effective-requires "transforming familiar ways of doing things into new ways of solving persistent problems" (p. 342). Changing traditional leadership roles and responsibilities is a critical transformation.

Instructional Leadership
All too often, district and school administrators function as managers, worrying more about day-to-day administration of the school than shaping a long-term vision and taking the steps necessary to achieve it. Yet, research suggests that nothing is more important in school reform than an effective instructional leader. According to research, such leaders:

Develop and articulate a vision of what students should know and be able to do.

Engage in planning and providing resources, including supportive organizational arrangements as well as time, people, equipment, space, and assistance.

Arrange for or provide ongoing professional development.

Engage in monitoring and evaluation using a wide variety of aggregated and disaggregated data at the school, classroom, and student level.

Engage in ongoing consultation, coaching, and problem solving (Louis and Miles, 1990; Hord and Huling Austin, 1986).

AIM helps district and school administrators become better instructional leaders.

Shared Leadership and Decision Making
While collaborative decision-making has many benefits in itself, AIM views it as a means for enhancing school and classroom practices to improve student learning (Corbett and Blum, 1992). DuFour and Eaker (1998) note that the vision of a few leaders within the school can initiate the change process and the development of a learning community, but without a sufficient number of supporters within the school, the changes will not be sustained. The challenge becomes to engage a critical mass of teachers to become change agents within the school. DuFour and Eaker recommend using the three C's of sustaining a change initiative:

Communication
Collaboration
Culture

The three C's are ingrained throughout the AIM model through the structures of the Collaborative Leadership Team, Faculty Inquiry Teams, and Ongoing Professional Development. Faculty Inquiry Teams routinely share their learnings with the entire school faculty to contribute to their development as a learning community. Although Faculty Inquiry Teams are often interdisciplinary teams, many AIM schools also have discipline-specific teams that meet periodically to communicate, collaborate, and create a common culture pertaining to learning in a specific discipline.

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Link to bibliographical references.

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Read about the theory and research supporting Design Element 6.

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