Teacher leaders – current or former classroom teachers working with other classroom teachers and other educators in the school or district – are present in many reform efforts in mathematics and science education. How teacher leaders are selected is an important feature of teacher leadership which often does not receive sufficient attention. The process of selecting teacher leaders has implications for the work that teacher leaders will do and the preparation they will receive. Insights from experienced practitioners and findings from empirical evidence suggest that a well conceived selection process positions teacher leaders to be successful in their work in schools.
Practice-based Insights on Selecting Teacher Leaders
Advice from experienced practitioners offers guidance to those involved in selecting teacher leaders. Insights provided by a group of expert practitioners with diverse backgrounds and experiences in working with teachers included the following ideas:
- Selection vs. preparation – Teacher leader selection criteria should relate to the kind of preparation and support planned for teacher leaders.
- Select with the role in mind – The nature of teacher leader work should inform teacher leader selection.
- Address content knowledge – Specify the nature and extent of content knowledge desired in teacher leader candidates.
- One of their own – Strong interpersonal skills and credibility among teachers should be part of teacher leader selection criteria.
- Been there, done that—effectively – Prior classroom experience is essential, with the emphasis on quality.
- Adults are not the same as kids – Prior experiences working with adults can be helpful if those experiences are related to the specific roles teacher leaders will carry out.
- Less may be more – Selecting fewer, highly-qualified teacher leaders may be preferable to selecting larger numbers of less-qualified candidates.
- Selection is not a one-time event – Evolution of a teacher leadership program and turnover among teacher leaders means that selection occurs over and over.
- Involve key stakeholders – Selection of teacher leaders should involve stakeholders who will be involved in and affected by the teacher leaders’ work.
Teacher leader selection is a critical part of any teacher leadership program, but it rarely receives sufficient attention. Articulating selection criteria and employing a selection process – as opposed to self-selection and volunteerism on the part of potential teacher leaders – makes a statement about what is valued in a teacher leadership program. It is important to be specific in articulating the desired qualifications and for the people responsible for teacher leader selection to be in agreement about which qualifications are most important and/or non-negotiable. Experienced practitioners, including MSP program leaders, offered insights about selecting teacher leaders. Data were collected and vetted through multi-round, online panel discussions with practitioners, as well as interviews and focus groups with MSP leaders. The insights below reflect general agreement among these practitioners about qualifications of and criteria for prospective teacher leaders and include illustrative examples from practitioners’ own work. After reviewing these insights, you will be provided with opportunities to share your own experiences with these practices. The information you provide will be included in the analysis of insights and examples from other practitioners as this website is periodically updated.
Selection vs. preparation – Teacher leader selection criteria should relate to the kind of preparation and support planned for teacher leaders.
Selection criteria for teacher leaders may vary considerably depending on what kind of preparation program is planned. Programs with limited resources for teacher leader preparation will likely want to select teacher leaders who are “ready at the get-go,” or as close to that state as possible. Other programs may plan an intensive preparation and support for teacher leaders. According to experienced practitioners, when selecting teacher leaders who need to bring requisite knowledge and skills to their work, it is important to explicitly identify those criteria as part of a selection process. When selecting teacher leaders who will participate in a preparation program or development experience to build that knowledge or those skills, different selection criteria will likely be used.
In selecting teacher leaders for their MSP program, one program leader noted that “candidates with a history of exemplary classroom instruction were still expected to need a lot of training to become strong coaches.” Their program selected teacher leaders with exemplary classroom experience, and planned to develop coaching skills as part of their preparation program. Program leaders in another MSP program that prepared science teacher leaders “expected that none of their candidates would have knowledge of computational science.” Computational science, then, was a focus of their preparation program, and not a selection criterion.
Select with the role in mind – The nature of teacher leader work should inform teacher leader selection.
Teacher leaders should be selected, expert practitioners recommended, “based on the practices they will enact.” A clear job description or specific vision of the teacher leader’s work will establish a public and consistent understanding that teacher leaders are being selected for a particular role or for carrying out specific activities. One practitioner noted that “under ideal circumstances, there would be a one-to-one correspondence between the attributes identified in the selection process and the practices expected of teacher leaders.” Although total alignment may not be feasible in the “real world,” it is important that the selection criteria and qualifications come as close as possible to fitting the work that teacher leaders are expected to do.
An MSP program leader commented:
You need to start with a vision for where you want to end: what is the goal? how do you envision the work of teacher leaders? With a clear expected outcome, you can more clearly define the minimum expectations required for selection.
An MSP representative, echoing the advice of other program leaders, noted that “one of the most important lessons learned about the selection of teacher leaders was the [importance] of a job description detailing the major responsibilities for which they would be held accountable.” Crafting such a description helped program leaders articulate the knowledge and skills they were seeking, which then informed the development of teacher leader selection criteria.
Without a job description or some articulation of the teacher leader’s role, there will be less clarity in the teacher leader selection process. Selecting teacher leaders to play undefined roles may lead to broadly-drawn selection criteria—such as “strong teaching experience” or “good communication skills”—that are not explicitly connected to the work that teacher leaders will do.
Address content knowledge – Specify the nature and extent of content knowledge desired in teacher leader candidates.
In selecting teacher leaders, consider the depth and kinds of disciplinary content knowledge that is necessary to carry out the expected work of a teacher leader. While the overall capacity of a teacher leader is enhanced if s/he has deep and broad disciplinary content knowledge (across many topics and spanning many grade levels), it is essential that teacher leader candidates have mastery of the content knowledge relevant to the particular role that they will be playing and specific activities that they will be carrying out.
What constitutes adequate evidence of content knowledge at the time of teacher leader selection varies. Some experienced practitioners, including MSP program leaders, noted that a degree in the content area or a secondary teaching certification in the subject area was necessary, particularly for teacher leaders working at middle and high school grades. In some MSP programs, interviews of teacher leader candidates included questions about their content knowledge as related to classroom instruction. In other programs, candidates were asked to provide professional references that spoke to their content knowledge. Still other programs included observation of candidates’ classroom practice in the selection process in order to gather evidence of their content knowledge.
Even when teacher leader selection criteria clearly specify the nature and extent of content knowledge desired, it may be difficult to find candidates with the requisite knowledge. By being clear about the content knowledge teacher leaders need, program leaders can judge more effectively whether the content knowledge selection criterion can be modified, which may depend on whether such knowledge can be developed through the preparation and support program that will be provided to those who are selected.
One of their own – Strong interpersonal skills and credibility among teachers should be part of teacher leader selection criteria.
Experienced practitioners noted that teacher leader candidates needed credibility among the teacher colleagues with whom they will work. This credibility may be based on teacher leaders’ classroom experience and/or on their interpersonal skills.
An MSP program seeking teacher leaders to support elementary mathematics teachers gave preference to candidates with “strong elementary experience” over those with the kind of mathematics background most often found in secondary teachers. A program leader explained that “we could have recruited people who were math majors and who had taught at the high school level, but we felt that those people would not have the credibility necessary within the elementary school to serve as an effective coach.”
Teacher leader candidates should also have strong interpersonal skills, particularly the capacity to communicate effectively with and listen well to teachers. Facilitating dialogue among teachers is a critical part of teacher leader work that helps build trust. Teacher leader candidates, experienced practitioners suggested, should have the demonstrated capacity to reflect on their own practice, and to be able to communicate their thinking to other teachers. Teacher leader candidates should also be open-minded, expecting that others will have different ideas or perspectives that should be taken into account when engaging in teacher leader work.
Been there, done that—effectively – Prior classroom experience is essential, with the emphasis on quality.
In selecting teacher leaders, experienced practitioners commented on the importance of the quality of prior classroom teaching experience. Teacher leader candidates should demonstrate that they have exemplary teaching experience or deep knowledge that they can apply in the areas identified as important in the teacher leader program (e.g., use of particular instructional strategies). “Exemplary” means both sound teaching practices in the classroom and the capacity to reflect upon what made it sound practice.
MSP program leaders, in selecting teacher leaders with exemplary classroom experience, explicitly identified characteristics of exemplary practice, and then used those descriptions to guide the selection panel’s observation of the candidate, and in considering references written by principals or colleagues and the candidate’s application essay or artifacts of practice.
The quantity of prior classroom teaching experience may also be considered in selecting teacher leaders, although expert practitioners believe that quantity is less critical than quality. Some practitioners suggest that teacher leaders should have a minimum of three years of classroom teaching experience. Five years may be preferable, given that more time in the classroom should translate into deeper understanding of instruction, more exposure to a variety of instructional challenges, and greater credibility with colleagues–particularly with veteran teachers. Again, the quantity of teaching experience should be considered in light of the quality of a teacher’s classroom experience, as quality remains a more important factor.
Adults are not the same as kids – Prior experiences working with adults can be helpful if those experiences are related to the specific roles teacher leaders will carry out.
While teacher leader candidates typically have vital experience working with students, it is also useful for them to have experience working with adults in a learning context. Teacher leader programs should consider the kinds of prior experience working with adult educators that will be important for the work teacher leaders will do. Expert practitioners reported that prior experience working with adult educators was not as important as other selection criteria unless that experience was related to specific activities that teacher leaders would be doing. For instance, for programs where teacher leaders were expected to lead workshops as a central part of their role, it was helpful to select individuals with demonstrated experience leading workshops.
Less may be more – Selecting fewer, highly-qualified teacher leaders may be preferable to selecting larger numbers of less-qualified candidates.
MSP program leaders reported that it can be a challenge to find a sufficient number of teacher leader candidates who possess all of the desired qualifications. Some MSP leaders recommended that if there are only a small number of highly-qualified candidates available, it is better to hire fewer teacher leaders than originally planned rather than select a larger number of less-qualified candidates, unless the program is willing to devote substantial time and resources to developing the needed knowledge and skills. Some MSP programs found that the time and resources expended to develop less-qualified candidates were much greater than anticipated, and that the unevenness in these candidates’ qualifications made it challenging to implement a preparation program that brought all teacher leaders up to the desired level of knowledge and skills. If it is not possible to provide such a preparation program, then teacher leader work may need to be redefined to match the skills and experience that the selected teacher leaders bring.
Selection is not a one-time event – Evolution of a teacher leadership program and turnover among teacher leaders means that selection occurs over and over.
According to experienced practitioners, teacher leader selection needs to be considered as an ongoing initiative, not a one-time event. It is important to anticipate teacher leader turnover and to have a selection plan in place to identify new teacher leaders at different points in time. Expert practitioners recommend “cultivating” teacher leaders, so that selection is about “tapping” teachers who have demonstrated their capacity rather than “appointing” individuals into a role that needs to be filled at a particular point in time. Having potential teacher leaders “in the pipeline” means making a conscious decision to “grow your own” and to develop buy-in from administrators and other stakeholders for this approach.
Programs that are relatively new at utilizing teacher leaders should anticipate some evolution of the program as it develops. This evolution may result in recognition that the original selection criteria for teacher leaders were not well-matched with their actual roles. In these cases, the program may need to reconsider who was selected or how the selections were made, and to revise their selection process accordingly. In some situations, expert practitioners indicated that this may mean figuring out how to “start over” – asking teacher leaders to reapply for their positions if there is significant difference between teacher leader roles and the criteria around which teacher leaders were originally selected. In other situations, it could mean providing a defined exit strategy for individual teacher leaders who do not turn out to be well-suited for their leadership roles.
Insight in action
Each year as part of an MSP program, six teachers from multiple schools and districts were selected to serve as full-time release teacher leaders. At the outset of the program, the job description included an extensive list of desired roles/responsibilities. As a result, the candidates came in with varying ideas about what their leadership role would entail. Many envisioned themselves in a “coaching” position, but much of the first year revolved around building a common vision, providing leadership at meetings to build program support, and establishing relationships. This disconnect from the roles outlined in the selection process created some dissatisfaction for those who came in with different expectations. For other candidates, the position was not a good fit for their skill set, which compromised their ability to perform the role. In subsequent years, project leaders considered more thoughtfully the role required of teacher leaders and constrained the job description and selection process more narrowly to those specific roles.
Involve key stakeholders – Selection of teacher leaders should involve stakeholders who will be involved in and affected by the teacher leaders’ work.
It is important that all stakeholders buy in to the choices made about who will serve as teacher leaders. The selection process provides a concrete opportunity for multiple stakeholders to come together to articulate what criteria are important in teacher leader candidates; to identify the kinds of evidence that would demonstrate those selection criteria; and to strategize about the nature of teacher leader work and how selected individuals will be supported to be successful in that work. In the case of MSPs, involving IHE faculty, district staff, school leaders and MSP program leaders in the process of teacher leader selection helped solidify a common vision for teacher leaders in their work. Which stakeholders were involved in which aspects of the teacher leader selection process varied, but in each case reflected strategic program decisions around building buy-in for teacher leadership.
One MSP program leader described the importance of all stakeholders having a hand in developing the teacher leader job description, including specifying desired qualifications for candidates. Different groups of stakeholders participated in various tasks: recruiting potential candidates, reviewing applications and letters of recommendations, interviewing candidates, and observing them in classrooms. Based on the results of these tasks, a small group of stakeholders led by district staff made the final selection of teacher leaders.
Insight in action
In one MSP, all partners (IHE education and STEM faculty, K-12 partners and MSP program staff) were involved in all phases of recruitment and selection of teacher leaders. A committee of representatives of these stakeholder groups co-developed the job description and identified the most desirable qualifications for applicants. The districts then posted the job description, and the committee reviewed all applications and identified a “short list” of candidates for interviews and observations. Committee members were partnered to observe the “finalists,” making sure that no one observed candidates from their own districts. After all applicants were observed, the committee reconvened to evaluate the applicants against the selection criteria. An MSP leader remarked, “A big premise of our partnership is that all partners feel equally responsible for student outcomes. If everyone is involved in the full process, then everyone is responsible for the outcomes.”
Another MSP program leader offered a cautionary tale about leaving teacher leader selection in the hands of a few individuals. Initially, building principals were given the primary responsibility for recruiting and selecting teacher leaders with the rationale that teacher leaders would be working in their schools. The MSP program provided overall guidelines, but found that principals used their own, often unarticulated criteria in selecting teacher leaders. For instance, principals often “sent teachers to our program without a real sense that this would be their top math advocate in the school, and they sent them because they thought this would be just another math professional development program.” Without some structure for involving IHE faculty, principals did not invite their participation. The result was the selection of a cohort of teacher leaders that varied widely in terms of backgrounds, qualifications, and expectations – a situation that the MSP then had to remedy.
If you are interested in how these practitioner insights were collected and analyzed, a summary of the methodology can be found here.
Teacher Leadership Matters
Empirical evidence shows that teacher leaders’ practice impacts teachers’ instructional practice and, in some studies, provides evidence of positive impact on student outcomes. Findings across studies include:
- Teacher leaders’ practice, particularly in providing instructional support to teachers, impacts teachers’ classroom practice.
- Teacher leaders’ practice occurs in a larger context of conditions that impact teachers’ practice.
- Teacher leaders’ practice is related to positive student outcomes.
Learn more about research on why teacher leadership matters
Research on Selecting Teacher Leaders
In a review of the published empirical literature, eleven studies were identified that included findings related to the selection of teacher leaders. In these studies, selection was not a primary focus of the investigation; this was illustrative of the scant attention that selection has received as a feature of teacher leadership in the empirical literature. Findings from these studies: 1) suggest that the process for selecting teacher leaders should involve input from school administrators, as opposed to relying on self-selected (i.e. voluntary) appointments to teacher leader positions, and 2) underscore the importance of having clear criteria in the selection of teacher leaders which are aligned to the expectations for their work in the teacher leader position.
The selection of teacher leaders is a critical, although rarely examined, aspect of teacher leadership. The criteria used as the basis for selection, factors that draw teachers into leadership positions, and who is involved in making selection decisions have clear implications for the performance and roles of teacher leaders. An extensive review of the empirical literature revealed few studies designed to investigate selection as a facet of teacher leadership. Although a process to select teacher leaders was likely a feature of leadership programs or teacher leader positions examined in most studies, few explored the effects of selection on teacher leader development or teacher leader practice.
(Click on the name of each study to read a description of the intervention involving teacher leader selection.)
In a review of the empirical research on teacher leadership, the MSP-KMD project analyzed studies through a rigorous process (read a detailed description of the review) that applied standards of evidence to the findings of each study. Eleven studies were identified that included findings on teacher leader selection (Coggins et al., 2003; Fanscali, 2004; Howe and Stubbs, 2001; Keedy, 1999; Khourey-Bowers et al., 2005; Manno and Firestone, 2006; Petzko, 2002; Petzko, 2004) or explored the implications of teacher leader selection in the study discussion of the findings (Copeland and Gray, 2002; Gigante and Firestone, 2007; Latz et al., 2009).
Studies in this set focused on two aspects of teacher leader selection:
- Who was involved in the selection of teacher leaders.
- The implications of selection criteria for teacher leader practice.
Who was involved in the selection of teacher leaders
These studies provided some evidence that the process for selecting teacher leaders should involve input from school administrators, as opposed to relying on self-selected (i.e. voluntary) appointments to teacher leader positions. While there no studies were identified that empirically compared different selection processes, some studies highlighted how administrator support helped teachers move into teacher leader positions and contributed to their effectiveness as teacher leaders.
Findings from Khourey-Bowers et al. (2005) and Keedy (1999) suggested that the involvement of administrators in the selection of teacher leaders for these projects helped ensure that strong candidates were identified for teacher leader roles. Khourey-Bowers et al. (2005) found that the involvement of school administrators in selecting teacher leaders resulted in a pool of teacher leaders who demonstrated strong knowledge of reform based teaching practices upon selection, based on baseline assessments. The researchers noted that this knowledge aided teacher leaders as they moved into the leadership roles in schools. Keedy (1999), in a pair of case studies, found that selection by the principal led to more effective teacher leadership than that of a volunteer teacher leader. This study compared the effectiveness of two teacher leaders serving as facilitators of teams of teachers: one teacher leader was appointed by the school principal, the other facilitator volunteered. Keedy (1999) indicated that the teacher leader who was selected by the school principal received greater support from her school administrator than the other teacher leader, and that this support was one of the factors that contributed to her effectiveness as a facilitator. The volunteer facilitator was found to be less effective. Khourey-Bowers et al. (2005) and Keedy (1999) described several steps taken to strengthen the validity of the studies’ findings, including the use of multiple forms of data collection to allow for triangulation in data analysis; they also provided detailed descriptions of the data analysis procedures. These findings suggest that the involvement of school administrators in selection may have helped ensure that strong teacher leader candidates were identified for teacher leader positions. However, these studies were not designed to isolate the effect of the involvement of school administrators in teacher leader selection from other possible factors, indicating that additional research is warranted to investigate this claim.
Fanscali (2004) and Howe and Stubbs (2001) examined teacher leader selection through an analysis of factors that influenced when teachers elected to pursue teacher leader positions. These studies tracked teachers as they moved from programs to develop their skills as leaders into formal teacher leader roles. Both studies collected data from participants on the factors that supported their movement into these roles. In Fanscali (2004) and Howe and Stubbs (2001), teacher leaders noted the importance of support from school administrators in providing opportunities and resources (such as time to meet with teachers or money to attend conferences) to work as teacher leaders and giving personal encouragement to teacher leaders moving into these new positions. Fanscali (2004) also found that the support of colleagues contributed to teachers’ pursuit of teacher leadership positions. These studies did not include descriptions of the criteria employed in selecting these teachers for leadership positions. As a result, these findings suggest factors that motivated teachers to move into leadership positions and have implications for the pool of candidates for selection into leadership positions. The validity of the findings from Howe and Stubbs (2001) and Fanscali (2004) was not established, with threats arising from missing data that is not explained in analysis (Fanscali, 2004) and the absence of reports on the reliability of data collection (Howe and Stubbs, 2001; Fanscali, 2004). As a result, while these studies suggest factors that affected teachers movement into leadership positions, additional investigation is warranted to confirm these findings.
The implications of selection criteria for teacher leader practice
There were few studies that articulated the selection processes for teacher leadership positions. Petzko (2002) was illustrative of the different processes that can be used for selecting teacher leaders. Petzko (2002) received responses from over 1,000 principals to a survey that asked on how teacher leaders were selected to participate on school-wide leadership teams. The results indicated that the process of selection was fairly evenly distributed among appointment by administrators (34%), decided upon by faculty peers (33%), or voluntary, i.e. self-selection, (25%). A second study by Petzko (2004) compared the participation of teacher leaders on school leadership teams in “highly successful” schools and a national sampling of schools. Petzko (2004) reported that in “highly successful” schools, teacher leaders were slightly more likely to be elected by their peers when compared to the national sample. These findings suggest that no single process was tied to selecting teacher leader to serve on school leadership teams.
Studies included in the literature review were not designed to empirically investigate the connection between specific teacher leader selection criteria and the practice of teacher leaders. However, the authors of three studies (Copeland and Gray, 2002; Gigante and Firestone, 2007; Latz et al., 2009) addressed in their discussion of findings the implications of selection processes for teacher leader practice. These researchers identified teacher leader characteristics that they believed impacted the effectiveness of teacher leaders in their studies. Copeland and Gray (2002) noted that the selection of teacher leaders with a pre-existing interest in the goals of the school reform project may have had a positive impact on teachers’ use of new instructional materials. Gigante and Firestone (2007) and Latz et al. (2009) suggested that the selection of teacher leaders who have significant experience in particular pedagogical techniques or had strong relationships with their peers supported their effectiveness as teacher leaders. In the discussion of their findings, all three studies suggested that selection should include attention to knowledge or skills that were not developed through participation in a teacher leader preparation program. This suggests to future developers of teacher leadership preparation programs that the criteria used in selection could be considered as a strategy to supplement the content of the preparation program.
Manno and Firestone (2006) and Coggins et al. (2003) investigated the connection between teacher leader knowledge prior to assuming a teacher leader role and its effect on teacher leader practice. Both studies found that teacher leaders’ prior knowledge influenced the ways in which teacher leaders worked with other teachers. In Manno and Firestone (2006), teacher leaders with content expertise (defined as a degree and certification in mathematics or science) were found to be better equipped to lead subject-related school improvement than teacher leaders without such expertise. Coggins et al. (2003) found the practice of teacher leaders was shaped by what they felt prepared to do, rather than the needs of the school. Both Coggins et al. (2003) and Manno and Firestone (2006) described rigorous methodological designs and attention to protection against validity threats, increasing confidence in these findings. Findings from these two studies underscored the importance of having clear teacher leader selection criteria that are aligned to the expectations for teacher leaders’ work.
Summary Conclusion
Teacher leader selection has received little attention in empirical research and begs more consideration. Studies in the MSP-KMD literature review highlighted aspects of teacher leader selection that could form the basis of future research. Studies included in this review indicated that the involvement of school administrators in teacher leader selection is beneficial, but did not examine aspects of administrator involvement that contributed to the later effectiveness of teacher leaders. Other studies suggested that attention to the criteria used in selection was important and influenced the impact of teacher leaders. However, these studies did not empirically examine the connection of specific criteria with teacher leader practice. While the existing knowledge base of empirical literature offers a small amount of assistance to those faced with decisions about selecting teacher leaders, more research is needed that focuses on teacher leader selection and its connection to teacher leader practice.
Additional information about these studies
For a bibliography for the research on teacher leaders providing leadership to teams of teachers and administrators, click here. [PDF 13K]
This summary of the empirical research on the selection of teacher leaders discusses studies that also included findings on other aspects of teacher leadership.
To read a summary of the research on teacher leaders’ instructional support practice, click here. [PDF 126K]
To read a summary of the research on the development of teacher leadership, click here. [PDF 126K]