Innovative Leadership: 21st Century Innovations That Matter

ISTE 2010 Session
Presenter: Cheryl Lemke,  Metiri Group
Supporting Research

• Williamson, J. & Redish, T. (2009). ISTE's Technology Facilitation and Leadership Standards. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education. ISBN.
• Rooke, D. & Torbert, W. R. (2005). Seven transformations of leadership. harvard business review, 83(4), 66-76.
• Bondi, G. (2009). The Influence of Teacher Leaders. Learning, 66(5), 85-86.
• Spillane, J. P., Halverson, R., & Diamond, J. B. (2001). Investigating school leadership practice: a distributed perspective. Educational Researcher, 30(3), 23-28.
• Ancona, D., Malone, T. W., Orlikowski, W. J., & Senge, P. M. (2007). In praise of the incomplete leader. Harvard business review, 85(2), 92.

Globalization is creating change at warp speeds with an order of magnitude of error.
There are multiple nodes of learning besides just school. The majority of learning occurs in informal learning environments. Check out the research going on at Stanford's LIFE (Learning in Informal and Formal Environments) Center an NSF supported initiative. http://www.life-slc.org/

School leaders must develop a deep understanding of and affinity for working effectively in teams.

1. Leaders need to own the innovation not delegate it. 
2. Drive change through creativity and knowledge. An innovator's DNA includes lots of associating outside of own area of expertise, lots of questioning (question the unquestionable, imagine opposites, embrace constraints, wonder, encourage backchannel)
3. Consider failure an opportunity for learning
4. Shift from rules to shared principles
5. Shape culture of openness, collegiality, honesty, adaptability. Look for "positive deviance" What's working well? Change the rules! See notschool.net http://www.stevehargadon.com/2009/11/notschoolnet-proven-successful.html

Effectiveness of teachers has an enormous impact on student outcomes. Research shows that the most effective teachers share "a recurring positive relationship between student learning and teacher's flexibility, creativity, and adaptibility.

What really motivates workers?  The ability to see progress is the top motivator.

Look at best practices:

• Check out working models such as High Tech High 
• Look at high performing countries. They have fewer student contact hours than we do! They establish a professional learning system where there is less student contact time and more lesson study, classroom observations. Singapore Teacher's Network
• The Flat World and Education - Linda Darling-Hammond 
• Research shows that 49 hours of substantial, focused professional development can increase student test scores by as much as 21 percentiles. PD can be virtual, blended, just-in-time, mentoring, coaching, collaborative ed. network. Elements of effective PD: sustained over time, content-based, concrete modeling