The Center for Innovation in Education (CIE) recently released a report that provides valuable insights on how leadership shapes the success of educational outcomes for students. The CIE report, Leadership for Learning report: What is Leadership’s Role in Supporting Success for Every Student?, addresses the new education environment and the systems that are shaping the future of education.
Leadership is defined in this report as “the art of enabling a learning community . . . and continuously improving its capacity to deliver on the goal of readiness for every child . . .” This requires a team of leaders to develop a successful learning environment for every student.
The CIE report discusses how leaders can support and enhance classroom innovation, and the hope is that new ideas and practices will take shape in every local community to support an effective learning environment. Some key findings and conclusions from the CIE report suggest leaders should:
Focus on learning for life
Learning should be relevant and meaningful for students. They should be actively engaged and motivated to succeed. More educators are transitioning from solely focusing on grades and attendance to putting more emphasis on the student experience and capacity to develop skills that prepare them for future learning and professions.
Focus on culture
Leaders share their vision of a growth mindset to ensure that everyone in the learning community understands the reasons for the systems in place. Education success needs transparency, interdependence, and shared responsibility among leaders to enhance growth. It is also clear that setbacks and missteps will occur and be used as opportunities to learn from mistakes and strengthen the learning community.
Greater expectations
Many states and districts have implemented new learning guidelines that align with expectations for college and professional pursuits. These efforts go beyond teaching basic learning materials to pass a class, but educators are holding themselves accountable to develop more meaningful learning experiences to help students succeed in life.
Learning from the past to build the future
Over the last several decades, educators have learned a lot about what works and doesn’t work in teaching today’s students. The report states that we have more understanding of the root causes associated with underperformance and challenges that are presented in the classroom.
As leaders focus on developing applications and systems that make learning relevant and meaningful, more students will be prepared for future professions and life-long learning. The CIE report suggests that students should be engaged in learning to co-create, design, and assess their own progress. Students should build their own experiences to have a greater capacity to retain knowledge and feel empowered to learn in the future.
To learn more about the suggested applications leaders should use to enhance the learning community, CIE shares their full report. This can help leaders and teachers participate in an open discussion to implement key findings that improve their students’ learning experiences.
