The Teaching As Leadership framework articulates the key strategies used by highly effective corps members and forms the basis for Teach For America's definition of teacher effectiveness.
The framework identifies six categories of actions that enable teachers to help their students attain significant academic achievement:
Teachers who lead students in low-income areas to two, three, or four years' worth of academic progress in a single year are those teachers who, before the year even begins, set an ambitious, measurable goal for where they want their students to be academically at the end of the year. These big goals, when they are properly aligned with established learning standards and coupled with effective investment strategies, energize both a teacher and students with the motivation and focus they will need to carry them past the inevitable internal and external obstacles on the path to academic achievement.
Highly successful leaders on the frontlines of the achievement gap also recognize that they must break the entrenched cycle of self-fulfilling low expectations that often characterizes their students' sense of self-worth and perspective on school. These teachers tackle and change students' learned belief that intelligence is a "fixed" characteristic and convince their students that if they work hard enough, they will "get smart." They doggedly establish and maintain their high expectations for students in every aspect of their interactions and, at the same time ensure students feel successful by meeting them where they are academically.
To succeed in the difficult contexts where the achievement gap festers, teachers have to be strong "backwards planners," starting every endeavor, from individual lessons to year-long calendars, with the key questions, "Where are my students now versus where I want them to be", and "What is the best possible use of time to move them forward?" The highly successful teachers we see infuse their goal-driven efficiency into every aspect of instruction and classroom management.
Strong classroom leaders are effective executors, making good judgments about when to follow through on their plans and when to adjust them in light of incoming data. They offer their students consistent, caring, demanding leadership, and constantly seek to maximize the time students have to work hard toward their goals.
In the challenging contexts of low-income communities where schools with the least capacity are serving children with the greatest need, putting children on a level playing field requires leaders who cast off the conventional parameters of their role as "teacher" and commit to doing whatever it takes to lead their students to academic success. Our successful corps members refuse to allow the inevitable challenges that they face to become roadblocks. Instead, they see those potential challenges—lack of books, overcrowded classrooms, broken copy machines, lack of time—as obstacles that they will navigate on their path to ambitious goals. These teachers recognize the massive challenge before them, but resolutely determine what is in their control, focus all their efforts on those factors, and assume responsibility for their students' achievement in spite of the challenges that remain out of their control.
Strong leaders are their own toughest critics, constantly seeking ways to improve their skills. Our most successful corps members use data-driven self-analysis to ensure that they are maximizing the learning opportunities in their classrooms, thereby increasing their impact in the fight against the achievement gap.
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