Leadership is critical to the success of students’ achievements. A direct link has been shown by several studies between the quality of K12 leadership and student outcomes.

The question becomes, if the quality and extent of leadership are so vital to school performance, what happens when we create many leaders instead of relying on just one? Let’s find out.

One-Person vs. Distributed Leadership

We are all familiar with the old model of one-person leadership that is dependent on the top leader (principal or head) to lay the rules of interaction, performance measurement and goals for the K12 institution. This type of formal leadership tends to leave substantial talents untapped – of teachers who can bring in subject-expertise to improve content delivery, of experienced educators who can streamline administration, of hidden talents who can innovate schooling landscape.

Leadership is most effective when it is distributed among individuals, and not concentrated in a few hands. John DeFlaminis, the executive director of Penn Center for Educational Leadership believes this about school leadership and management.

The days of principals being the lone instructional leader are over. One administrator cannot serve as the instructional leader without participation from other educators.

This is the concept of the ‘Distributed Leadership’ approach.

Distributed Leadership in K12 – Features

Most schools, public or private, are faced with the challenge of overburdened and complex school districts. To manage such a diverse demographics of students effectively, distributed leadership brings several advantages with the following features.

• PARTICIPATION BY THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR.

In Distributed Leadership, the focus is not on a single administrator to be the director or principal or head of the department. This form of school leadership and management places a structure that brings the expertise and leadership of teachers to the table. Teachers, along with administrators, participate in solving the issues faced by schools.

• INTEGRATION WITH INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP.

This feature of distributed leadership flows from the previous aspect. As each member of the team is involved in developing school leadership program for the institution, distributed leadership often gets integrated with the Instructional leadership.

It is so because team members are often involved in the process due to their content and pedagogical expertise, instead of anything else. As a result, this takes a huge bearing on determining the instructional leadership and content delivery of a K12 institution.

Under Distributed Leadership, trained teachers serve as subject specialists. They establish overall learning outcomes that become the best practices in instruction over time.

• HEADS AND PRINCIPALS ARE INSTRUMENTAL.

Introducing distributed leadership requires active participation by the heads and principals of K12 institutions. Principals, Vice Principals, Assistant Administrators, Trustees, and other heads of the K12 school can engage in school leadership programs to get started. They need to create a culture and conditions that foster the expertise of teachers and other stakeholders in such a way that they become capable of “owning their decisions and work toward improving students’ outcomes” in the school.

Distributed leadership is a form of participative leadership. To do it well requires a calm disposition, steely determination, and perseverance of an innovative K12 head.

Benefits in K12 Education

The model of distributed leadership can redefine school management. It gives a new way of thinking about responsibility and creativity in schools. The Global Fellow in School Leadership and Management is an executive leadership development program for K12 leaders that advocates this approach. Here is how a distributed leadership approach benefits K12 institutions.

• Distributed Leadership improves retention rates in schools.

• It is a best-positioned form of leadership to produce top-notch education leaders.

• It creates best practices that can ripple through the school to enter all operations and administration.

• It gives ownership of ideas and decisions to teachers.

• It empowers teachers and frees principals from unnecessary micro-management.

• It creates sustainable high-performing standards in schools.

Do you have a plan in place to support your heads, principals, and teachers with distributed leadership?