Teachers are School Site Leaders, Too!

I agree with much of Frederick Brown’s blog submission on leadership improvements needed in schools (February 9, 2011, Learning Forward, www.learningforward.org). However, I do want to add that principals are not the only “school site leaders.”  In our book Leadership Development for Educators we have re-started a trend, started in 1956, that views teachers as leaders.  Teachers need to be trained in leadership development.  Teachers are leaders in their classrooms, in their relations with parents, in their relations with their students, and in relation to their schools.  We have relied for far too long n “principals” as the only bona fide leaders in the schools.  Modern business, the military, the universities, and even the Boy Scouts all follow the belief that they succeed because of leaders at every level.  Until we begin to treat teachers as leaders and train teachers in leadership development, we are shortchanging schools, students, parents, and most of all, teachers.