The document contains summaries of perspectives on instructional leadership from several individuals: - Mr. Alan Ray emphasizes having a shared school vision, monitoring student data, and building trust with faculty and students. - Anthony Stewart stresses the importance of relationships and using research on best practices to guide instructional improvements. - Mr. Keeton describes the shifting role of educational leaders to focus on instructional strategies and using data to tailor supports. - A research article outlines benefits of professional learning communities for school improvement, teacher development, and student learning.

1. Cathy Dunnigan
Marie Payne
Eric Rhine
Multidisciplinary Perspectives of Instructional Leadership IL 575

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Mr. Alan Ray, Assistant Principal, Centreville Middle
School states that following:
An effective leader should have a shared vision/goal for
the school with all stakeholders.
Have a clear vision of where you are as a school and
where you (personally) would like the school to go.
Focus on instructional time (academics)
Set high expectations for faculty, staff, and students
Continuously monitor students’ data
Finally, build a relationship of trust with the faculty, staff,
and students.

3. Anthony Stewart, Elementary Curriculum Supervisor/Coordinator,
Houston County Board of Education
 You cannot be an effective instructional leader without building
relationships with the people that you are trying to motivate or
influence to get better at the complex craft of teaching and learning.
 You must engage yourself in learning what the research has to offer
concerning best practices of teaching. Explicit systematic instruction is
a beautiful thing but we must know what it looks like and be able to
clearly articulate if we are going to lead others into its
implementation.
 We must somehow learn to translate knowledge into action and that
action must take place in every classroom. Analyzing data to make the
instructional decisions to meet the needs of a diverse group needs to be
the norm in every classroom. After we obtain the knowledge from the
data, the action steps must include instructional differentiation to
reach every child.

4. Mr. Keeton, Assistant Principal Brookwood
Elementary.
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The role of today’s educational leader is shifting. What once was a
marginal role to facilitate school operations has increasingly shifted
towards a medium of instructional leadership. It is important for school
leaders to become aware of various strategies and the curriculum in
order to fully foster the pinnacle of student and teacher potential. Just as
a carpenter has a chest of many tools, the instructional leader has a well
stocked portfolio of strategies. The effectiveness of the carpenter
depends upon his ability to select the appropriate tool(s) for the
materials with which is working. In the same sense, effective
instructional leaders are able to predict strategies that will have the most
impact on school performance given the demographic and economic
makeup of the school and community.

5. Protheroe, N. (2004). Professional learning communities.
Principal, 83(5), 39-42.
According to the article, there are benefits of a professional
learning community in three major categories: Support for
school improvement, support for teacher development, and
impact on student learning.
 A school characterized as a professional learning
community has a culture that recognizes and capitalizes on
the collective strengths and talents of its staff.
 Principals who want to support the development of a
professional learning community should attempt to gauge
and improve trust among their staff members.
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6. Potter, H. (2013). Boosting achievement by pursuing diversity. Educational
Leadership, 70(8), 38-43.
 Socioeconomic integration is an effective way to tap into the academic
benefits of having high-achieving peers, an engaged community of parents,
and high quality teachers. This integration can provide students on both
income levels the opportunity to benefit from each other culturally,
socially, and academically.
 Researchers found that the advantages of attending a mixed-income school
could be fully explained by school characteristics such as teachers’
expectations, students’ homework habits, and school safety. I feel that the
teachers’ goals are to teach and care for the students regardless of the
income status of the students.
 The range of the students’ backgrounds is both a challenge and a resource;
for example, differentiation is a challenge for teachers and students of all
backgrounds to benefit from hearing about their classmates’ experiences
and from relating their own experiences to others.

7. Renihan, P., & Noonan, B. (2012). Principals as assessment leaders in
rural schools. Rural Educator, 33(3), 1-8
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The results of this study highlighted the importance of principals
focusing on their own behavior as a way to influence teacher
development and student achievement.
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After the authors of this study discussed with the participants, it was
noted that there were various facets of the rural context of the
school that had powerful influences upon the ability of individual
principals to provide assessment leadership.
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The policy and action implications of the findings suggest that
concerted attention to the articulation of the rural principal’s
support system would serve the principals very well in ensuring
coherent and consistent leadership for learning.

8. 
http://www.pivot.tv/shows/teach
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Dr. Rita Pierson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw
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