How Leadership Works

Sharpen your instructional leadership skills and guide your school toward equity and excellence for all.

Just think about how great schools could be if every instructional leader exercised their influence to create change maximizing the efforts of others and mobilizing those efforts to work toward a shared goal.

How Leadership Works: A Playbook for Instructional Leaders walks educators through the processes of clarifying, articulating, and actualizing instructional leadership goals with the aim of delivering on the promise of equity and excellence for all. Grounded in Visible Learning® research, the exercises in this easy-to-use playbook illuminate the essential mindframes necessary for effective instructional leadership and prompt veteran, new, and aspiring educators to identify challenges and determine next steps. It includes:

• Ten essential mindframes for leaders, together with the leadership practices that illustrate each mindframe in action
• Teaching practices, such as teacher clarity or student engagement in learning, that support teachers in delivering quality instruction, along with tools to document the impact of those practices on learning
• Strategies for leading learning, including establishing school culture, utilizing feedback, and supporting professional learning communities as a pathway to building collective teacher efficacy.
• Tools for applying the principles of change, conducting an initiative inventory, and implementing and de-implementing initiatives

Exercise-by-exercise, educators and front office staff will deepen their knowledge, frame their priorities and practices, and gain new tools for supporting the instructional focus and initiatives designed to support learning at your school.

Cathy Lassiter, Ed.D., is a consultant and author with Corwin Learning with over forty years in public education. Prior to this role, she served as a middle and high school social studies teacher, award-winning middle school principal and respected central office leader in a large urban district in Virginia.  Her published titles include Everyday Courage for School Leaders, How Leadership Works, Leader Credibility and How Teams Work, all published by Corwin. Cathy's consulting expertise includes all aspects of school and central office leadership, school improvement, curriculum, instruction, assessment and professional development.  She is a certified consultant in all facets of Visible Learning, Teacher Clarity, and a number of other Corwin service lines.  Cathy served as an adjunct professor at The George Washington University, teaching graduate courses in educational leadership.

Douglas Fisher is a professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Previously, Fisher was an early intervention teacher and elementary school educator. In 2022, he was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame by the Literacy Research Association. He has published numerous articles on reading and literacy, leadership, and curriculum design, as well as books such as Your Introduction to PLC+, Welcome to Teaching, How Feedback Works, Teaching Reading, and RIGOR Unveiled. Fisher loves being an educator and hopes to share that passion with others.

Nancy Frey is a professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Her published titles include The Courage to Learn, The Art and Science of Coaching, How Scaffolding Works, and The Illustrated Guide to Visible Learning. Frey is a credentialed special educator, reading specialist, and administrator in California and learns from teachers and students every day.

Dominique Smith  is an award-winning educator, author, and school leader who has dedicated two decades to transforming schools into inclusive, safe, and empowering spaces for students and educators alike. He currently serves as principal at Health Sciences High and Middle College in San Diego, California. Smith earned his doctorate in educational leadership from San Diego State University and a master of social work from the University of Southern California. 

You feel exhausted hearing all the roles of a leader: aspirers of high expectations and great ambitions, builders of collectives of learners and professional development, social influences among leaders and teachers, leaders of teaching and learning, those who apply principles of improvement, amplifiers of effective instruction, architects of productive and inviting climates, beacons of trust, supporters of clarity about purpose and instruction, chief engagement officers of teacher and student learners, evaluators of impact, accountability officers, leaders of improvement, implementation scientists, and great managers. The alternative is a school of independent contractors, where great teaching and leadership is by
chance. How Leadership Works makes a convincing case about how to bring all these roles to fruition and how to have time left over to enjoy the success of all in the school (as well as your own successes). John Hattie University of Melbourne