Connecting Leadership with Learning: A Framework for Reflection, Planning, and Action

What kind of leadership makes learning possible for all students? How can school leaders help teachers increase their knowledge and improve their instructional abilities? What actions should leaders take to ensure that learning occurs? In Connecting Leadership with Learning: A Framework for Reflection, Planning, and Action, Michael A. Copland and Michael S. Knapp give educational leaders a new way to answer these questions and find solutions perfect for their particular school environment.

Copland and Knapp assert that far too many educational leaders are struggling with outdated curricula, demands that don't align with their school or district goals, and professional meetings that are high on complaints but low on solutions. Instead of prescribing a linear or rigid approach, the authors encourage educators to be attentive and tune into their leadership actions by using the Leading for Learning Framework. The framework provides different vantage points to help leaders reflect on their strengths and weaknesses, plan for improvement, and take actions to foster learning for students, teachers and professionals, and school and district leaders. The Leading for Learning Framework will empower leaders to

*Establish a focus on equitable learning

*Build professional communities

*Engage communities and external partnerships

*Act strategically and share leadership

*Create coherence in their leadership actions

The book includes extended case studies, descriptions of 23 different leadership "pathways," and many examples from schools and districts that show the Leading for Learning Framework in action.

There is no magic formula for great school leadership, but Copland and Knapp conclude that magic can happen when leaders reframe their efforts to focus more clearly on learning.

MICHAEL S. KNAPP is Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Washington.