Pathways to Teacher Leadership: Emerging Models, Changing Roles

Pathways to Teacher Leadership investigates emerging patterns in the development and effectiveness of teacher leadership.What roles do teachers pursue as they seek to lead change in their schools? What pressures and challenges do emerging leaders face? How can principals and peers support effective teacher leadership?

Marya R. Levenson takes a broad view of teacher leadership, encompassing not only instructional leadership but also teachers’ roles in organizational improvement at the school level and the emerging movement to give teachers a voice in district, state, and federal policy. She looks closely at the particular demands on young teachers in mission-driven urban schools, as well as those in more traditional settings. Drawing on lively case studies of teacher leadership in different contexts, she examines the potentially sticky relationships between emerging leaders, principals, families, and communities.

Pathways to Teacher Leadership provides a powerful counterpoint to current debates about teacher quality and shows how teachers can work together to make schools better.

After several years as a community organizer with Mothers for Adequate Welfare, Marya R. Levenson began her educational career in 1971 as a ninth-grade history and civics teacher at the William Barton Rogers Junior High School in the Boston Public Schools (BPS). She was part of the team that created Madison Park High School, a magnet school, during Boston’s desegregation era. Active in the Boston Teachers Union, she served on the BTU executive committee. In 1979–1980, in her capacity as staff associate to the superintendent, Levenson initiated the first BPS Middle Schools Task Force.

Levenson earned her EdD in administration and social policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), where she became the assistant director of The Principals’ Center. She was principal of Newton North (Massachusetts) High School from 1982 to 1990, and superintendent of the North Colonie (New York) School District from 1990 to 2001. She has served as president of the HGSE Alumni Council, a member of the Executive Committee of the New York State Council of School Superintendents, codirector of Public Schools for Tomorrow, and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Harvard Education Letter. The New York State Council of School Superintendents recognized her service to students and schools in 1999, and in 2000 she received a Woman of Excellence award from the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Since 2001, Levenson has been the Professor of the Practice in Education and the Harry S. Levitan Director of Education at Brandeis University, where she received the Louis Dembitz Brandeis Prize for Excellence in Teaching. She has written about assessments, school change, and student expectations.

Marya R. Levenson is married to Andy Hawley; between them, they have three children with spouses, five terrific grandchildren, and a beagle.