Rethinking School Leadership - Creating Great Schools for All Students

We began, prompted by the late Chris Gonnet, Superintendent of Grande Prairie Public Schools, to explore the question 'What Makes a Great School?'in December 2010 at a meeting in Boston. We concluded that it involved many inter-connected elements, but that the key components were focused teacher leadership enabled by being empowered and resourced to make a difference. Rethinking Leadership sees evidence-informed practice as the fulcrum point for leveraging school improvement, especially if it systematically supported within a systematic way at the jurisdiction and provincial levels to build school leadership capacity. We also concluded that the framing conditions for the work of the school – the provincial/ state policies, curriculum requirements, financial arrangements, assessment regimes as well as the policies of school boards and districts – either enables or impairs the ability of a team within the school to create a great school for all students.