To be able to cover all of our content areas and grade level areas... we have to have almost 25 percent of our staff
in teacher leader positions.
These findings suggest that the involvement of school administrators in selection may have helped ensure that strong teacher leader candidates were identified
for teacher leader positions.
Additionally, districts must sustainably
fund teacher leader positions; research demonstrates that teacher leader programs that are built into the school or district budget typically live longer than programs that are externally or temporarily funded.
While there no studies were identified that empirically compared different selection processes, some studies highlighted how administrator support helped teachers move
into teacher leader positions and contributed to their effectiveness as teacher leaders.
Fanscali (2004) and Howe and Stubbs (2001) examined teacher leader selection through an analysis of factors that influenced when teachers elected to
pursue teacher leader positions.
Although a process to select teacher leaders was likely a feature of leadership programs or
teacher leader positions examined in most studies, few explored the effects of selection on teacher leader development or teacher leader practice.
Findings from these studies: 1) suggest that the process for selecting teacher leaders should involve input from school administrators, as opposed to relying on self - selected (i.e. voluntary) appointments to
teacher leader positions, and 2) underscore the importance of having clear criteria in the selection of teacher leaders which are aligned to the expectations for their work in the teacher leader position.
We have very few (less than five)
teacher leader positions in the district.
These studies provided some evidence that the process for selecting teacher leaders should involve input from school administrators, as opposed to relying on self - selected (i.e. voluntary) appointments to
teacher leader positions.