When assistant principal Dr. Stephanie Adams began her work with The Leadership Academy two years ago, she was focused on developing strategies to deepen her leadership practice and best support the teachers at her New York PreK-8 school. Today, she says an unexpected factor helped her create the conditions for success – the impact of strong instructional leadership as a pathway for systemic change.
“Working with The Leadership Academy enhanced my skills. It made me more strategic and intentional about my communication with staff, students, and parents. I’m so clear now about everything being done with a bigger purpose and how other things can change as a result,” Adams explained.
In 2022, The Leadership Academy partnered with Adams and other assistant and acting principals for a yearlong leadership coaching program that enabled school leaders to set leadership goals, receive and reflect on feedback, and support performance growth. Adams says she’s seeing the results of the coaching partnership in a variety of ways, including in noticeable shifts in how the teachers in her school support student reading.
“Before, our reading coaches would assess the students and share the data with teachers, but because those teachers weren’t actually observing the assessment itself, it wasn’t clear how much the data was genuinely resonating,” she said. “My coach with The Leadership Academy helped me to have a different perspective about the power of collaborative working environments, and that helped me to see a solution I might not have seen before.”
Adams created a new process through which teachers conduct the reading assessments themselves and collectively reflect on the data through grade-level meetings. From there, they develop corresponding lesson plans to support students. “This wasn’t about assigning blame for what wasn’t working, but rather about making space for teachers to learn and share strategies together,” said Adams.
Research from The Wallace Foundation shows that two of the most important behaviors of an effective principal are focusing their work with teachers on instruction and forging collaboration and professional learning among teachers. Adams’ work with the student reading assessments did both.
Her shift in collaborative approach has helped Adams to strengthen her bond with the teachers in her school. She credits learning about the competencies of an effective leader as the catalyst for her approach resonating in a different way with her teachers and staff, especially when she’s conducting her classroom visits.
“The teachers know that when I’m coming to the classroom, I’m going to give them feedback, but they also know that my feedback isn’t about a ‘gotcha.’ It’s a genuine support,” she said. “There’s increased trust. It’s a credit to me using what I’ve learned from those competencies as a guide for how I lead, just always having the right mindset of learning, being open, being vulnerable, being honest.”
For Adams, the impact of the strategies she’s implemented since partnering with The Leadership Academy is clear: she’s showing up differently with her teachers, which creates a ripple effect in their classrooms and with their students.
“The bottom line is that teachers have stronger and better strategies to support students and they’re implementing them in the classroom. And ultimately, it’s giving students a sense of success.”
Click here to learn more about The Leadership Academy’s coaching services.