Improving the nation’s public schools is one of the highest priorities of federal, state, and local government in America. Recent research has shown that the quality of the principal is, among school-based factors, second only to the quality of the teacher in contributing to what students learn in the classroom.
According to the 2009 Rand report, Improving School Leadership: The Promise of Cohesive Leadership Systems (CLS), “Delaware, Iowa, and Kentucky had the most advanced CLSs at the time of our research. Compared with other sites, they exhibited all five characteristics we identified as present in highly cohesive leadership systems: comprehensiveness in the scope of their initiatives, alignment of policies and practices, broad stakeholder engagement, agreement on how to improve leadership, and coordination achieved through strong leadership” (page 8).
We have no doubt that the Authentic Intellectual Work State-side Initiative with the Iowa Department of Education has benefitted from the Cohesive Leadership Systems present.