Douglas B Reeves - Learning Leader: How to Focus School Improvement for Better Results

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• Accountability for Learning: How Teachers and School Leaders Can Take Charge
• Leading Change in Your School: How to Conquer Myths, Build Commitment, and Get Results
• Reframing Teacher Leadership to Improve Your School
• Transforming Professional Development into Student Results

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For the courageous teachers and educational leaders who serve students around the world under the most challenging circumstances

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In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and global economic repercussions associated with it, teachers and leaders are, along with first responders, medical staff, and essential workers, our national heroes. When our grandchildren study the years of 2020 and beyond, they will know that you are, along with our own grandparents, the greatest generation.

I am indebted to the thousands of teachers and educational leaders on six continents who have allowed me into their schools, cabinet meetings, and board rooms. They were uniformly candid and vulnerable, asking only for an equal degree of candor in return. Though I have not identified them by name in these pages, their successesand their willingness to acknowledge mistakeshave profoundly influenced my research and writing.

My field observations are a central part of the book, but I am also influenced by scholars whose study of leadership continues to inform my work every day. Footnotes are an inadequate way to express my debt to the researchers, teachers, and leaders cited in the References. Their scholarship challenges me to learn continuously and to change long-held beliefs. I am grateful for their commitment to education.

I am deeply grateful for the wise and thoughtful editing of Jamie Greene and Allison Amy Wedell. My colleagues at Creative Leadership Solutions provide the deep conversations and intellectual debate that refine the lens through which I see the educational world.

Amy will testify that it's not easy being married to Doug Reeves when I am traveling 250,000 miles a year. It's probably more difficult when I am home. It is a joy to read together, laugh together, and share our love with family and friends.

Douglas B. Reeves
Boston, Massachusetts

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As the year 2021 dawns, leaders around the world are dealing with crisis and recovery. In the wake of the twin crises of COVID-19 and the global economic collapse, leaders are taking one of two courses of action. The first is to be resolute about values and hyperfocused on meeting the needs of students. The second is to abandon values, diminish expectations, and blame inadequate technology and staff expertise for the failure to lead. The first choice is the path toward empowerment; the second choice is the path toward futility and excuses.

One thing that neither health threats nor economic calamity will ever change is the need for value-based leadership, characterized by decision makers who share their successes, admit their mistakes quickly, and demonstrate to every stakeholder that no external condition stopped the imperative for learning. In sum, we need Learning Leaders now more than ever.

In times of crisis, a leader's time is at a premium, and it is therefore a fair question to consider why this book is worth your time. Indeed, every book must respond to the following questions from readers:

• Why me? I have specialized needs and I'm tired of the generic pabulum about education, learning, and leadership.
• Will it work? Spare me the undocumented historical speculation or the "education-lite" aphorisms. I need substance, evidence, practical applications, and 21st century research that supports every claim and recommendation.
• Why this book? Of all the books available on Amazon in March of 2020, over 60,000 address leadership and over 7,000 address leadership in education. What makes this book worthy of my time?

Here's how I would answer these questions for the book you're reading right now:

• Why you? If you are a leader or educator in a complex organization, then you have already come to the conclusion that the myths of the singular heroic leader and teacher are unsatisfying and fundamentally flawed. You know that the complexities of your organization and the enormity of your responsibilities demand performance, not platitudes. You want a solid intellectual framework that acknowledges the work of other researchers, but you want a new insight that will provide intellectual rigor and organizational energy. Above all, you want the answer to challenges that are facing you right now. You have an immediate need to improve communication within your organization, enhance staff morale, and boost performance at the individual and organizational level. You are modest enough to know that you cannot achieve the objectives alone, but you are sufficiently confident to know that one person can serve as a catalyst for the entire organization.
• Will it work? The Leadership for Learning Framework is the result of extensive fieldwork and research. As in the first edition of this book, I use authentic cases and real data to make my case. In addition to presenting research and fieldwork from each of the 50 states and more than 40 countries, this edition introduces a new study analyzing student achievement, teaching practices, and leadership planning for more than one million students in more than 2,000 schools.

This is not a book of ivory tower theory or abstract musings. Leadership for Learning is a framework for success, not a silver bullet or feel-good exercise. The framework will encourage those who are discouraged by providing specific guidance for the most challenged schools and will challenge complacent schools to differentiate between effectiveness and luck.

• Why this book? There are many excellent books on leadership, and well over 100 other scholars are cited in the following pages. But there is also a lot of tripe masquerading as insight on bookstore shelves. Applying the lessons of this book will profoundly change your professional practices. From running meetings to evaluating teams to involving parents and community members in your school, the Leadership for Learning Framework will help you reconceptualize both your own role and those of your colleagues. By discovering your strengths and acknowledging your limitations, you and your organization will become more resilient, less stressed, and more successful.

What is the Leadership for Learning Framework? Take a look at Figure A. On the vertical axis is the traditional focus on results. High results mean you're effective and low results mean the oppositeor at least, so goes the conventional wisdom. Such a superficial analysis neglects to distinguish between those who achieve high results out of luck versus those who are especially effective. On the horizontal axis are the "antecedents of excellence"those observable qualities in leadership, teaching, curriculum, parental engagement, and other areas that help us better understand how results are achieved.