In this guest post for Education Week’s Leadership 360 blog, Superintendent Jay Harnack from Sublette County School District #1 (SCSD1) shares how he, his board of education, and his principals and teachers improved student achievement through an integrated district improvement approach that included McREL’s Balanced Leadership research-based leadership framework.
“All of our administrators were trained in the leadership framework, and this created a common language and understanding of leadership practices, which we could then align to any given improvement initiative,” writes Superintendent Harnack. He adds that the greatest benefit came when teachers were also trained in Balanced Leadership, leading to “significant improvements in teacher engagement, leadership, and collaboration with principals.”
SCSD1 was recently reviewed by AdvancED and earned an Index of Educational Quality Score (IEQ) that was the highest in the state of Wyoming and among the top 10% internationally. In addition, the district’s elementary school and high school received an “exceeding standards” ranking on the Wyoming State Accountability model.