What is the Purpose of Collaborative Leadership?
When decisions are aligned to the goals of the community, community schools can set the stage for transformation. When done with intentionality, collaborative leadership can improve the outcomes for young people and build a system that ensures alignment and coherence between all interest-holders.
Collaborative leadership can:
- Provide the necessary system for integration and access of resources that are needed by students and families in community schools.
- Create spaces for collective problem-solving and possibility-thinking to meet the pressing needs of students and the community. This allows schools to develop innovative learning programs and support systems that are aligned to the needs and assets of the community. Collaborative leadership has a demonstrated impact on student achievement.
- Uplift the expertise of educators and the impact they have as change-makers. Schools with shared leadership models, have greater educator retention and overall work-place satisfaction as compared to traditional models, thus allowing for greater consistency and stable learning environments for young people.
- Strengthen the commitment of all interest-holders to envision-racially-just and relationship-centered schools that disrupt historical and societal inequities.
- Establish coherence and alignment across site and LEA system-level operations that increases commitment and improves the impact of initiatives.
For community schools to be supported to fully thrive and transform over time, the larger system must establish the necessary conditions to allow for the full expertise, agency and voice of the community to guide school transformation. States, LEA’s and school districts can pave the way in disrupting the historical inequities that have systematically excluded the voice of students, families and educators; alongside with schools, the larger system must simultaneously transform itself. Collaborative leadership creates opportunities for greater multidirectional communication and the scalable system for the community school strategy.
