The Aspen Institute

Teacher leadership is emerging as a key strategy to increase retention of effective teachers and distribute responsibility for improving instruction, but it must be designed and implemented strategically to meet these goals. A new paper from the Aspen Institute and Leading Educators, Leading from the Front of the Classroom: A Roadmap for Teacher Leadership that Works, highlights promising practices from leading states, districts, and charter schools and provides practical guidance for system leaders. Leading Educators is a New Orleans-based entrepreneurial organization that designs and supports teacher leadership initiatives for school districts and charter networks. Accompanying the release of Leading from the Front of the Classroom are three profiles of promising work in Tennessee, Denver Public Schools, and Noble Street charter network in Chicago that show how these systems integrate teacher leadership with other top priorities (e.g., implementing Common Core, strengthening teacher evaluation) to increase impact and sustainability.