About Us
Our Purpose
Regional Offices of Education (ROEs) across the state have partnered to develop six ROE Lead Hubs to develop organizational leaders for continuous school improvement. Each of the six identified ROE Leadership Hubs have an assigned service area that reaches out beyond their ROE boundaries.
What is an Organizational Leader for
Continuous School Improvement?
Professional learning fosters Organizational Leadership for Instructional Improvement, in which school leaders engage teacher teams in instructional improvement efforts by ensuring they have:
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adequate collaborative time,
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access to necessary data and resources, and
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support to effectively identify and implement effective instructional practice (Horng & Loeb, 2010; Gallimore, Ermeling, Saunders, & Goldenberg, 2009; Grissom, Egalite, & Lindsay, 2021).
Teacher team work is facilitated using a Cycle of Inquiry process to address student learning problems (Cosner, 2012). School leaders are provided job-embedded instructional coaching by former administrators trained in a Blended Coaching model (Bloom, Castagna, Moir, & Warren,per 2005; Bloom & Wilson, 2023). The primary outcome is the establishment of a culture of instructional inquiry that guides mindsets and actions for continuous improvement.
What is a Culture of
Instructional Inquiry?
Schools exhibit a strong Culture of Instructional Inquiry when teachers critically examine prior instructional practices to determine what is contributing to student struggles. Through this approach, teachers identify both the limitations of their current instructional approaches and consider new approaches. Through a Culture of Instructional Inquiry, teachers value exploration when expected results are not achieved. Other key elements include:
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Shared personal responsibility for student success
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Relational trust that enables teachers to confidently share instructional challenges
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Collaborative routines where teachers make practice public for purposes of reflecting and strengthening instructional practices
Why Lead Hubs?
For effective change, schools and districts need a team of leaders, including teacher leaders and administrators at all levels, who collectively welcome leadership roles, responsibilities, and input into instructional strategies.
ROE Lead Hubs are committed to building leadership capacity state-wide through customized professional learning designed to infuse a culture of inquiry into district and school systems.
What are Lead Hubs Doing?
Lead Hubs’ professional learning for leaders facilitate intentional actions to impact learning results and are designed for adult learners grounded in focus areas developed from research and supported by on-site, job-embedded coaching.
How are Lead Hubs Funded?
Lead Hubs were developed and launched through a series of federal, state and foundation leadership grants acquired by Illinois State University, ROE #19, and ROE #17. Funding has included the U.S. Department of Education Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) program, U.S. Department of Education Education, Innovation, and Research (EIR) program, W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Foundation, Robert R. McCormick Foundation, CME Group Foundation, Tracy Family Foundation, S. Steans Family Foundation, and Illinois State Board of Education.
Impact
Training and support of the Lead Hubs is built from Lead|ED, an evidenced-based federally funded program for principals in Illinois conducted in over 130 Illinois schools, including urban, suburban, and rural. Lead|ED develops distributed leadership structures by engaging teacher teams in instructional improvement efforts organized around a Cycle of Inquiry process. Principals are provided job-embedded coaching designed to build principal behaviors identified by research to impact improved instructional practice and student outcomes.
A 5-year quasi-experimental evaluation study on Lead|ED found:
Participating schools had leadership effectiveness scores on the 5 Essentials survey of 1.65 points higher, on average, than those of comparison schools.
Students that attended Lead|ED schools scored 0.065 standard deviation (SD) higher in English language arts (ELA) and 0.104 SD higher in math in spring than comparison schools.
Lead|ED schools that had developed an effective system of teacher teams working on instructional improvements were able to sustain those meetings and that instructional focus even during the COVID emergency closure period.
Lead|ED coaches reported that those schools had an easier time refocusing teachers, students, and families in learning renewal efforts, than schools that were not able to continue teacher team meetings due to the disruption of COVID.