Steering Education Towards Effective Leadership with Paul Fleming

In this episode of In the Lead with UCEA, Executive Director Dr. Mónica Byrne-Jiménez talks with Paul Fleming, Chief Learning Officer at Learning Forward, where he works with states and districts to increase educator and leader effectiveness through student-focused, high-quality, professional learning.Mónica and Paul discuss Learning Forward's international outreach, including their popular annual conference and strong membership base. Paul emphasizes the importance of cohesive principal pipelines and the educator lifecycle and also the significance of professional learning standards, their development process, and their adoption by states. Paul explains why aligning high-quality professional learning practices across educational systems and the critical partnerships between state agencies and higher education is necessary. In the Lead with UCEA is produced by University FM.Episode Quotes:The danger of not having a cohesive and comprehensive set of professional learning standards[08:46] We see this a lot, and I'm sure you do too, both in the higher ed space and in the K12 space, is that what we really want to keep doing is trying to help increase the pockets of excellence that are there, right? And we know that there's a lot of pockets of excellence that schools, systems, and higher ed institutions engage in. But without that kind of cohesive and comprehensive set of standards, the danger is then you have a lack of common language. You have silos happening in a way that perpetuates, sometimes, inequities. It perpetuates practices that are not always evidence-based. And so just the fact of having that kind of anchor, and we often call our standards, kind of, like, the anchor document, right? And instead of [a] roadmap, [it] provides a real, I think, sense of clarity for how to align then practices. Why it’s no longer an option but a necessity to build a collaborative leadership space[13:09] We know the challenges right now of retaining high-quality teachers and principals. And so it's interesting that while educator pay is important, it's often the perception of the leader in the principal seat number one. Then the culture of collaboration support that's going to build into [it], so I think I am fortunate that I get to do some of that work with systems too, to help build their leadership team capacity. Because that's the other thing we're seeing is [that] the principal job has become, not to sound too informal, but ginormous, right? Like how large right now the principal role [is] and how many hats they wear. And I think that's another reason why it's no longer an option but a necessity to build a culture of collaborative inquiry and a culture of collaboration as a leader. Because if you think about the history of, like, operational leader, you know, books, boilers, and buses, that principals started with, to kind of, sole instruction leader and what that meant. And now it's really important to build a collaborative leadership space.On bringing leaders together across systems through the Leadership Team Institute[14:09] Monica: I think in some ways, particularly around the principal role, it also breaks down the sense of isolation that can be really overwhelming in schools, and particularly, like you said, as we continue to make roles more complex. And then, in addition, sort of, the context is becoming more complex.[14:27] Paul: Yeah. And I think that's the other important piece that you touched upon that I think is a lever for state agencies, and that is as an agency that has the power to convene. Leaders coming together because of what you just said—the isolation, the sometimes silos and challenges, and how often, and we have several networks that we lead and run, including one that I help lead called the Leadership Team Institute that brings leaders together across systems for that very purpose, right? To convene and to help spread and share both practices and challenges.Show Links:LearningForward.orgProfile | Learning ForwardLinkedIn ProfileSocial Profile on X