Chapter 12: Developing Distributed Leadership in the Middle Grades: Lessons from School Self-Assessment

This chapter reports on the changing roles of middle-level administrators and teachers as a result of their participation in School Self-Assessment (SSA), a program of professional development in inquiry-based school improvement. Professional development for administrators is rarely integrated with that of teachers. Yet, diverse competencies need to come together in order for school staff to meet the call for whole-school improvement. This chapter showcases three profiles of school leaders—a staff coordinator, a principal, and a teacher—to make the case for integrating the ongoing professional development of middle-level administrators and teachers to develop truly distributed leadership in schools.