Three years ago, I set out to write a book to help educators become stronger leaders, focusing on the skills and mindset shifts needed to be successful.
As the president of The Holdsworth Center, a nonprofit that’s provided leadership training to 1,900 leaders from 89 school districts in Texas, I’ve had the opportunity to see the challenges public schools face up close.
What I saw made me question my premise. Was I at risk of telling educators that if they just worked harder and got better at their jobs, all would be well?
Jobs in schools had morphed into something that was nearly impossible for most human beings. Over the past 25 years, we’ve asked principals to elevate their practice and absorb instructional leadership without taking anything else off their plates. Meanwhile in Texas, as in many other states, a large number of new teachers were coming in uncertified with minimal preservice preparation, straining the capacity of principals to coach and support them while setting a vision for success and running day-to-day operations of a school.
Both of these forces—the increasing demands on educators at all levels and the growing share of novice teachers—have been accumulating over decades but accelerated with the pandemic.
The result: In many schools today, teachers are not getting the coaching and support they need. Teachers and leaders are all leaving at the end of the day feeling discouraged.
Informed by our partner districts and my background studying international school systems and organizational design, I started building a framework that districts and schools could use to design roles that don’t require superheroes without compromising instruction. That starts with every teacher receiving the support they need to grow and thrive.
This framework—what I call a new school leadership architecture—isn’t about adding more people or moving to a rigid hierarchy. It’s about repurposing existing roles and resources to build a system where everyone has clarity around their job role, has the support to do it well, and is working toward a shared vision.
I’ve seen this on the ground in Lockhart, a small district outside Austin, Texas. As part of a program my nonprofit runs for district leaders, Lockhart’s superintendent, Mark Estrada, took a trip in 2019 to Singapore, where he was impressed by the amount of time teachers were given to take on leadership responsibilities. In Singapore, teachers spend less than 18 hours per week on direct instruction compared with 28 hours for U.S. teachers, according to 2024 data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Experienced, expert teachers even receive additional release time to mentor their colleagues and take on other leadership responsibilities.
He embarked on a journey to bring his insights from Singapore back to his own schools to address the three common reasons a recent statewide survey had identified for why Texas teachers leave public schools: a lack of autonomy, low pay, and a lack of career advancement opportunities without leaving the classroom.
Starting with a pilot campus, Plum Creek Elementary, his district tapped expert teachers to coach their peers and support professional learning—and gave them extra pay for the work.
After four years of implementing and refining their shared leadership model, every educator at Plum Creek is now operating differently. These expert teachers, or “lever leaders,” now spend half their time teaching and the other half leading other teachers: supporting their development and growth and working to ensure that students thrive in every classroom across the team.
The assistant principal is responsible for coaching the lever leaders, not stuck in an office doing paperwork. The principal is still the instructional leader, but she is focused on developing the assistant principal, building her skill to coach and lead. As she releases decision-making and leadership responsibility to her team, spending less time putting out fires, the principal has more time to plan long-term and think strategically while knowing that teachers are getting the attention and mentorship they need.
The gains in student academic progress (last year, Plum Creek earned its first A rating from Texas based on student scores on the state’s annual test), and employee satisfaction were so strong that the district has now scaled the model to all its nine campuses and more than 400 full-time teachers.
Every district must diagnose their own gaps and work with the resources they’ve got to design creative solutions to develop and retain teachers and support meaningful and sustained gains in student growth and achievement. Here are four concrete steps that districts and schools can use to diagnose their gaps and design creative solutions:
- Diagnose your current school leadership architecture to identify gaps. Are principals operating below their level? Are assistant principals stuck in operational roles? Are teacher-leaders sidelined or unsupported?
- Define leadership levels and expectations. Clarify what each role is responsible for, especially teachers and assistant principals. Ensure roles are aligned to instructional priorities and educators and leaders have the time and authority to succeed.
- Repurpose and redefine, don’t just add. Fund new roles by rethinking existing ones. Review stipends, nonclassroom positions, and central-office roles. When we face limited resources—financial or personnel—it is critical that we maximize the impact of every educator.
- Start small. Pilot with campuses where principals see the value of trying something new. Select schools with strong culture and leadership and provide clear parameters. You might decide, for example, that teacher-leaders have 50 percent release time to coach 6-10 teachers. Learn, iterate, and refine. Then scale.
There’s never going to be an off-the-shelf solution for districts and schools to revamp their leadership systems. But the good news is that districts and schools have the power, creativity, and talent to redesign school leadership in ways that are sustainable, scalable, and centered on student success. We just need better systems.
