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From the building

Which leadership moves actually reach learning?

A school-usable map from Marzano’s 21 responsibilities. Ranked highest to lowest. Built for a leadership team that has to choose what to protect this term.

This is not a catalogue of what good leaders do. It is a tool I put on the table when a senior team has to choose what to protect this term, because the week will try to eat everything. Marzano, Waters and McNulty ranked twenty-one leadership responsibilities by how they link to student achievement. You do not need all twenty-one. You need a clearer sense of which few you are actually feeding, and which ones only get discussed.

Evis Qeska · Nordic Education Academy, Copenhagen

From intended to achieved.

Download the resource pack

Five pages. Print for the meeting. No form, no email.

The invitation

If you could protect only one this term, which?

There is no trick answer. Scroll for the research order and the meeting moves.

Reply with A, B, or C to evis@nordiceducationacademy.com if you want. I read them.

How to read this order

This high-to-low order comes from the Marzano, Waters and McNulty (2005) meta-analysis: average correlations with student achievement across many studies and schools. It is a research average, not a law for every school. What ranks highest here may not be the first lever in your building this term. Context still decides, so use the ranking as a prompt for judgment: do a sticky rank and SLT compare, not a fixed priority list.

Among school factors, leadership sits second only to classroom teaching.

Wallace Foundation reviews on leadership and learning.

Look here first when the week is full

Use this as a prompt for judgment, not a fixed priority list.

Bar length follows rank order only. It is not a score, and it is not a reason to drop the rest of the map. Tap any line to mark what you would protect. Nothing is saved.

Use this week

Print the pack or use this page. About one SLT meeting.

  1. 1

    Sticky rank

    10 minutes

    Each person marks the three they think move learning most here, without showing each other.

  2. 2

    SLT compare

    10 minutes

    Reveal the marks. Then reveal the research order. Ask: Where do we agree? Where do we disagree, and why?

  3. 3

    Calendar audit

    15 minutes

    Open this month's leadership calendar. For each protected block: which responsibility did that hour feed?

  4. 4

    Discussed vs decided

    5 minutes

    Before you leave, four lines. What did we discuss? What did we actually decide? Who owns it? What should a teacher or a student notice by Friday? If line two is empty, say so out loud. Empty is useful.

All 21, ranked highest to lowest

Same 2005 order. What it means in practice. Lower on the map does not mean ignore.

Ranks 1 to 7

  • Know the undercurrents: informal groups, brewing issues, what might go wrong, and act before problems hit the corridor.

    Try this week. Before your next corridor walk, write three names or groups you are less sure about. Ask one trusted person what you might be missing.

Ranks 8 to 11

Ranks 12 to 21

Take it into the room

The printable pack carries the same map, the four moves, and the two cards for the table.

Download the resource pack

Five pages. Print for the meeting. No decimals. Leadership-team language.

If you want priorities, decisions, and evidence on one screen for your senior team, that is the kind of loop SchoolOS is built for. More at nordiceducationacademy.com.

Nordic Education Academy, Copenhagen. We sit with IB leadership teams on the work that has to last the year.