New Book by National Institute for Excellence in Teaching CEO Dr. Joshua Barnett Builds Foundation for Educational Success through Teacher Leadership

Phoenix, Ariz. (February 27, 2024) – The National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) announced today the release of Unleashing Teacher Leadership: A Toolkit for Ensuring Effective Instruction in Every Classroom, a new resource for teacher leaders authored by NIET CEO Dr. Joshua Barnett and published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). The book examines best practices and tools that teacher leaders can use to unlock their own power and drive lasting instructional improvement across schools and districts. 

“Effective educators are the cornerstone of student success and those who get the best results are committed to fully exploring the dimensions of their role, but that often comes with challenges,” said Barnett. “I wanted to develop a practical resource for educators to provide guidance, best practices, and proven tools they can use to lead effectively within their districts and schools, driving a transformative ripple effect of positive change and success.”

In this powerful toolkit, readers can expect to:

• Examine their context as instructional experts.
• Understand their approach to leadership and how to work with other leaders in their school.
• Develop expertise in evidence-based instructional practice.
• Support the implementation of high-quality curriculum.
• Build effective learning environments and support colleagues’ efforts to do the same.
• Understand how to use data and assessment to support student learning and inform instructional practice.
• Acquire coaching skills to help build colleagues’ capacity.
• Lead effective collaboration and scale teacher effectiveness.
• Use their voice to influence decisions that affect students and fellow teachers.

Along with guidance on these practices and skills, readers will get the perspectives of teacher leaders engaged in this work and acquire dozens of real-world, impactful tools they can use to unleash the power of effective teacher leadership in their own schools and districts. An accompanying study guide is also available to support deeper conversations.

For more than 20 years, NIET has worked with a primary goal of fostering teacher excellence to improve student outcomes through its partnerships with schools and districts across the country. A policy leader at the state and federal levels, NIET helps to sustain and expand initiatives that support teacher leadership and keep educator effectiveness at the forefront of the national agenda with the ultimate goal of strengthening K -12 education.

NIET’s collaborative efforts with partner schools have resulted in significant enhancements in educator effectiveness, student achievements, and overall school outcomes. Through a steadfast commitment to utilizing NIET’s tools and resources, teachers within these partner schools have consistently elevated educational outcomes, fostering instructional excellence and establishing clear career pathways.

Unleashing Teacher Leadership will be formally unveiled at NIET’s annual national conference in Dallas on February 29 – March 1 where school and district leaders, policymakers, and state leaders will have the opportunity to celebrate and advance best practices in educator effectiveness and student learning.

Join the conversation on social media: Effective leaders open doors for teachers to grow their leadership skills and thrive. Check out @NIETeach CEO @NIETjbarnett’s new book https://tinyurl.com/NIETJoshBarnettBook with @ASCD that provides a road map for creating a teacher-leader initiative. #UnleashingTeacherLeadership #NIET2024

###

About Dr. Joshua Barnett

CEO Dr. Joshua Barnett leads the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching in its pursuit of building educator excellence to give all students the opportunity for success. An avid proponent of teacher leadership, Barnett guides a world-class team of educators and thought leaders to advise states, districts, and universities across the country using tools, resources, training and support. His work has been published in various outlets, including Educational Leadership magazine, Principal magazine, Journal of Scholarship & Practice, Review of Educational Research, Teachers College Record, and Issues in Teacher Education. He has also been a featured speaker at national conferences and serves as an expert on educator effectiveness with media. He is the author of Unleashing Teacher Leadership: A Toolkit for Ensuring Effective Instruction in Every Classroom.

About National Institute for Excellence in Teaching

The National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) is a national nonprofit based in Phoenix, Arizona, serving states and districts nationwide. For more than two decades, NIET has partnered with schools, districts, states, and universities to build educator excellence to give all students the opportunity for success. NIET has trained more than 35,000 teacher leaders across the country since its inception and is nationally recognized for developing instructionally focused teacher leadership roles that have a measurable impact on student achievement, teacher effectiveness, and retention. NIET’s initiatives have impacted more than 300,000 educators and 3 million students across the U.S. Learn more at NIET.org.  

Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.