Collective Leader Efficacy
August 01, 2026
Using professional learning teams with your principals to strengthen instructional leadership
I was a little shocked by the principal’s response after I had spent a week planning this 1:1 meeting and had prepped for various responses that I expected. But when I asked about his plan to improve student outcomes at his middle school, the principal responded, “Well, I should probably ask you the same question.”
I used to believe our district-level leadership team’s best way to influence classroom learning was through curriculum choices, professional development and systems for monitoring student outcomes. But over time, one truth became impossible to ignore: Our actual sphere of influence as superintendents isn’t the students or even the teachers — it’s the principals.
Outside of the home, principals are second only to teachers when measuring impact on student growth. Yet for too long, we treated principals as managers instead of leaders, and we isolated them in their buildings instead of uniting them in shared professional practice.
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Author
Rob DarlingUsing Red–Yellow–Green Tiers Without Breaking Teacher Trust
A few years ago, I shared at an end-of-year administrative retreat with our school district’s five principals and 10 assistant principals an admission: “Last year I did this all wrong!”
School had been out for two weeks, and we were spending a few days together, wrapping up the year, celebrating and doing some planning for August while issues were still fresh in our brains.
“The mistake I made last June was having you focus your improvement plans based on student data,” I continued. “That was wrong. You don’t directly impact student growth — your teachers do. That’s where we need to focus: your teachers.”
I shared a digital list of their teachers by school and gave them instructions: Rank them Red, Yellow or Green. Green are the teachers who consistently show evidence of differentiation (our districtwide priority) and the other 1–2 key classroom must-sees specific to each school. Yellow teachers inconsistently show evidence, and Red teachers almost never have evidence.
This was a difficult exercise for some principals, as they were now ranking people they’ve worked with, gone on vacation with and/or evaluated, in some instances for a decade or more. They were being required to publicly admit which teachers they knew were ineffective or maybe even doing harm. They were also being asked to demonstrate knowledge of their teachers, which can be even more difficult.
But now they have data that directly reflects their instructional leadership efforts: principals having an impact on improving instruction and classroom environments. Just like the four professional learning community questions for teachers, effective principals create action plans each week for teachers who aren’t getting it and plans for those who are.
When I have my monthly 1:1 meetings with principals, we always discuss what they’re doing for Red teachers and which Yellow teachers are moving up or down. As an instructional leadership team, we analyze this data quarterly to celebrate upward movement and plan measures for anyone trending downward.
— Rob Darling
Four Questions Anchor Instructional Leadership Teams
Just as the four professional learning community questions established by Richard DuFour and colleagues provide focus for teacher professional learning teams, high-functioning instructional leadership teams need a clear compass to guide their work.
These are the four questions our principals use to keep instructional leadership focused on clarity, consistency, support and sustainability.
No. 1: What high-leverage strategies/practices do we want to guarantee in every classroom, every day?
Our districtwide focus is differentiation. We provide yearlong professional development for principals around the four elements of differentiated instruction based on Carol Ann Tomlinson’s work: content, process, product and learning environment.
At their buildings, principals and their instructional leadership teams identify an additional one or two high-impact areas of focus, specific to the needs of their school (such as amplifying student voice, building a culture of belonging, establishing learning targets and success criteria).
No. 2: What does success look like for these strategies in your building?
The instructional leadership team then identifies key look-fors in each of these strategies. Some use teachers in this process, providing increased buy-in for coaching and feedback cycles. During classroom visits, principals and instructional leadership teams gather evidence and provide feedback to staff based on what they see.
No. 3: What are you doing for Red and Yellow teachers who have not yet shown mastery?
Each week, the instructional leadership team meets to design and assess individualized support plans for teachers who are still developing proficiency in the targeted strategies. Support may include coaching cycles, feedback cycles from administrators, modeled lessons, peer observations or co-planning opportunities.
Principals take primary responsibility for teachers who require the most intensive support or who express resistance to feedback or coaching by ensuring that expectations remain clear and support remains strong. They make it clear: In our building, getting better is not optional.
The school’s instructional leadership team also plans professional learning aligned to these needs for staff meetings and inservice days and differentiates support within teachers’ professional learning teams. Teams review evidence weekly to determine whether their actions are producing the intended results: movement from Red to Yellow and Yellow to Green.
No. 4: How are you using your rock-star (Green) teachers without burning them out?
Use Green teachers as model classrooms (with clear boundaries and time limits), model strategies during staff meetings and co-facilitators of professional learning teams or labs (not permanent trainers). Be careful to use them as contributors to identify effective practices — and not put them in the role of “fixing colleagues.” Each year, rotate leadership roles intentionally. Protect Green teachers from becoming the “default solution” to every problem just because they always say yes.
—  Rob Darling
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