Shared Leadership for School Improvement
Learn how to advocate for your school’s vision of literacy teaching and learning.
In this 8-week online course for coaches and teacher leaders, you’ll learn how to promote a culture of shared leadership that energizes school teams. Learn how to promote literacy teaching, mentor colleagues, skillfully facilitate meetings, and communicate effectively with stakeholders.
- Literacy Coaches & Teacher Leaders
- District & School Leadership
- Classroom Teachers & Interventionists
- Course: EEDUC 6406.80
- Fees are subject to change
In their roles, literacy coaches and teacher leaders must be prepared to promote literacy teaching, mentor colleagues, facilitate a variety of meetings, and communicate with stakeholders. This online course explores how to step into these leadership responsibilities with confidence and purpose.
In this course, you will learn how to lead productive teams, cultivate a culture of collaboration, trust, and respect in your school, and understand the role of professional capital in fostering long-term, systemic school improvement.
The flexible online format allows you to learn at your own pace while engaging with a virtual community and accessing a wide variety of educational resources, perspectives, and materials to support your learning.
Course Outcomes
- Examine essential elements that support the development of professional capital and sustainable school improvement
- Cultivate a culture of collaboration, trust, and respect across the school community
- Facilitate conversations with sensitivity to gender, race, ethnicity, and culture
- Lead and sustain the work of school leadership teams to support the school’s vision for teaching and learning
- Engage teams in collaborative data collection and analysis to inform school improvement
- Use data to tell stories and communicate with stakeholders
- Examine the opportunities for teacher leadership within the school or district
- Develop a plan to work with administrators, teams, and stakeholders to increase leadership opportunities and strengthen professional capital

Wendy Vaulton, Associate Director of Reading Recovery and Early Interventions
Wendy Vaulton is the Associate Director for Reading Recovery and Early Interventions at Lesley University’s Center for Literacy Teaching and Instructional Leadership. Wendy serves as the Center’s Reading Recovery trainer, supporting teacher leaders in five states. She has experience as an educational researcher, professional developer, and teacher of Reading Recovery. Wendy’s recent research interests include the capacity of improvement science to support systematic, data-informed decision-making for all levels of educational improvement.
This option must be taken for 3 graduate credits. Take the course individually or as a required course in our 12-credit Online Graduate Certificate in Literacy Coaching and Teacher Leadership.
Required Texts
You are responsible for purchasing/having access to the following professional texts for this course:
- Aguilar, E. (2016). The art of coaching teams: Building resilient communities that transform schools. Jossey-Bass.
- Hargreaves, A., & Fullan, M. (2012). Professional capital: Transforming teaching in every school. Teachers College Press.
- James-Ward, C., Fisher, D., Frey, N., & Lapp, D. (2013). Using data to focus instructional improvement. Association for Curriculum and Development.
- Learning Forward. (2022). Standards for professional learning, revised. Author.


