Instructional leads play a vital role in improving teaching and learning across a school. Whether they are teacher leaders, mentors, instructional coaches, or department leads, they extend their influence beyond their own classrooms to help colleagues strengthen instruction and better serve students. Their impact comes not only from formal authority, but from relationships, trust, and collaboration.
The Leadership Academy’s Instructional Lead Actions That Transform Student Learning highlights the key moves instructional leads can make to support meaningful improvement across classrooms and teams. These actions offer practical guidance for educators who are organizing team planning, mentoring new teachers, modeling lessons, facilitating professional learning, or helping connect daily instruction to broader school goals.
Because the work adapts to the needs of a school, no two days look exactly the same. What remains constant is the focus on moving teaching and learning forward. By using these actions to guide their work, instructional leads can spark collaboration, strengthen practice, and help create schools where every student is prepared to succeed.