The Role of Literacy Leader
In CLI's years of experience in schools and classrooms, one of the most obvious facts we witness again and again is the critical role principals play in creating successful schools. As Earnest Boyer noted in 1983, "in schools where achievement was high and where there was a clear sense of community, we found, invariably, that the principal made the difference."

CLI knows that good schools focus on student learning, and that the principal, as instructional leader, must possess a deep understanding of student learning, curriculum, and assessment. We have also learned, in our efforts to build literate classrooms for poor urban children, the value of artful leadership in creating a culture of possibility and collegiality. Good principals know how to work together with teachers to develop a sense of shared purpose and recognize the potential of each student.

Therefore, during CLI's work with teachers, we seek to encourage and assist principals in their work to shape their schools' learning environments and to support their teachers. CLI's focus on principals includes a three-day Institute for principals, on-site, individual conferences, and the CLI Administrator's Handbook, a guide to CLI instruction that describes our five effective instructional practices and details how to identify their use in the classroom. The Handbook provides principals with a concise and manageable format for observing and supporting their teachers in the CLI program.

We also appreciate the need for shared inquiry and have piloted two Principals' Study Groups, a Philadelphia-area group of approximately 30 elementary school principals and a Bucks County group of principals. The groups met on a regular basis to discuss the challenges that administrators face in building successful learning communities.

CLI continues to collaborate with other local reform efforts to develop more powerful professional development for administrators. For example, in Baltimore we have provided two full-day workshops on writing as part of the Fund for Excellence Administrators Initiative. In New Jersey, CLI has provided a series of seminars for Newark administrators through the Office of Teaching and Learning and, in conjunction with the Principals' Center for the Garden State, CLI has offered three Principals' Breakfast meetings, entitled "Building a Culture of Literacy: the Elementary Principal's Role."

Furthermore, CLI was hired by the New Jersey Department of Education to present half-day workshops for New Jersey Title I administrators on the findings of the National Reading Panel as it relates to the Reading First Program.

In the fall of 2001, through the support of the Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, a group of nationally known "thought leaders" met with Children's Literacy Initiative in Philadelphia to examine what is critical for principals to know to be literacy instructional leaders in their schools. In this working conference, participants identified areas of content knowledge that are essential for principals. A Blueprint for Literacy Leadership: The Principal's Role in Improving Literacy Instruction was later drawn up from the conference. View Blueprint.

Using the Blueprint, CLI teamed with the federally-funded Mid-Atlantic Regional Educational Laboratory at Temple University/The Laboratory for Student Success to plan an Advanced Study Institute held in July, 2002, entitled "Leadership for Literate Schools." The three-day Institute was for principals who were concerned about enhancing their own knowledge and skills in the area of literacy in order to become strong leaders and role models in their schools.

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