SOE postdoctoral research fellow Angela Lyle shares recommendations for educators in new workbook and podcast
School of Education postdoctoral research fellow Angela Lyle was interviewed on the weekly podcast Research Minutes, which highlights innovative research in education. Lyle was a guest on the podcast along with Priscilla Wohlstetter of the Teachers College at Columbia University. These women co-created a new workbook titled Managing Networks for School Improvement: Seven Lessons from the Field along with three other co-authors: Megan Duff and Clare Buckley Flack of Teachers College, and Diane Massell of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education.
The workbook aims to helps managers and school leaders improve teaching and learning in schools, with a focus on the stakeholders who take part in the Networks for School Improvement (NSI) that have been built across the country. These Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant-supported networks give education leaders an opportunity to engage local schools to improve teaching and learning. They help schools implement rigorous college- and career-ready standards with curriculum and instructional supports.
Lyle’s co-authored workbook offers lessons for successful management of these NSI, based on years of interviews and observations in the field. The seven lessons outlined in this workbook emerged from interviews with central office administrators overseeing NSI and staff working in network hubs, as well as from observations of professional learning sessions provided by network hubs.
Speaking about the workbook with podcast host Keith Heumiller, Lyle said, “A core goal of [our] workbook is to provide readers with a deeper understanding of the varying strategies NSI used to support instructional improvement across a network of schools, and to bring to the fore common lessons that NSI leaders have taken away from their experiences.”