178) "Envisioning Teachers as Professional Learning Leaders" (Jill Harrison Berg)

In this week's episode, I caught up with Dr. Jill Harrison Berg to learn about her early upbringing, her early years as a classroom teacher, the power of teachers as professional learning leaders within their school communities, and her personal experience at that Ghana ASCD International Educators Summit. To learn more about Jill's work, you can follow her on Twitter (@Teachers_Lead) and LinkedIn. BIO: Jill Harrison Berg, Ed.D. is a leadership coach, school improvement consultant, researcher and writer specializing in leadership for instructional equity. Dr. Berg is the author of three books and numerous articles that synthesize lessons from her deep work in schools and school systems. Her regular column, “Leading Together,” in ASCD’s Educational Leadership magazine from 2018-2023, aims to heighten leaders’ attention to the complementary roles that teacher leaders, school leaders and district administrators must play in restructuring and re-culturing schools for equity and excellence.Dr. Berg is principal consultant of Jill Harrison Berg Consulting, LLC.

She has led and partnered on significant projects that advance the quality of teaching for local, state-wide and national institutions including the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Washington’s Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, Educational Development Corporation (EDC), WestEd, the National Research Council and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, as well as several school districts throughout the U.S. She recently served as an inquiry coach and organizational learning consultant for Zaretta Hammond’s Culturally Responsive Education by Design Professional Learning Community. In addition to serving as a leadership coach to several school and district leadership teams, she is currently a senior advisor for the National Educational Leadership Institute, a leadership development program developed by Ghana ASCD for the Ministry of Education in Ghana.

Throughout more than 30 years working in educational practice, research and policy, Dr. Berg has written many articles on the topics of teacher leadership, teaching quality, instructional equity, leadership development and school improvement. Her regular column, “Leading Together,” in ASCD’s Educational Leadership magazine from 2018-2023, aims to heighten leaders’ attention to the complementary roles that teacher leaders and administrators can play as they co-perform leadership to improve their schools.

Dr. Berg is currently the author of three books, Improving the Quality of Teaching through National Board Certification (Christopher Gordon Press, 2003); Leading in Sync: Teacher Leaders and Principals Working Together for Student Learning (ASCD, August 2018); and Uprooting Instructional Inequity: The Power of Inquiry-Based Professional Learning (ASCD, January 2022). Dr. Berg earned her doctorate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education while working as a researcher with the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers. She also holds a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.Ed. from Lesley University, and was one of the first teachers in Massachusetts to become a National Board Certified Teacher (1998).

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