1. The Ontario Leadership Framework

2. The framework:
describes what good leadership looks like, based on evidence of what makes the most difference to student achievement and well-being
identifies the practices of successful school and system leaders, as well as the organizational practices of successful schools and districts
includes a small but critical number of Personal Leadership Resources (leadership traits and dispositions) that have been found to increase the effectiveness of leadership practices
Professor Emeritus, Dr. Kenneth Leithwood, Advisor to the Ministry on Leadership, conducted an extensive review of the leadership research and provided the evidence base and rationale for the practices and attributes of effective leaders and organization in the OLF His report is important to read to understand what the framework is and how it works - The Ontario Leadership Framework 2012 with a Discussion of the Research Foundations. It is available on the IEL website.

3. The Evolution of the OLF
The OLF began with the green coloured 2008 user guide. The OLF evolved based on the 2012 research from The Ontario Leadership Framework 2012 with a Discussion of the Research Foundation (blue and white) which led to the revisions to the OLF user guide (white and blue). In 2013, the Strong Districts and their Leadership research paper (white and orange) brought about more revisions to the OLF user guide (orange and white).
At present, the newly revised user guide (orange and white) is based on research from The Ontario Leadership Framework 2012 with a Discussion of the Research Foundation (blue and white) and Strong Districts and their Leadership research paper (white and orange).

4. The Ontario Leadership Framework
The goals of the OLF are to:
provide a robust research foundation on which to base the elements of the Ontario Leadership Strategy
help ensure that Ontario leadership practices and personal leadership resources support the key goals of improving student achievement and well-being
provide a common language and understanding for leaders to engage in discussions about effective practice
The practices in the framework are those that the research shows make a positive difference to student achievement and well-being
The framework is, more than anything else, a discussion tool to enrich and expand our discourse on leadership

5. History of the OLF Background OLF designed in 2006
IEL provided workshops to districts in 2008
Leithwood research report informed revisions to OLF in 2012:
No longer included competencies, now includes the addition of Personal Leadership Resources
Revised practices
Introduction of District Effectiveness Framework (DEF)
Connection to Student Effectiveness Framework (SEF)

6. History of the OLF (con’t)
In 2013
Strong Districts and their Leadership (Leithwood 2013)
Nine characteristics of strong districts and related practices
Two new personal leadership resources
Revised DEF and System-level Leadership placemats

7. Components of the OLF Individual Organization
The revised OLF, describes successful individual practices for both school and system leaders – the two puzzle pieces on the left of the diagram.
Effective organizational practices at both school and system levels – the two puzzle pieces on the right of the diagram (SEF and DEF).
The K-12 School Effectiveness Framework 2013 (SEF) created by the Student Achievement Division is key to the work of schools and boards. It is a companion piece to the OLF, included as one of its components to show the link between school organizational leadership and school effectiveness.
Each of the sets of practices will assist educators in building coherence and aligning practices across schools and districts. Discussion of these practices provides opportunities to determine areas of strength and areas that would benefit from refinements. They are not checklists but rather tools for discussion and growth.

8. Big Ideas in the OLF Context is important
Leadership and Management are integrated
Formal leaders enact practices directly and indirectly
Leadership is best shared in a planned and
coordinated way
System leaders and districts add significant
value to the learning of students beyond the
contribution of schools and classrooms
These big ideas are explored in more detail in the OLF User Guide and with rationale and research based on The Ontario Leadership Framework 2012 with a Discussion of the Research Foundation report
The more recent research report, Strong Districts and their Leadership, explores in detail the contribution that system leaders make to improved student achievement and well-being.

9. Personal Leadership Resources in 2012
Cognitive resources:
problem-solving expertise
knowledge of school and classroom conditions that directly affect student learning
Social resources:
perceive emotions
manage emotions
act in emotionally appropriate ways
Psychological resources:
optimism
self-efficacy
resilience
The research shows that when leadership draws upon the PLRs, leaders are more successful at enacting the practices in the framework. While many traits or personal characteristics have been associated with leaders and leadership, the OLF includes only those for which there is compelling empirical evidence indicating they are instrumental to leadership success. Because school leaders’ influence on student learning is largely indirect, knowledge about those school and classroom conditions with significant effects on students that can be influenced by school leaders is an extremely important aspect of what leaders need to know. Research identifies four categories of such conditions – technical or rational, emotional, organizational and family conditions. Those principals involved in the LSA project will recognize these four pathways from their work with Ken in LSA.
Social resources account for a large proportion of a leader’s interpersonal skills and an impressive amount of evidence now demonstrates the contribution of these relational resources to a wide range of desirable individual and organizational outcomes
Leithwood says, “If you could put all three of the psychological resources in one person- resilience, optimism and self-efficacy, you would have an unbeatable combination. These people can provide energy and focus on work that needs to be done in a way that becomes highly contagious for others. People with these qualities will persist in the face of challenges until they are successful.”

10. What happened in 2013?
The Institute for Education Leadership (IEL) and the Council of Ontario Directors of Education (CODE) commissioned Ken Leithwood to do a research study on the role of the district leader
Result: “Strong Districts and Their Leadership”
Impact: Changes to the system-level leadership placemat, addition of two new PLRs to school and system level placemats; and changes to the DEF

11. Leadership Practices in Schools
Scenario 1
It’s September, and you have just learned that because of declining enrolment you will have to cut two teachers from your staff and re-timetable the school (and you have 4 days to do it!)
Look at the bolded leadership practices in the School-level Leadership placemat and pick out several that you think are the most critical to solving this problem effectively
Highlight these practices and be prepared to defend your choices and explain your thinking
Using the School-level Leadership placemat, page 12 of the OLF User Guide, lets explore the leadership practices required to meet this challenge.
Things to consider:
Are decisions made with student interests and needs at the forefront?
Is special attention given to those students most in need of support?
Are the staffing rules and collective agreements followed?
Who needs to be involved in decision making?
How can decision making be communicated and to whom?
How will individual staff needs to taken into account?
What professional learning needs will need to be addressed?
What additional measures might be needed to ensure that students are supported in the transition?
Match up these considerations with practices in the framework.
Illustrate how the framework can inform your thinking about what to consider.

12. Leadership is Contingent
Scenario 2:
You are a candidate in a principal interview. You are asked to state what your entry plan would be if you were appointed to a specific school in your district.
How would you apply the idea of “contingent leadership” to this question?
What are the look-fors in your answer?
The contingent nature of the OLF also acknowledges the importance of time in better understanding both the nature and impact of what successful leaders do. Although most formal approaches to leadership neglect considerations of time1, leadership practitioners are well aware, for example, that: their own skills and performance change over time; the internal dynamics of their staff change over time, requiring them to adapt in response; their interpersonal relationships with staff change over time; building trust with staff requires significant amounts of time; much of their influence depends not just on what they do but when they do it. The contingent nature of successful leadership has important consequences for how the OLF is used. For example, judging a leader’s development entails not only assessing the extent to which a person is generally skilled in the use of OLF practices, it also entails judging the extent to which they are able to enact those practices in a contextually appropriate way. For example, the priority placed by the Ontario government on social justice in the
province’s public schools, a priority evident in attempts to close the achievement gap and to develop inclusive school organizations, means that key features of their contexts to be accounted for by leaders will be the economic, cultural and religious diversity evident in their schools’ communities. While the OLF offers some guidelines for making judgments about how the contextual sensitivity of leaders’ practices, those using the OLF are expected to bring considerable local knowledge to the task. You can’t have an entry plan until you understand the context and culture of the school to which you will be assigned, so don’t make it up. Think about the sources of information about the context and culture: current leadership team in the school – outgoing principal, vice-principal(s); superintendent for this school; trustee for the ward; school Improvement Plan; EQAO scores; any surveys that have been done – school climate, parent or staff surveys; interviews (fire-side chats) with current staff; SES data for the school area; feeder school information where appropriate; graduation data where appropriate. Look fors: desire to be open to learning, curious, seeking to understand; professional knowledge about how to collect and analyze data; desire to understand before making decisions, but not waiting too long to act – so a balance.

13. Shared Leadership Scenario 3:
Think of a principal for whom you have worked who Demonstrated excellent “shared leadership” practices.
Find a few practices in the framework that reflect what this principal did to be so effective.
What were this principal’s strongest personal leadership resources and how did he/she demonstrate these?
As a teacher in this school, why was this important?
Have you made mistakes or witnessed mistakes in sharing leadership that you have learned from?
Things to consider:
Building trust first, then creating conditions for collaboration to occur
Drawing upon unique talents of teachers to match their talents with work that will engage and interest them
Look for potential that can be developed – might be talents that individuals don’t know they have yet – principal can encourage this
Ensuring that teachers have a strong enough voice in school improvement planning
Foster collective efficacy – will lead to more resilience in the face of challenge – we are all in this together
Pay attention to those things that are distributed to others so that teacher leaders are encouraged and reinforced
Mistakes:
Only mundane, “grunt work” is distributed – so appears to be done just to lessen principal workload
Principal claims credit for the work of others
Principal fails to coordinate the sharing of leadership so people feel unfocused and fear they may be wasting their time
Delegated work isn’t meaningful to the person
Same people always get selected to be teacher leaders and others might like the opportunity

14. System-level Leadership
System leaders start with the school level practices
System-Level leadership practices organized by the 9 characteristics of strong districts
Note the use of verbs to describe the practices (what leaders do)
Sub-bullets provide more detail of how these practices are carried out
System leaders start with the school level leadership practices
The system-level leadership placemat has changed.
It is now represented by 9 domains, stated using verbs for what leaders do.
The nine domains of the system-level leadership placemat are organizing according to the 9 characteristics of the District Effectiveness Framework.
The sub-bullets are the actions.

15. Two New PLRs
Proactivity
Ability to stimulate and manage change on a large scale under complex circumstances
Show initiative and perseverance in bringing about change
Systems-thinking
Ability to understand dense, complex and reciprocal connections among different elements of the organization
Foresight to engage others in likely futures and consequences for action
* proactivity and systems thinking are important for all leaders but especially useful for district leaders
The two new PLRs, “systems thinking” and “proactivity” are important for all leaders, but especially important for system leaders because of the contexts in which they lead - larger organizational size, greater operational complexity, greater interaction with a wider environment and the need to anticipate future demands that might require significant organizational adaptation.

16. System-Level Leadership Placemat
Referencing one of the highlighted practices in the System-Level leadership placemat, unpack the practice:
What does it mean?
How would it be enacted?
What are the look-fors?

17. Activity
How will proactivity and/or systems thinking be helpful in carrying out your role as a system leader? How can you foster proactivity and systems thinking in other leaders?
In small groups talk together about how you think proactivity and systems thinking will be critical attributes for you to carry out your role as gestionnaire, supervisory officer or director of education. How might this change your thinking about how to approach your role?
While these PLRs are especially useful for district leaders, they are also beneficial for school leaders. What kinds of experiences do you think would be useful for school leaders to become more proactive or more inclined to systems thinking?
Do you think these PLRs can be improved? Taught?

18. District Effectiveness Framework
Characteristics of Strong Districts:
Shared mission, vision and goals
Coherent instructional guidance system
Multiple sources of evidence to inform decisions
Learning-oriented organizational improvement
Job-embedded professional learning
Resources and structures aligned with mission
Comprehensive leadership development
Policy-oriented board of trustees
Productive working relationships
To unpack each of these characteristics, refer to
the DEF placemat on page 16 of the OLF User Guide, and
The Strong Districts and their Leadership research report – page 11.

19. District Effectiveness Framework (DEF)
9 characteristics of strong districts
Note the use nouns to describe these characteristics
e.g. mission, guidance system, use of evidence, etc.
Sub-bullets provide more detail about what the characteristic looks like in practice
9 characteristics of strong districts
Note the use nouns to describe these characteristics
e.g. mission, guidance system, use of evidence, etc.
Sub-bullets provide more detail about what the characteristic looks like in practice

20. DEF: Learning-oriented Organizational Improvement
Coherent approach to improvement, small number of goals, consistently pursued over sustained time
Integration of new initiatives into existing routines
Professional learning networks to share, assess and refine
Let’s explore this characteristic in more detail. For this activity we will refer to the 4th characteristic of the DEF: learning-oriented organizational improvement.
In this characteristic, the practice of
A coherent approach to improvement, a small number of goals, consistently pursued over sustained time;
Integration of new initiatives into existing routines; and
Professional learning networks to share, assess and refine
Will enable the system leader to demonstrate that they are working towards learning-oriented organizational improvement in their district.

21. Activity
How can you influence the discussions in your district to support the characteristic, “Learning-oriented organizational improvement processes”?
Think about:
Advocacy for leaders in carrying out
the district mission and vision
Sense-making
Leadership development needs -
organizationally and individually
What is your role as system leader?
How do you connect with other district leaders?
In small groups think about your role and respond to the questions on the slide.
How do you contribute? What does it look like when you do so? What are the venues in which you can exert your influence? Are there ways that you could strengthen this influence? Who else should you talk to in your district?
What are the vehicles and venues through which one can influence ?– BIPSA meetings, PPA, principals’ meetings, etc.
What is the impact on organizational leadership if you are not at some of the district tables?
What Fullan calls “coherence making” involves seeking a balance between letting go and even encouraging “disturbance” on the one hand and building coherence, sense and direction on the other.

22. Activity (cont’d) Consider the following …
How do you exert your influence?
What does it look like when you do so?
Are there ways that you could strengthen this influence?
Who else should you talk to in your district?
What are the vehicles and venues through which one can influence? (Adm. Council meetings, BIPSA meetings, PPA, principals’ meetings)
What is the impact on organizational leadership if you are not at some of the district tables – how would you connect with other district leaders?
What Fullan calls “coherence making” involves seeking a balance between letting go and even encouraging “disturbance” on the one hand and on the other hand building coherence, sense and direction.
This activity can be used to explore other characteristics.
For example: Job-embedded professional development for all members
Answer the questions above while considering what it looks like from the statements below:
how to align professional development with board and school improvement initiatives.
how to ensure that differentiated professional development opportunities are provided in response to the needs of individual schools, administrators and teachers.
what types of resources are provided to ensure time for collaborative work on instructional improvement initiatives.
ensuring that all system-sponsored professional development is closely aligned with the best evidence about how people learn.
You may want to consider:
Including a wide variety of opportunities, both in and out of school, but with the greatest proportion of PD resources devoted to school-embedded opportunities usually provided in the context of some form of “learning community”.
Considering making changes over a five year period in the approach to professional development, changes in content and changes in delivery of PD; changing the content to include a combination of centrally-determined and/or preference-based PD content to align with the capacities needed to achieve district and school priorities.
Identifying the capacities to be developed by examining the evidence about what was working and not working, with PD initiatives aimed at remediating what was not working.

23. For more information, please visit the IEL website at: