Most of us have long realized the value of excellent teacher-leaders, and now several troubled Boston-area schools are turning to these individuals to help with their turnaround.

Blackstone Elementary, Trotter Elementary, and Orchard Gardens K-8 were among lowest-performing schools in the state. Orchard Gardens, for example, had six principals in seven years and seemed to hemorrhage teachers.

The school district developed a partnership with Teach Plus, a nonprofit company in the Boston area. One of Teach Plus's goals, says founder and CEO Celine Coggins, is to "create leadership opportunities for teachers in the 'second stage' of their careers, that don't require them to leave the classroom" for positions in administration or higher education.

Together the district and Teach Plus instituted Turnaround Teacher Teams, or T3. The initiative seeks to attract and hold onto effective teachers by offering "a bundle of incentives, including leadership opportunities, a structure for peer learning, and increased pay."

The T3 teacher-leaders run weekly meetings of same-grade teachers or, in middle school, same-subject teachers. Federal turnaround grants and agreements with the local teacher union allow for extended learning time, thereby freeing up time for uninterrupted meetings. The T3 leaders also help the various teams work through problems, such as when a number of students are unable to master a concept.

While the schools are still in the middle of their turnaround plans, all three have made academic progress, and it looks as if Orchard Gardens will meet its improvement benchmarks well ahead of schedule.

School superintendent Carol R. Johnson said that while a number of programs are contributing to the schools' success, T3 "allows us to jump-start in a way that would not be possible if we didn't have teachers who actively want to be involved in a reform effort."

Let's hear it for those teachers.

Some teachers become leaders within their profession after years of work--after mastering the best teaching methodologies, the best ways to work with their colleagues and administrators, and the best ways to shape their young charges' learning. But until recently, no leadership certificate was offered in university education programs. If tomorrow's teacher leaders are to be a vital part of our schools' improvement, we should be training them now to fulfill that role.

Teacher Magazine recently interviewed Tanya Judd Pucella (a member of their Teacher Leaders Network) in their free, subscription-based e-newsletter. In 2007, Judd Pucella, a National Board certified teacher and assistant professor of leadership and education at Ohio's Marietta College, instituted a new program at Marietta's McDonough Center for Leadership and Business--an undergraduate certificate in Teacher Leadership. In addition to studying various leadership theories and behaviors, the students also practice leadership skills such as team building, facilitation, goal setting, communication, and project planning.

New teachers certainly need to spend their early years honing their classroom abilities and becoming effective teachers, but they can also use those years modeling the skills that will help them become leaders down the road. Judd Pucella said, "My students invariably come to the quick conclusion that while all teacher leaders are effective teachers, not all effective teachers are teacher leaders. To be a teacher leader one must do more--you must stand up for what is best for all students."

She says that her students identify other leadership traits, such as advocacy skills, the ability to analyze professional literature, an awareness of some key issues and trends in the field (such as the impact of NCLB), a knowledge of how to give constructive feedback to peers, and an understanding of how to be a successful peer coach.

Judd Pucella related how Meg, one of the first program graduates, returned as a guest speaker. She'd been able to utilize some of the leadership skills she'd learned in college in her first year of teaching. "Her proficiency in both technology and content-area reading strategies and her understanding of how to share these tools with more veteran teachers in a non-threatening way had established her as an informal leader. Meg also actively sought out an effective teacher-mentor to assist her, using her 'followership' skills to improve the experience in her classroom for herself and her students."

Judd Pucella said that Meg's principal had noticed her good work and asked her to take over the media center, which needed much repair. "He felt she'd done such a great job as a reading instructor and was so good with technology that she would be an excellent choice."

Napoleon Bonaparte once said, "A leader is a dealer in hope." New teacher leaders like Meg certainly give me hope that the future of education is in fine hands.

It's not too early to make summer reading plans for your students. Studies show, time and again, that the three-month loss over the summer can result in a two-year gap by the end of the fifth grade.

Sixth-grade language arts teacher and blog writer Donalyn Miller has a gift for helping her students to develop a love of reading. Miller has high expectations, and her students respond accordingly. There's no break from reading--even when the school has a holiday. She involves her students in a discussion ahead of time, and they make plans together for any upcoming break. Says Miller, "At this stage of the year, my expectations aren't necessary--students eagerly look forward to the extra reading time and plan for it."

Wow. Let me repeat that: "Students eagerly look forward to the extra reading time and plan for it."

She tells with delight of conversation snippets that she overhears as she helps her students choose books, such as: "I asked my mom for books for Christmas. She looked surprised" and "How many books do you think I'll need? We are driving to Colorado to see my grandmother and we will be in the car forever."

Does this sound like your 6^th graders?

Miller has strategies to help her students develop the reading habit. She helps them make plans that include finding time to read and offers guidance in learning how to choose titles based on their reading experiences. She and her students record their reading plans. They set goals and share them with each other.

Reading A-Z and Raz-Kids make it easy to develop a plan like Miller's. Both sites have hundreds of leveled readers for students of all reading abilities and a wide variety of interests. Raz-Kids is packed with hundreds of animated leveled readers that children can access on their home computers. Teachers set up rosters and can create assignments that are tailored for each student--even over the summer break. No home computers? Reading A-Z allows teachers to print out books that children can take home to read.

Miller says she has a "towering stack" of books at home waiting to be read, and she's looking forward to curling up and reading every chance she gets. She wrote, "This is what readers do; we need to read, so we plan for it."