Communities of Practice: Supporting School Leader Collaboration and Professional Development With and For Deeper Learning

Abstract

This capstone examines a strategic effort to strengthen school leader collaboration and professional learning in Revere Public Schools (RPS), a diverse urban district committed to advancing equitable outcomes through deeper learning. During my 10-month residency with the RPS superintendent, two pressing needs among principals and assistant principals were identified: more opportunities to collaborate and share practices, and greater support in developing the capacity to lead for deeper learning. While RPS has strong, progressive structures for developing instruction and supporting teacher growth, a need remains to develop supports specific to the demands of the school leader role. The school leader role has grown increasingly complex in recent decades, with mounting responsibilities, high stress, and increasing rates of turnover (Levin, Leung, Edgerton, and Scott, 2020). Recent literature underscores that peer collaboration and networks of professional learning are effective in supporting school leaders—yet such systems are often underdeveloped and underutilized in many school systems (Grissom, Egalite, and Lindsay, 2021). In response, I designed and implemented a Community of Practice (CoP) for RPS school leaders, focused on leadership for deeper learning. By grounding the effort in research literature on professional learning, social learning theory, and change leadership, the CoP provided a collaborative, job-embedded, and participant-driven model for growth. Through the CoP, participating school leaders formed practice groups, co-designed leadership activities aligned to deeper learning traits, and engaged in cycles of implementation and reflection. This model prioritized agency, collaboration, and alignment to district vision—important attributes of both deeper learning and effective professional development. This capstone’s resulting implications explore how professional learning models like CoPs can be adapted to meet the distinct needs of the school leader role, and how leadership for deeper learning can be more intentionally developed across the education sector. This work demonstrates the power of embedding adult learning in structures that mirror the pedagogy we expect in classrooms—collaborative, creative, and student (or leader)-centered. It contributes a scalable model for leadership development and offers practical insights for designing professional learning that is participant-centered, aligned with district strategy, and sustains school leader growth.