English Leadership Quarterly: Leadership for Excellence

“Leadership is a disposition, not a position.” So said 2011 CEL Exemplary Leader award-winner Kylene Beers. Understanding the definition and nature of leadership is at the heart of our job as educators, and yet we struggle to understand how to develop leaders, both in teacher education and in our schools. In this annual issue on Leadership, we hear from former ELA district supervisor Bill Sowder, who urges us to keep the reader and reader-response in reading instruction, even in the face of Common Core reading standards. ELA Department Chair Melanie Mayer shares “talking points” from her district’s vertical-team meetings. And Lindsay Walton, who just completed a dual yearlong internship in special education and English education, sheds some light on the differing perspectives often held by these two types of educators. All of these people demonstrate a leadership disposition through their different roles in the education of our children.