Superintendents in Classrooms: From Collegial Conversation to Collaborative Action

This article, presents a discussion about Connecticut Superintendents' Network. Established and facilitated by the Connecticut Center for School Change, a school reform organization, the Network is grounded in a theory of action concerning professional development for administrators. The Network's goals are: (1) to develop superintendents' knowledge and skills to lead large-scale instructional improvement; (2) to assist superintendents in developing distributed leadership throughout their districts; and (3) to enable superintendents to build an infrastructure that supports the work of improvement. Here, the authors share the story of how the Network developed and how it operates. They also discuss what they have learned, both about the process of creating the community and about the role of leadership in improving teaching and learning in schools. (Contains 7 endnotes.)