We need a bold new brand of teacher leadership that will create opportunities for teachers to practice, share, and grow their knowledge and expertise.

This book is about "teacherpreneurs"—highly accomplished classroom teachers who blur the lines of distinction between those who teach in schools and those who lead them. These teacherpreneurs embody the concept that teachers can teach as well as lead the transformation of teaching and learning. It’s about empowering expert teachers who can buoy the image of teaching and enforce standards among their ranks while all along making sure that their colleagues as well as education policymakers and the public know what works best for students.

The book follows a small group of teacherpreneurs in their first year. We join their journey toward becoming teacher leaders whose work is not defined by administrative fiat, but by their knowledge of students and drive to influence policies that allow them and their colleagues to teach more effectively. The authors trace the teacherpreneurs' steps—and their own—in the effort to determine what it means to define and execute the concept of "teacherpreneurism" in the face of tough demands and resistant organizational structures.

Barnett Berry is the founder, partner, and chief executive officer of the Center for Teaching Quality, based in Carrboro, North Carolina. Ann Byrd serves as chief operating officer and partner at the Center for Teaching Quality. Alan Wieder is a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of South Carolina and a senior research consultant with the Center for Teaching Quality.

Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ) is a national nonprofit that is transforming the teaching profession through the bold ideas and expert practices of teachers. For more information please visit www.teachingquality.org.

About the Center for Teaching Quality x

About the Authors xi

Acknowledgments xv

Prologue: Why We Wrote This Book xvii

CHAPTER 1: Advocating for a Bold Brand of Teacher Leadership 1

CHAPTER 2: Defining the Teacherpreneur 16

CHAPTER 3: Preparing for Teacherpreneurism 36

CHAPTER 4: Making Teachers—and Teaching—Visible 60

CHAPTER 5: Transcending Teaching’s Past 82

CHAPTER 6: Cultivating Teacherpreneurs for Teacher-Led Schools 104

CHAPTER 7: Meeting Resistance—and Crossing Borders 122

CHAPTER 8: Creating What We Have Imagined 140

CHAPTER 9: Finnish(ing) Lessons for Teacherpreneurism 165

CHAPTER 10: Foreseeing 2030 179

Appendixes 195

Endnotes 218

Index 229