Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent.
 
Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills. Although the position as a manager, supervisor, lead, etc. includes the authority to accomplish certain tasks and objectives in the organization, this power does not make you a leader...it simply makes you the boss. Leadership differs in that it makes the followers want to achieve high goals, rather than simply bossing people around.
 
 
The Lowell Institute provides leadership support in the areas of school renewal, human learning and development, the brain research and learning, the use of instructional technology, organizational development, and professional coaching. The Institute can customize site-based management services in support of charter schools and small districts (ie.: HR, Fiscal Services, negotiations, et. al.)
 
All programs are custom fit to the requesting organization. Institute staff come from higher education, successful K-12 settings, as well as corporate leadership.
 
 
Our focus is always on leadership - finding, providing, supporting, and developing leadership for the learning organization of the 21st Century.
 
 
 
 

The time has come to align the course of school renewal with the public purpose of education in our social and political democracy and what we already know about both the change process and the powerful ideas that have surfaced again and again only to be pushed aside by the sheer weight of what exists. The center of attention must be, of course, the school, its students, teachers, and parents. All else is supportive. The driving force must be educators. - John Goodlad 2007
 
School renewal is context specific. What may work in one locale might prove disastrous in another. For schools to become good, the entire culture of each must be renewed through the process of inquiry. The key to school renewal and improvement then is leadership. Leadership that creates the shared values of trust in working together, belief that success is possible, and faith that we, as collaborative learning community can do it.
 
We will help you build second-order change at individual sites or as a district-wide initiative.
 
 

Whatever the conditions, educational leadership there must be. Although the leader must be a thoughtful educator, he does not do the thinking for the faculty; he stimulates and challenges their thinking. He respects their worth, believes in their integrity, welcomes their best thought, and unites them in the great common cause of making education more fruitful for every boy and girl in the school. He (she) keeps all eyes constantly on the students - Wilford M. Aikin, 1942
 
Thus, true success in the process of continuous learning requires committed leadership of substance and quality.
 

What I understand of leadership is... encouraging, or getting, people to realize their own resources, what they've got within them. - School Principal
 
Our primary mission and major commitment is to narrow the achievement gap by improving student performance in the lowest performing K-12 schools and charters, especially those schools with high populations of second-language and high poverty students.
 
Our work consists of building long-term relationships/partnerships with schools, districts, and charter schools as we build toward “Second-Order Change.”
 
Second-order change implies a fundamental or significant break with past and current practices. This type of change represents a dramatic difference in current practices. Second-order changes require new knowledge and skills for successful implementation.
 
We will help you build second-order change at individual sites or as a district-wide initiative.
 
Thus, true success in the process of continuous learning requires committed leadership of substance and quality.