Cadres help to create competence.

The article presents information about a literacy-oriented school improvement program in Alberta, that helped boost teacher leadership and abilities. The Northern Lights School Division No. 69 in Alberta, created a districtwide, literacy-oriented school improvement program that depended on cultivating a district cadre of lead teachers. These leaders provided complex professional development to the other teachers and administrators and led action research at the individual, school, and division levels. As they studied and implemented new curricula and taught others to do so, efficacy became the lens for creating their professional learning. The goal was to develop teachers' competence in their ability to use new curricula and teaching strategies and to be able to teach others to use them as well. This districtwide approach to developing teacher leadership was straightforward and competence-oriented. The teacher leaders developed into a community whose members studied curriculum and instruction and studied how to lead school improvement initiatives.