Students and teachers flourish under new leadership architecture in Lockhart ISD
January 2025
Watch the video to hear about the changes happening in Lockhart ISD.
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Lockhart ISD stats
73% economically-disadvantaged
40% emergent bilingual
793 staff
6,800 students
A small town 40 minutes outside of Austin famous for its barbecue, Lockhart is a place you might not expect to find bold leadership and innovation in education.
You'd be wrong.
Lockhart ISD has adopted a new school leadership architecture that’s changing everything about the way school leaders operate and resulting in rising academic progress for students.
With guidance from Holdsworth, Lockhart schools have changed the traditional model of leadership – one overworked principal making every decision and coaching every adult in the building.
Instead, they’ve tapped their best teachers to coach their peers and run professional development – and raised their pay. Called “Lever Leaders,” these expert teachers spend 50 percent of their time teaching and the other half on leadership duties.
To make the new architecture work, they had to take the whole leadership structure down to the studs and rebuild it from the ground up. Every leader in the building is operating differently.
The principal spends more time on long-term planning and strategy and less time putting out fires.
The assistant principal is learning how to coach and lead instead of being stuck in the office doing paperwork.
Across the board, there’s more teamwork, collaboration and shared decision-making.
Most importantly, teachers are getting the attention and coaching they need to do their best work.
When teachers feel confident and supported, students benefit.
Andrea Whatley – a teacher with 20 years of experience – was selected to be a Lever Leader at Plum Creek Elementary, the district's pilot campus for the new model.
Since 2018, 100 percent of Whatley’s students have met the district’s goal of 1.5 years’ worth of growth in reading and math in the space of a year. Now she's helping other teachers achieve higher results.
“It's really helping teachers grow in their craft and it's moving the instructional needle for our students. I think this could be a huge game changer.”
Academic progress rises with new school architecture
The chart below shows the percentage of students at each elementary school in Lockhart ISD that gained 1.5 years of academic growth in reading and math – a districtwide goal – from the 22-23 to 23-24 school years.
Source: Lockhart ISD
Unsustainable jobs
In an average U.S. elementary school, all coaching, leadership duties and decisions come down to one person–the principal.
At Plum Creek Elementary that person was Jamee Griebel.
“I was working seven days a week, sometimes 14 hours a day. Everything revolved around the decisions I was making.”
While Griebel was teetering on the edge of burnout, her teachers were not getting the support they needed.
Isolated in their classrooms, teachers felt pressure to meet the individual needs of each student with little feedback on whether their strategies were working – at least until data came out, at which point they couldn’t go back in time.
In reality, it was physically impossible for Griebel to give 38 teachers adequate attention while also running general school operations.
The time left over to strategize about the long-term vision and priorities of the school community was minimal.
“We can’t just keep telling educators to work harder and get better when the real problem is the job itself," said Lindsay Whorton, president of The Holdsworth Center. "We have a responsibility to design roles in schools that are sustainable and give teachers what they need to succeed.”
Leadership potential everywhere
Lockhart ISD Superintendent Mark Estrada knew tweaking around the edges would not fix the problem. They had to do something transformative.
Because of Holdsworth’s deep investment in Lockhart ISD, leaders were exposed to new ideas about building education systems and given the coaching and boots-on-the-ground support to make change.
“The support Holdsworth has given us has been a huge part of our journey. We could not have done this work without Holdsworth,” said Estrada.
In 2019 Superintendent Estrada took a trip to study Singapore's education system through a Holdsworth leadership program.
He couldn’t believe what he saw. Teachers commanded serious respect. Operating with a great deal of autonomy, expert teachers worked closely with the principal and leadership team to make curriculum decisions and to help less experienced teachers improve their skills.
Importantly, those teachers were given the time and pay to carry out leadership duties.
When he looked at his own district, Estrada saw leadership potential everywhere, especially among teachers. It was time to start leveraging it.
“Teachers are leaving public education for a number of reasons. One is a lack of autonomy and decision-making on their campus, two is pay, and three is lack of career advancement opportunities (without leaving the classroom). Shared leadership in Lockhart is about aggressively attacking all three,” Estrada said.
What is shared leadership?
Lockhart ISD's Shared Leadership Model builds a culture where people are entrusted with responsibility and leaders have the time and space to lead at a strategic level. Everyone gets more coaching to support their development. Over time, this creates a true leadership pipeline by providing aspiring leaders with stretch assignments and practice handling challenging situations critical to their growth.
Survey data from 2018 (the year Lockhart began planning the new school leadership architecture) until 2024 show significant increases in the percentage of faculty and staff who feel more supported and have more opportunity for growth.
Trusting the team
Deputy Superintendent Dr. Stephaine Camarillo helped turn the idea of shared leadership into a day-to-day reality.
“The quote that I live by is, ‘The smartest person in the room is the room.’ You cannot build things without the people who are the closest to that work. Start with your teachers and what they're needing,” Camarillo said.
They created Lever Leader positions by phasing out instructional coaching positions and using state incentive programs to increase pay. The goal was to get close to paying $100,000 a year.
They recruited rock star teachers like Whatley at Plum Creek. Then they had to figure out how it would all work.
For Whatley, going from being a peer in the teacher’s lounge to someone with elevated authority felt strange at first. For Principal Griebel, releasing big decisions and responsibilities to Lever Leaders felt scary.
“I had to totally change my mindset and learn how to trust the team. At the very beginning it's like, ‘I have to see that. I’ll need to give my final approval on it.' Now I 100 percent trust the decisions they're making.”
Getting clear on roles
Prior to the new school architecture, job responsibilities for leaders were often vague and overlapping, which led to multiple people claiming ownership of the same work.
They needed clarity and it couldn’t come by edict from the top. Deputy Superintendent Camarillo brought school leaders together to define clear lanes of ownership for all leadership duties.
The conversations often became heated.
“Some people are giving up power, some are gaining power, some are growing into new roles so there’s learning and practice. Those things create a little turbulence at times.”
One of the toughest tasks was redefining the assistant principal role. Typically focused on discipline and administrative tasks, the job is often seen as a paper-shuffling stepping stone on the way to becoming a principal.
Lockhart saw a chance to change the status quo. They gave assistant principals more substantial responsibilities – including coaching Lever Leaders – to prepare them for the principalship.
The principal, relieved of most of her coaching load, could then focus on coaching the assistant principal, crafting strategies for the school and mobilizing the team to work toward a compelling vision.
A new model for coaching in Lockhart schools
Before the change, principals were taking primary responsibility for coaching every teacher and staff member in the building. With the new model, Lever Leaders coach teachers, assistant principals coach Lever Leaders and the principal coaches the assistant principal.
A better system for everyone
With the new model, if teachers have a question or need to make a pivot, a Lever Leader can give advice or approval. No need to wait for the principal. Knowing Lever Leaders have their back, teachers can give students their full attention.
“The Lever Leaders have taught me so much. You can go to them and tell them your concerns and they listen and understand. They've been through it too. They're making us better teachers. In turn, we're better teachers for our students.”
For the first time in a very long time, Principal Griebel’s job feels sustainable. She can get out of the weeds and focus on the big picture.
The system is working better for individuals– but also for the whole.
“Before, it felt like a lot of responsibilities fell on one person," Filip said. "Now everybody's doing their part. It just makes the whole school run a lot smoother."
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