The art of school leadership
A new book aimed at improving K-12 school education by David M. Corvi, a leadership coach at Boston College’s Lynch Leadership Academy (LLA), advocates strengthening the everyday experience of every learner—instead of employing interventions or isolated strategies—through a reimagined instructional framework for adult learning and instructional leadership.
Fix Your Tier 1 Instruction: Applying the Science of Good Instruction to the Art of School Leadership provides a pioneering, field-tested structure for school leaders to design professional development training, lead classroom observations, coach educators, and build a culture of collective efficacy aimed at improving Tier 1 instruction, the core curriculum provided to all students in a general education classroom.
“When Tier 1 instruction is strong, consistent, and inclusive, everything else in a school improves,” said Corvi, who has over two decades of experience across urban public schools, charter networks, and nonprofit educational organizations. “When it’s weak or inconsistent, no amount of intervention, programming or initiative can compensate for what students did not receive in the classroom. Improvement starts with the adults in the building.”
The book, founded on the principle that leadership is teaching, maps a research-based Tier 1 instructional framework to the structure and delivery of professional learning, emphasizing clarity of learning objectives, engagement strategies, educational delivery, practice opportunities, checks for understanding, and targeted feedback—all transferable from student to adult learning.
David Corvi
According to Corvi, Fix Your Tier 1 Instruction is written for principals, assistant principals, superintendents, instructional coaches, and any organizational leader at public, charter, independent, or parochial schools committed to building a culture where learning is the work, not a slogan.
“The same principles that define great classroom instruction—including clarity of purpose, active engagement, targeted feedback, differentiated support, and assessing for success—apply directly to how leaders develop the adults in their schools,” said Corvi, a former elementary school principal in Camden, NJ, and a Teach for America alumnus who joined the LLA in 2020. “The result is a coherent, actionable framework that connects what happens in the classroom to what happens for teacher development.”
Throughout the book, Corvi provides reflection prompts, case studies, checklists, self-assessments, and other tools that can be employed immediately.
“You will be able help all of your teachers grow,” he said, “and their students will grow as a result.”
Founded in 2010, the LLA is a collaborative, cross-sector community of school and district leaders who work to transform educational experiences of students in Massachusetts and Northeast Ohio. Its mission is to develop a powerful and sustainable network of highly effective leaders at schools, within systems, and in communities, who will disrupt inequity and dramatically increase the opportunities and outcomes for all students. A partnership with the Carroll School of Management meshes the necessary learning school principals need to do to become skilled instructional leaders and executive managers.