In a school improvement project, which practice aligns with distributed leadership by giving leadership roles based on expertise?

• A. Creating opportunities for faculty and staff to assume leadership roles based on expertise
• B. Centralizing project decisions to a single administrator
• C. Eliminating leadership roles to reduce confusion
• D. Outsourcing leadership to external consultants

Answer: (A)

Distributed leadership focuses on sharing leadership tasks across people who have the right expertise, rather than keeping all authority with one administrator. In a school improvement project, giving leadership roles to faculty and staff based on what they know and can do allows decisions to be informed by those closest to the work, speeding implementation and building capacity across the school. This taps into specialized strengths, fosters ownership, and creates a collaborative problem-solving culture.

Centralizing decisions to a single administrator goes against this approach by concentrating authority and limiting opportunities for others to contribute. Eliminating leadership roles removes the mechanism that drives improvement. Outsourcing leadership to external consultants can be useful for guidance, but it does not develop internal leadership or distribute leadership reach within the school.