Article

K12 Coalition Managing Director of District Services Dr. Andrea Thomas-Reynolds explores how district leaders can build teacher expertise into decision-making in a new article for The Learning Professional.

Teacher voice is frequently identified as essential to school improvement. But inviting teachers to participate isn’t the same as giving them meaningful influence over the decisions that shape their work.

That distinction is at the center of a new article by Dr. Andrea Thomas-Reynolds, Managing Director of District Services at K12 Coalition, published in the August 2026 issue of The Learning Professional.

In “From input to influence: Building teacher expertise into decision-making,” Thomas-Reynolds argues that authentic teacher voice requires districts to build structures that connect teacher expertise directly to decision-making.

“Teacher voice becomes influential when systems intentionally create structures that recognize teachers as co-designers rather than implementers.”

Drawing on research and her experience leading multiyear district improvement initiatives, Thomas-Reynolds examines what happens when districts move beyond simply asking teachers for feedback and instead give educators meaningful opportunities to shape problems, priorities, professional learning, and solutions.

Why isn't asking for teacher input enough?

Surveys, focus groups, advisory groups, and other feedback mechanisms can give teachers opportunities to speak. But Thomas-Reynolds points to a critical distinction: participation does not automatically create influence.

When teachers repeatedly provide feedback without seeing how it affects decisions, engagement can begin to decline. Silence in a meeting, she explains, shouldn't automatically be interpreted as agreement or disengagement. It can reflect previous experiences in which speaking up produced little visible change, or a lack of psychological safety around candid feedback.

The result can be a cycle in which initiatives lose momentum not because of obvious resistance, but because of gradual disengagement and inconsistent implementation.

How can professional learning turn teacher voice into influence?

Thomas-Reynolds identifies professional learning as an important lever because its design communicates something fundamental about teachers' role within a district.

Professional learning delivered to teachers positions educators primarily as recipients and implementers. Professional learning designed with teachers positions them as contributors to both their own learning and broader system improvement.

Thomas-Reynolds grounds this argument in six years of experience serving as project director for two multiyear Teacher and School Leader Incentive Program grant awards funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Across participating districts, teachers worked alongside coaches, principals, and superintendents and took part in collaborative planning, teacher design teams, professional learning, and expanded leadership roles.

That experience helped reinforce a central conclusion from the article:

“Teacher voice is not simply a product of teachers’ willingness to participate but of organizational structures that allow teachers to influence instructional improvement and system-level decision-making.”

What can district leaders do differently?

Thomas-Reynolds highlights several practical shifts for leaders who want to move teacher voice from input to influence.

Engage teachers earlier. Teachers can contribute more when they help define the problem rather than reacting to a solution already developed.

Make the purpose clear. Educators should understand what decision their participation will inform, what kind of participation is expected, and how their input will be used.

Create visible feedback loops. After teachers contribute, leaders should communicate what they heard, the themes that emerged, the decisions made, and how teachers' perspectives informed those decisions.

As Thomas-Reynolds writes:  “Closing the loop is just as critical.”

Even when teacher input doesn't produce the outcome an individual educator hoped for, transparency can demonstrate respect for the contribution and strengthen trust in the process.

Why does teacher voice matter for emerging district priorities like AI?

The article also connects these principles to one of the most complex challenges districts are navigating today: artificial intelligence.

AI implementation decisions made without teacher expertise can quickly become disconnected from classroom realities. Thomas-Reynolds argues that the success of these initiatives will depend not just on the quality of the tools or strategies districts choose, but on whether teachers have a meaningful role in shaping how those choices are implemented in practice.

That leads to the article's larger takeaway: Districts should not invite teacher voice only occasionally. It should be built into the system's capacity for improvement.

When districts intentionally integrate teacher expertise into professional learning and decision-making, they can become more responsive, adaptive, and better positioned to sustain meaningful change.

Turn teacher voice into meaningful district improvement

Creating meaningful teacher voice requires structures that connect educator expertise to priorities, professional learning, implementation, and decision-making.

Lavinia Group’s District Services team partners with district leaders to build the systems and improvement strategies that turn stakeholder input into sustainable action.

See How We Partner With Districts →

Read the full article

Dr. Andrea Thomas-Reynolds’ “From input to influence: Building teacher expertise into decision-making” appears in the August 2026 issue of The Learning Professional, published by Learning Forward.

Read the full article in The Learning Professional →

About Andrea Thomas-Reynolds, Ed.D.

Andrea Thomas-Reynolds, Ed.D., is Managing Director of District Services at K12 Coalition and an executive leader, strategist, and organizational advisor with more than 20 years of experience leading large-scale education initiatives. Her work focuses on strengthening instructional leadership, educator development, organizational capacity, and sustainable school and district improvement. She has led multi-year, multi-district initiatives that bring educators and system leaders together to translate strategy into meaningful, lasting change.