Not every school is equally likely to witness the emergence of teacher leaders. In some schools, the environment is highly conducive to leadership from teachers, while other schools retain a traditional bureaucratic structure. The culture required for meaningful school improvement has been described in Chapter 4, and the conditions supporting the development of teacher leadership have been outlined in Chapter 8. But describing those conditions leads to the next question: How can educators know the extent to which their school reflects that culture and those conditions?

An audit is a way of answering that question. It consists of the collection of information about structures and procedures, as well as surveys of both students and staff. The results of these instruments can be analyzed to determine the aspects of the school and its culture that serve to promote the development of teacher leaders and those aspects that could inhibit such development.