The third in a series of reports evaluating a multi-year Wallace initiative explores the ways in which six districts are working to improve school leadership districtwide. The report, Building a Stronger Principalship, describes several new measures districts are implementing, including: systematic support for assistant principals the use of performance standards to hire and evaluate principals, Read more about Building a Stronger Principal Pipeline[…]
Principals’ roles have expanded significantly over the past decade. These leaders face new challenges and new levels of accountability. Performance evaluation provides a powerful tool for developing leadership practices, but many districts and administrators are inexperienced with this strategy. AIR engaged educators in three states to design the Five Essential Practices of School Leadership framework, Read more about Building Leadership Talent Through Performance Evaluation[…]
Over the years, various research studies have suggested that teachers have the greatest school-based effect on student achievement. In recent years, however, the crucial role of principals has also been made clearer by research. So, how does principal turnover harm students? The turnover rate for principals is higher than nearly any other white-collar profession, with Read more about Reducing the Principal Turnover Rate[…]
A new study shows that, despite the increased use of value-added data and other forms of teacher evaluation such as student or teacher surveys, first-hand principal observation of teachers remains the most trusted and used means by which decisions are made about teacher improvement. In other words, data are available, but not being used. The Read more about Study: Teacher Data Remain Untapped[…]
School leaders are critical in the lives of students and to the development of their teachers. Unfortunately, in too many instances, principals are effective in spite of – rather than because of – district conditions. To truly improve student achievement for all students across the country, well-prepared principals need the tools, support, and culture that Read more about Great Principals at Scale: Creating District Conditions That Enable All Principals to Be Effective[…]
Supporting Principals in Implementing Teacher Evaluation Systems is the latest policy brief from NASSP and NAESP. It is the product of two months of work from a committee of elementary, middle level, and high school principals from the across the country who are all experiencing different challenges and opportunities in conducting classroom observations, mentoring and Read more about Supporting Principals in Implementing Teacher Evaluation Systems[…]
School administrators serve as instructional leaders and set the tone for the culture of a school. The principal’s influence is pivotal. In this month’s issue brief, we explore effective school leadership and recommendations for improving the training, support and evaluation of educational leaders. What essential skills should principals master in order to be exceptional instructional Read more about February Issue Brief: Principalship[…]
How can school districts build a large corps of highly qualified principals? Making sure that would-be principals get the right training is one step; providing new principals with plenty of support is another. A new report describes what those two steps look like in six urban school districts working to build larger pools of strong Read more about Principal Training and Support in Six School Districts[…]
Principals are key to improving teaching and learning in schools, but how can school district central offices give principals the support they need? Three tools designed by education researchers at the University of Washington are meant to help. Two focus on the redesign of central offices in ways that foster effective leadership in schools. The Read more about Three New Tools to Help Districts Strengthen School Leadership[…]
What can school districts do to ensure that schools have the best principals? Deanna Burney and Robert Hughes, writing for the Harvard Education Letter, propose that districts create a growth-oriented system of principal professional development and certification and tie this system to principal evaluation. Following is the basic idea for the Burney and Hughes’ proposed Read more about Rethinking Principal Evaluation[…]
Principals are the primary agents of change in schools, and their effectiveness as leaders plays a key role in improving student achievement, a new report from New Leaders finds. The report, “Change Agents: How States Can Develop Effective School Leaders,” encourages states to develop a pipeline for attracting and retaining educational leaders and a high-quality Read more about Change Agents: NLNS Report Examines Principals’ Roles in Student Success[…]
We know that principal leadership is crucial to success of schools and students, particularly urban ones, but the Wallace Foundation’s new report, Districts Matter, adds that school districts can cultivate that strong leadership and “ensure they have principals capable of boosting teaching and learning.” The new report “draws on a decade of foundation research and Read more about Cultivating Great Principals: The District Role[…]
If the Common Core initiative is to have a chance to take off, a new strategy of professional development, coupled with thoughtful evaluation is necessary. This is according to Peter Youngs, writing under the auspices of the Center for American Progress. This new strategy requires reform of the current system of teacher evaluation and needs Read more about Reform to support Common Core[…]
A new partnership between the non-profit group New Leaders and Pearson Education seeks to improve the performance of school leadership through the use of technology-backed professional learning opportunities. New Leaders, the non-profit organization whose mission is to develop school leaders and promote system-wide conditions for student success, is partnering with the education services and technology Read more about Preparing School Leaders for Next Generation Learning[…]
The Wallace Foundation finds after ten years of research that the leadership principals provide to schools is the second most important factor directly impacting student performance, after only teacher performance. According to a new report prepared by the Wallace Foundation, “a national philanthropy that seeks to improve education and enrichment for disadvantaged children”, the reason that Read more about The Effect of Effective Principals[…]
Discussions about human capital and school improvement typically center on teachers. Yet the principals who select those teachers are a critical driver of school success. Just as states are beginning to address the weaknesses in their principal pipelines, a new report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) offers a set of powerful new Read more about CRPE Introduces Tools and Strategies to Help States Develop Great Principals[…]