STRENGTHENING SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

STRENGTHENING SCHOOL LEADERSHIP by Tyler Whitmire A White Paper from Stand for Children Leadership Center June 2012

Why Principals Matter Effective principals are critical to developing and ensuring effective teaching, improving student achievement, and turning around low-performing schools. Researchers find that about 60 percent of a school s impact on student learning is attributable to educators: 25 percent to principals and 33 percent to teachers. 1 These figures actually understate the role of principals, because principals are responsible for hiring, developing, and retaining effective teachers. While an individual effective teacher can boost student learning in any given year, only the principal can ensure effective teaching in every classroom, across all grades. Unless students have multiple effective teachers in a row, nearly all the gains they make in one effective teacher s classroom are erased in two years with less-effective teachers. 2 While all schools need effective principals, strong principal leadership is particularly important for low-performing schools in need of rapid improvement and may be the deciding factor between success and failure. Researchers have not found a single example of a turnaround school without an effective principal at the helm. 3 Defining Effective Principals Principals succeed by focusing attention on three key areas: learning and teaching; creating an effective, aligned staff; and school culture. Undergirding these three areas must be strong personal leadership and systems that support the end goal of student achievement. 4 Effective principals focus on classroom learning and instruction as the core driver behind improved outcomes. They participate in designing curriculum and instruction and ensure that their teachers are using curricula, lesson plans, and materials that are aligned to standards and student achievement goals. Effective principals spend significant amounts of time in classrooms observing and providing feedback to educators. 5 They constantly collect and analyze data both at the school-wide level and with teachers individually or in teams to monitor school and student progress and drive improvement in instruction. Executing this type of instructional leadership requires principals to have deep instructional expertise, as well as the skills to translate that expertise into useful guidance and feedback for educators. Effective principals also build an effective and aligned teaching staff. They recruit and select top-notch candidates, evaluate staff against agreed-upon metrics, and provide them with coaching and professional development to build their skills and knowledge and grow as professionals and, when necessary, fire low-performing teachers. Effective principals also protect teachers from noise (non-teaching issues) to free them up to focus on teaching. 6 2012 Stand for Children Leadership Center. All rights reserved. 2

Effective principals also recognize that high-performing teacher teams require not just effective individuals, but also the development of cohesive teams aligned around a common vision and goals. Ensuring an aligned teaching staff requires soliciting real input from teachers, recognizing the importance of personal relationships, and rewarding individual accomplishments. To assist in developing teachers and supporting effective instruction across the entire school, effective principals build strong leadership teams that share responsibility for instructional and culture leadership in the school. 7 Executing these responsibilities requires principals to possess skills in managing and developing adults. Finally, but just as importantly, effective principals build a strong school culture and mission based on high expectations of success for all students. All the staff must embody this culture and adopt behavioral expectations accordingly, and students and their families must internalize the culture. Strong principal leadership is essential to develop a clear mission and school culture, as well as to build buy-in to the mission and culture among staff, students, and families. 8 To build a strong culture and aligned staff, principals must demonstrate strong personal leadership that combines an uncompromising focus on school mission and results, and strong relationships with staff, students, and families. To foster relationships with teachers, students, and families, principals must communicate clearly and regularly with all stakeholders and demonstrate cultural competency. 9 Finally, strong principals must be flexible and resilient, innovating to adapt to changing circumstances and challenges. They must seek to continually improve their own approach and skills, and demonstrate self-awareness and the ability to respond constructively to dissent. 10 Effective principals also realign time, staffing, and other resources within the school to advance student achievement goals. They identify which systems need to change to allow staff and students to better reach goals, and implement those changes accordingly. 11 Beyond reallocating and aligning existing resources, principals also leverage additional resources through relationships with external partnerships, district leaders, and other stakeholders. Current Principal Effectiveness While there is little research quantifying principal effectiveness, the evidence that exists is not promising. A study found that 59 percent of superintendents didn t feel their principals had effective leadership skills, and 71 percent weren t happy with principals communication of vision and mission. 12 Although the nation s principal-preparation programs produce far more graduates than there are vacancies, many of these graduates have no intention of becoming principals, but simply want to gain a bump in pay by securing an administrative license leading to a dearth of qualified principal candidates. 13 Principals with the skills turnaround or improve 2012 Stand for Children Leadership Center. All rights reserved. 3

struggling schools are in particularly short supply in part because of the lackluster preparation programs and in part because many principals are not supported to grow and succeed once in the profession. 1415 Three Major Factors in Principal Effectiveness To improve principal effectiveness and thus student achievement, districts and states need to make three major changes: overhaul principal-preparation programs, improve development for existing principals, and revamp the current practices and rules that impede principal autonomy. The following paragraphs explain the current need in each area, give examples of organizations or districts that are showing progress, and provide several recommendations for what states and districts can do to improve in these areas. 1. Principal Preparation Overhauling principal preparation is a critical step to building a cadre of principals prepared to improve student achievement. Traditional principal-preparation programs, which graduate 95 percent of principals, do not equip their graduates with the skills and knowledge to carry out all their responsibilities effectively. More than two-thirds of principals reported that typical leadership programs in graduate schools of education are out of touch with the realities of what it takes to run today s school districts. 16 Current preparation programs focus on inputs (number of hours in the classroom, number of credits, one exam that doesn t measure ability to manage others) rather than outputs (any information that indicates graduates are ready to lead a school). These programs have little in the way of entrance or exit criteria for principal candidates most do not require applicants to demonstrate any of the proficiencies described above as necessary attributes of effective school leaders. Principal-preparation coursework is not aligned with the skills principals need to succeed. An analysis of syllabi and coursework in principal-prep programs found that they failed to properly prepare principals in any of the following key competencies: managing for results, managing personnel, technical knowledge, external leadership, norms and values, managing classroom instruction, and leadership and school culture. 17 Neither are aspiring principals given sufficient opportunities to apply their learning in real-world schools and scenarios, a crucial step for adult learning. 18 States and universities exert relatively little quality control over the quality of principal preparation. They do not analyze the effectiveness of programs graduates or hold programs accountable for quality. Many programs themselves do not even track if their students become principals, much less how they do. An improved principal-preparation pipeline starts with strategic, aggressive recruitment and selection. While most districts wait for individuals to self-select as principals, high-performing districts recruit internally and externally. High-performing districts are also crystal clear on their definition of a strong principal candidate, so their entire recruitment staff knows what attributes, 2012 Stand for Children Leadership Center. All rights reserved. 4

knowledge, and skills principal candidates need to have or need to be able to rapidly develop. Recruitment must be matched with a rigorous selection process, including intensive candidate interviews. Rigorous principal-training programs look very different from the traditional, classroom-based preparation programs that currently train almost all school leaders. Rigorous programs focus on experiential learning and development based on the original definitions of what an effective principal has to look like. Course content focuses on personal leadership, systems and operations, teaching and learning, ensuring an aligned staff, and school culture (the areas in which principals must excel). Content must be applied and allow principals to develop their skills through simulations and role-playing. In addition, through district or school partnerships, future principals apprentice in a school for at least six months to practice their learning on the ground and to be mentored by an experienced principal. 19 Examples of Effective Principal Preparation Programs New Leaders, a nonprofit organization, is an example of a strong principal-preparation program. New Leaders focuses on recruiting and training high-quality principals for low-income districts, from New York to the Bay Area to Memphis and Charlotte. By implementing rigorous recruitment, selection, training, and support systems, New Leaders has seen results. An external evaluation found that students in elementary and middle schools led by a New Leaders-trained principal perform significantly better than students in a control school. These results exist only when the principal has been in the school for three or more years. 20 Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia has seen impressive student achievement gains in recent years, in part due to a sustained focus on principal effectiveness. 21 Gwinnett provides examples of how to improve the preparation and the ongoing development of principals. There is a district-wide acceptance of the importance of quality principals on student achievement, and an unrelenting focus on driving improvements in the major areas that lead to improved principal quality: improved principal recruitment and preparation, ongoing support, and autonomy. The best example of Gwinnett s commitment to leadership is its Quality-Plus Leader Academy Aspiring Principals Program. The academy, taught by senior administrators in the district, is aligned with the district s goals and needs and required for individuals planning to become principals in the district. The academy s residency model ensures that participants have real-life experience and mentoring prior to assuming control of a school, and each principal academy student, receives support from a team comprised of fellow administrators. 22 Once principals are in their jobs, Gwinnett also support two years of mentoring from fellow principals (who must have a proven track record of success and a commitment to growing others and to the vision and mission of Gwinnett PS). Gwinnett also hosts a yearly summer leadership academy for all principals and administrators to share new research and information, develop skills, and set goals for the coming year. 23 2012 Stand for Children Leadership Center. All rights reserved. 5

State policies ultimately control who is in the principal pipeline, meaning that state policymakers must do more to increase the supply of high-quality principals. 24 To do so, they need to thoroughly review the existing principal-preparation programs in their state against state standards of principal excellence. States must invest in tracking each program s graduates to gain information on which programs are most effective. They must invest in qualified reviewers and a consistent evaluation process to examine each program s curriculum. Programs that do not meet goals should be shut down. Rather than focusing on what types of organizations operate principal-preparation programs i.e., universities, districts, or independent nonprofits states should allow a variety of organizations to prepare principals, but hold all providers accountable for their ability to produce high-quality graduates. 25 2. Principal Development Once principals are on the job, districts and charter management organizations must ensure ongoing support and comprehensive evaluations for all leaders. Currently, the support and development principals receive on the job are weak. A survey of almost 1,000 principals found that more than half of them believe they would be more effective if they had better ongoing development (specifically more facilitated networks of fellow principals as opposed to lectures). 26 Current principal evaluations also leave much room for improvement: Many principals are not evaluated regularly, and many evaluations are out-of-date, not aligned around a principal s core competencies, and do not include information on student learning. The nonprofit School Leaders Network builds networks of principals who, with a skilled facilitator, engage in action research, determine ways to improve outcomes at their schools, and hold each other mutually accountable for results. Eighty-six percent of principals participating in the SLN program showed improvements in student academic achievement. 27 On the evaluation side of development, principal evaluations should strive to measure the principal s impact on improving teaching and learning; building an aligned, effective staff; and fostering a healthy, equitable, and high-standard school culture. But measuring these components can be difficult. 28 One promising evaluation tool out of Vanderbilt University is the VAL-ED model, which includes six major components: high standards for student learning, rigorous curriculum, quality instruction, culture of learning and professional behavior, connections to external communities, and performance accountability. The evaluation tool lays out key processes to break down how the leader does (or doesn t) achieve those competencies. The tool has proven to accurately identify learning-centered leadership and accurately differentiate principals based on strength. 29 Illinois, Louisiana, Georgia, and other states are also experimenting with implementing improved evaluation systems that include measures of student progress. 30 As states move to adopt new teacher evaluation policies that take into account teachers impact on student learning, they must also ensure that they are putting in place principal evaluation policies based on the same principles. 2012 Stand for Children Leadership Center. All rights reserved. 6

Districts and states can do several things to improve ongoing principal development. First, more districts need to implement professional development programs to ensure that principals receive relevant support and learning. These programs can be led by outside organizations, like School Leaders, or by the district itself, like in Gwinnett. Second, districts must collect and analyze data on how principals perform over time. Principals should know what is expected of them and how they measure up. 31 Third, districts and states must ensure that the standards used by administrators responsible for evaluating principals are aligned with and complement standards and competencies for principals. Districts must also ensure that the positions with responsibility for overseeing and evaluating principals are staffed with high-capacity individuals who understand the district s vision and goals for effective school leadership. Without supervisors who are aligned on core issues, principals cannot perform to the best of their ability. 32 Districts and principal administrators must also be willing to dismiss poor-performing principals, an act that is not possible in some districts because principals are unionized and receive tenure after three years on the job. 33 3. Autonomy For principals to fulfill their obligations to improve teaching and learning, hire and support an excellent teaching staff, and establish a healthy school culture, they must be empowered to make the basic school-based decisions. Currently, many principals lack the autonomy to make key decisions or to reallocate resources to improve student performance. In many districts, principals are forced to hire teachers they don t want, are forbidden from using student-achievement data in a formal teacher evaluation, and are basically unable to fire low-performing teachers. 34 Professional development programs are often run by the district, limiting principals ability to provide development opportunities matched to school goals and needs. 35 All of these factors limit principals ability to be successful. It follows then, that the principals most committed to being successful are forced to break the rules to get the outcomes they want for their kids. 2012 Stand for Children Leadership Center. All rights reserved. 7

Giving Principals Autonomy to Lead Dramatic Improvement in Struggling Schools The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools district has taken steps to give principals greater support, flexibility, and autonomy. In 2008 the district implemented a strategic staffing initiative in their lowest-performing schools. It identified strong principals (who were eligible only if they had shown significant gains in student achievement in previous schools) and encouraged them to apply to lead one of the district s lowest-performing schools. Part of the offer included a raise, as well as autonomy over staffing and the flexibility to try new, instruction-related practices they think might work in their school. The principals were able to hire two or three fellow administrators and five proven teachers. They were supported by the district through informal principal-mentoring programs as well as a formal training program to teach them turnaround strategies and to give them context about their new school. The superintendent met with the principals every other month, and the principals felt supported in their (often difficult) choices. Early data shows the schools within this strategic staffing initiative are making significant improvements in student achievement. 36 To improve school autonomy and to enable principals to be successful, districts and states need to make several key changes. On the most basic level, effective principals need the autonomy to hire, evaluate, train, and fire their teaching staff. It s difficult to hold principals accountable when they do not have control of who works in the schools they lead. Moving to a more autonomous principal model will require changes in many districts teacher contracts, including changes to hiring, transfer, and dismissal provisions, as well as shifting district-level human resources policy and practices to better support principals. In some states, these changes may require changes to due process requirements or employment law. 37 Second, principals need autonomy over their schools staffing, time, program, and budget to be successful. Principals need to be able to reallocate resources to support instructional excellence. Districts must give principals greater control over schedule and resource allocation decisions, as well as a say in district policies that affect their goals. 38 On a more general level, administrators who oversee principals must truly support them, by securing the right kind of professional development opportunities and by freeing them up from non-crucial tasks (in the same way principals shield their teachers from noise ). District superintendents also need to make it clear that they will back their principals personnel and management decisions. 39 Lastly, states and districts must invest in data collection and evaluation to build the knowledge base about how to ensure effective school leadership in all three of these key areas. The research is very clear about the importance of principals, but the overall body of research on the subject 2012 Stand for Children Leadership Center. All rights reserved. 8

particularly related to policy interventions has many gaps. Districts, states, and CMOs striving to improve principal practices are often operating based on conjecture and preliminary data, rather than on robust evidence. By collecting more data (such as data on variations in principal effectiveness across preparation programs and districts), states, districts, and preparation programs can help to create a more robust knowledge base to support effective principal preparation and supervision to scale. 1 Robert Marzano, Brian McNulty, and Tim Waters, What 30 Years of Research Tells Us About the Effect of Leadership on Student Achievement (Denver, CO: Mid-Continent Regional Educational Lab, 2003). 2 T.K. Kane and D.O. Staigler, Estimating Teacher Impacts on Student Achievement: An Experimental Evaluation (Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2008). 3 Susan Gates, Laura Hamilton, Paul Heaton, and Francisco Martorell, Preliminary Findings from the New Leaders for New Schools Evaluation (Rand Corporation, 2010). http://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/2010/rand_wr739.pdf. 4 New Leaders, New Leaders Urban Excellence Framework (New York: New Leaders, 2011). http://www.newleaders.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/uef-conceptmaps1.pdf. 5 Kenneth Leithwood, Karen Louis, Stephen Anderson, and Kyla Wahlstrom, How Leadership Influences Student Learning (Minneapolis, MN, and Toronto: University of Minnesota and University of Toronto and Wallace Foundation, 2004). http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/school-leadership/keyresearch/documents/how-leadership-influences-student-learning.pdf. 6 Marzano, et al., 2003. 7 New Leaders Urban Excellence Framework, 2011. 8 Leithwood, et al., 2003. 9 New Leaders Urban Excellence Framework, 2011. 10 Marzano, et al., 2003. 11 Leithwood, et al., 2004. 12 S. Farkas, J. Johnson, et al., Trying to stay ahead of the game. Superintendents and principals talk about school leadership: A report from Public Agenda (New York: Public Agenda, 2001). 13 Gretchen Rhines Cheney and Jacquelyn Davis, Gateway to the Principalship: State Power to Improve the Quality of School Leaders (Washington, DC: Center for American Progress, 2011). http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/10/pdf/principalship_execsumm.pdf. 14 Interview of Jacqueline Davis, November 21, 2011. 15 Mariah Cone, Developing Principal Instructional leadership Through Collaborative Networking, University of California, Los Angeles, dissertation, 2010. 16 S. Farkas, et al., Trying to stay ahead of the game ; Quoted in dissertation: Cone, Developing Principal Instructional Leadership Through Collaborative Networking. 17 Frederick Hess and Andrew Kelly, "Learning to Lead: What Gets Taught in Principal-Preparation Programs (Teachers College Record 109, no. 1, 2007). http://www.aei.org/doclib/20061221_learningtoleadtcr.pdf. 18 Cheney and Davis, Gateway to the Principalship. 19 Gretchen Rhines Cheney, Jacquelyn Davis, Kelly Garrett, and Jennifer Holleran, A New Approach to Principal Preparation: Innovative Programs Share Their Practices and Lessons Learned (Fort Worth, TX: Rainwater Leadership Alliance, 2010), 176. http://www.anewapproach.org/docs/a_new_approach.pdf. 20 Gates, et al., Preliminary Findings. 21 Information on Gwinnett performance available from the Broad Foundation: http://broadprize.org/asset/1579- tbp%202010%20gwinnett%20fact%20sheet.pdf. 22 More information on the program available at http://www.gwinnett.k12.ga.us/gcpsmainweb01.nsf/pages/developinggwinnettsfutureleadersthroughthequality-plusleaderacademy. 23 Ibid. 24 Sarah Shelton, Strong Leaders Strong Schools: 2010 School Leadership Laws (Washington, DC: Wallace Foundation, 2011). http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/school-leadership/statepolicy/pages/strong-leaders-strong-schools-2010-school-leadership-laws-.aspx. 25 Cheney, et al., A New Approach. 26 National Center for Educational Statistics, Percentage of public school districts and private 2012 Stand for Children Leadership Center. All rights reserved. 9

schools that provided professional development opportunities for school or district administrators, by selected public school district and private school characteristics (2003-04). Quoted in Mariah Cone Dissertation. 27 http://connectleadsucceed.org/. 28 New Leaders, Evaluating Principals: Balancing Accountability with Professional Growth (New York: New Leaders, 2010). http://www.nlns.org/evaluating-principals.jsp. 29 For more information, see http://www.valed.com/research.html. 30 Cheney, et al., A New Approach. 31 Ibid. 32 Steven Adamowski, Susan Bowles Therriault, Anthony P. Cavanna, The Autonomy Gap: Barriers to Effective School Leadership (Washington, DC: Thomas B. Fordham Institute, 2007). http://www.edexcellencemedia.net/publications/2007/200704_theautonomygap/041107autonomygap.pdf. 33 Cheney and Davis, Gateway to the Principalship. 34 Adamowski, et al., The Autonomy Gap. 35 To exemplify the general difficulty principals face in building an effective, cohesive team of professionals: The Portland, Oregon, union sent its teachers a note at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year explaining that, during the annual teacher-principal goal-setting meeting, the teacher is not required to write anything down. The principal should be the one physically writing the goals on paper. 36 Jonathan Travers and Barbara Christiansen, Strategic Staffing for Successful Schools: Breaking the Cycle of Failure in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (Washington, DC: Aspen Institute and ERS, April 2010). 37 Adamowski, et al., The Autonomy Gap. 38 Ibid 39 Ibid. 2012 Stand for Children Leadership Center. All rights reserved. 10

ABOUT TYLER WHITMIRE Tyler Whitmire is currently developing and managing Stand for Children Leadership Center s new family engagement program: Stand University for Parents. She recently contributed a chapter on family engagement to the book The Achievable Dream: College Board Lessons on Creating Great Schools. ABOUT STAND FOR CHILDREN LEADERSHIP CENTER Stand for Children Leadership Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides leadership development and training to everyday citizens. Our mission is to ensure that all children, regardless of their background, graduate from high school prepared for, and with access to, college and career training. To make that happen, we: Educate and empower parents, teachers, and community members to demand excellent public schools. Advocate for effective local, state and national education policies and investments. Ensure the policies and funding we advocate for reach classrooms and help students. Learn more at www.stand.org