Matthew Clifford and Eva Chiang in Real Clear Education write about the constant churn of principals in our nation’s schools, which they claim has reached epidemic proportions. To stop the churn, they recommend five things that districts can do this school year to hire, retain, and develop their principals: Hire for Now and the Future. Read more about Stopping the Churn in the Principal’s Office[…]
Whether the goal is to enhance instruction, create a culture of excellence, or broaden education options for parents, it’s nearly impossible to improve schools without strong leaders. This is hardly news; much evidence has indicated the importance of effective principals for decades. Yet reform strategies have largely lacked a coherent plan to upgrade leadership, even Read more about A Policymaker’s Guide to School Leadership[…]
A significant challenge to school turnaround efforts is a lack of turnaround leaders available to work in these schools. Four education organizations —The Center on School Turnaround at WestEd, the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders, Public Impact, and the University of Virginia Darden/Curry Partnership – have been studying issues of school turnaround and have Read more about Identifying, Selecting, and Retaining School Turnaround Leaders: How-To Modules[…]
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. You can read the issue brief here: http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=a4ae2b1b129b9f8a29d50b80f&id=ade984414e&e=60969abf82 To ensure you do Read more about February Issue Brief: Effective School Leadership[…]
Recently, Tom Vander Ark from Getting Smart published an insightful to-do list for education leaders. Vander Ark states, “Being an education leader is complicated and challenging. The politics are personal and multilayered. It can be the best and worst job in the world at the same time. But there is no role where an individual Read more about 7 Things Education Leaders Should Do Right Now[…]
GTL Center’s latest Professional Learning Module is Supporting Principals Using Teacher Effectiveness Data (September 2015). It discusses practical strategies principals and district leaders can use to make hiring, staffing, teacher leadership, and professional development decisions. Teacher effectiveness data can help school and district leaders to make informed and evidence-based talent management decisions, but too many Read more about Supporting Principals Using Teacher Effectiveness Data[…]
Michael J. Petrilli of the Fordham Institute on Education recently delivered an address to the New York State Council of School Superintendents about how to end the American education reform wars. Admittedly coming from a more conservative perspective, Petrilli advocates three main goals for school leaders: Be the voice of the sane, sensible center. Grab Read more about How to End the Education Reform Wars[…]
The Wallace Foundation has released seven short videos featuring six school district superintendents talking about key innovations to emerge from a major national initiative to develop larger numbers of highly effective principals – and one video that offers advice to other superintendents who might want to build their own strong principal pipelines. The two-minute videos Read more about New Videos Feature Innovative Efforts to Build Strong Principal Pipelines[…]
Evaluation systems require principals to spend increasing amounts of time observing each individual teacher. Yet other requirements of the job put demands on principals’ time that can cut into instructional supervision. In Helping Principals Beat the Clock, CTAC Senior Associate Joan McRobbie considers how to help support instructional leadership by principals. This issue is addressed Read more about Helping Principals Beat the Clock[…]
In 2013, The Wallace Foundation identified, based on a decade of research, five practices principals can use to guide their schools to better teaching and learning. WNET, New York City’s PBS affiliate, has just released a series of five videos that bring these practices to life by showing how successful principals put them to work Read more about Effective Principal Practices in Action[…]
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[…]
A new report on teacher evaluation from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching by Taylor White evaluates many of the new, more complex, (and hopefully more fair) teacher evaluation systems being rolled out in various school systems. State and local policymakers are starting to replace the often-cursory teacher observations of the past with Read more about Adding Eyes: The Rise, Rewards, and Risks of Multi-Rater Teacher Observation Systems[…]
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[…]
Join REL Mid-Atlantic for an Ask An Expert online chat on Using Student Surveys to Monitor Teacher Effectiveness. Kim Marshall, a former teacher of the year and principal who now advises and coaches new principals, will lead the discussion. He teaches instructional leadership and publishes The Marshall Memo, a weekly newsletter. His most recent book Read more about Using Student Surveys to Monitor Teacher Effectiveness[…]
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[…]