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What Do Black Students Need from Principals?

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Good principal preparation and principal leadership are not only key elements in the success of students, but are also imperative for the social, emotional, and academic lives of Black students in public schools, says Linda C. Tillman, a distinguished visiting professor in the School of Education’s Educational Leadership for Social Justice doctoral program at Loyola Marymount University. Tillman will be giving the Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture at the <a href="https://www.aera.net/Events-Meetings/2023-Annual-Meeting/2023-Annual-Meeting-Program-Information/Major-Events-Lectures-and-Speakers" target="_blank">2023 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting</a>, the single largest gathering of scholars in the education research field. Her speech will draw on research and center on the importance of effective principal preparation programs and principal leadership for Black students in public schools.Tillman’s research has focused on school leadership, the education of Black students in K-12 education, culturally sensitive research approaches, and mentoring in higher education. In fact, she was the mentor of Wallace’s education leadership program officer, Angel Miles Nash. “The funny full-circle story is that Dr. Tillman’s retirement celebration in 2014 was my entrance into AERA and the first event I attended,” Miles Nash recalls. “Fast forward to today, she has since returned to the academy in many ways and currently, as a visiting scholar at LMU. But she has never left the academy as it relates to mentoring students. She is always mentoring students, junior faculty, senior faculty, everyone. Her reputation precedes her as a champion for all of those groups, not only in education leadership but across the academy in all disciplines in education.” Miles Nash sat down with Tillman to preview some of the themes in her speech. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Angel Miles Nash: You’ve spent several decades as a scholar and leader in the K-12 and higher education sectors focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues in education leadership, making institutional systems more racially equitable, creating supportive structures for students and faculty of color and mentoring students and faculty of color. Can you talk about how you got started with this work and why it is so important?  Linda C. Tillman: I was a quasi administrator in Columbus Public Schools in Ohio before I got my doctorate. Within the school system, I don't really think I noticed much of the inequities in terms of supports that Black students get. I don't really think that I knew much about racial inequity or Black students not being supported when I was teaching, because when I was teaching, I always taught with a lot of Black teachers. When I was a quasi-administrator, there were always a lot of Black administrators in our district. It was when I went to graduate school at Ohio State to get my PhD, that I began to see more broadly. You start to read. You start to go to conferences. You start to explore the literature more, and then you begin to see that these inequities are really on a broader scale than what you had imagined. I started my faculty career in New Orleans. I remember pretty distinctly saying, "My goodness, this district really needs to make some drastic changes to educate Black students," because I was so unaccustomed to such high failure rates, to unsafe buildings, to not having books, to students not finishing high school. I was so unaccustomed to that kind of an educational culture that when I went there, I was just stunned. I saw so many inequities in terms of Black schools. That made me think, how does this work for Black people who send their children to school? How do they know that these children are going to get an education? Who's going to be teaching them, and who's going to be leading them? I began to focus on those questions. When I left New Orleans, I went to Detroit. The hyper-segregated context of Detroit was very much like New Orleans—the failure rates of students, the dropout rates of Black students, the constant turnover of superintendents, the underachievement of students. How do the principals lead in these situations where it almost seems like the failure of Black students is a given? AMN: Can you talk about the representation gap between students and principals? How has the composition of the principal workforce measured up to the rapid changes in student demographics?LCT: It hasn't. In my speech, I'll point out that 15 percent of all students in public schools are Black students. Only 11 percent of principals in public schools are Black. Several reports that I'll refer to suggest that there are going to have to be more principals of color, period, to keep up with the diversification of the student body in public schools. Right now, Black students are at a disadvantage in terms of having a Black principal, and so are Latinx students. In California public schools, 80 percent of all students are students of color. Twenty percent of all principals are principals of color. There is a huge mismatch there. There is quite a bit of data on the mismatch between students of color, Black students, Latinx students, and principals of color. The literature also suggests that having a Black principal means that you will have more Black teachers. Students will do better academically. The dropout rate will decrease. The suspension rate decreases. The college-going rate increases.We still have a severe shortage of Black principals so it's a pipeline issue for sure. I'll cite three studies, one that was done for the Wallace Foundation by <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/how-principals-affect-students-and-schools-a-systematic-synthesis-of-two-decades-of-research.aspx">Jason Grissom, Anna Egalite, and Constance Lindsay</a>. What they talk about is it is absolutely necessary to increase the pipeline of Black principals. What does that mean? Many students might never have a Black principal or a Black teacher. Because there's a teacher shortage and, of course, NASSP said in its <a href="https://www.nassp.org/news/nassp-survey-signals-a-looming-mass-exodus-of-principals-from-schools/" target="_blank">2021 survey</a>, 4 in 10 principals are expected to leave the profession. That is certainly going to point to more Black people leaving the profession or not even entering into the principalship.AMN: Mentoring has been a big focus of much of your writing. Why is mentoring so valuable to educators?LCT: I did a case study when I was in New Orleans on a Black female teacher who was in the process of being mentored through the state's mentoring program for novice teachers. That teacher had come from an elite high school with high-performing students, all kinds of awards and accolades. Then she goes to a high school that's low performing. She was beyond frazzled. She was at the lowest she could be. She was having pedagogical issues, in other words, how to teach these Black students who she thought were unruly, and the parents were unruly. She was also having emotional and professional issues in that she felt she was a failure. She even said, "I know they sent you to save me." Then the same race affiliation, same gender affiliation began to kick in for me. I wanted to know, should the mentors be of the same race? Should they be of the same gender? Should they have similar backgrounds?I think most teachers who go into teaching need mentoring. Mentoring helps a person get their footing and get their confidence to do what is necessary to move from one level to the next level, particularly in teaching. One of the reasons we have such a high turnover rate of teachers is because not all districts have a structured program.AMN: Principals can have significant positive impacts on specific student populations, including students of color, low-income students, and English-language learners. What are some practices that define effective school leadership, and how can principals carry out those practices to promote equitable education in their schools?LCT: Well, in the <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/how-principals-affect-students-and-schools-a-systematic-synthesis-of-two-decades-of-research.aspx">Grissom, et al. study</a>, they certainly pointed out that leadership is direct and indirect. Directly to me means you are talking with students, you are talking with their parents. <a href="https://education.msu.edu/people/edwards-patricia/?email=edwards6%40msu.edu" target="_blank">Patricia Edwards</a> says when we began desegregation, Black parents became members of the audience. You don't make them feel like they're members of the audience. You let them know that their children matter. Then indirectly, you make sure that the teachers know that the children are important. Their social, emotional, and academic achievement is important, and teachers take seriously what needs to be done to teach these students, particularly, a student like an English language learner. If I were a teacher and I didn't speak another language, or if I were a principal, I would have to go get some mentoring. The other thing is these principal preparation programs tend to still be very generic in terms of their teaching. It's as if everyone who will lead is white and everybody that they will teach is white, which is not the case. Even while schools have these social justice focuses, they're not intentional in trying to help or train leaders who can lead in a particular context, such as English language learners or high populations of Black students who live in high-poverty neighborhoods. One of the things I'll talk about in my speech is what I call my four dimensions of Black principal leadership. One is resistance to ideologies and individuals opposed to the education of Black students. The second one is the academic and social development of Black students as a priority, so all students as a priority. The third one is the importance of the cultural perspectives of the Black principal. And finally, leadership based on interpersonal caring.AMN: We know from research that effective principals are important, and their preparation, development and support can make a major difference. Yet, principals’ access to high-quality learning opportunities varies across states and by school poverty level. What advice do you have for policymakers to help make principal preparation more equitable?LCT: I don't know if the policymakers can do that. I think that's a district issue. Does the district feel that it is important for school leaders, assistant principals, and principals? We've got plenty of policy. We've got the information, but what does the district, the superintendent, the board of education–those people who actually consent to these policies–think is important? It's the district prioritizing it, and then the district working out a way that principals can comfortably engage in professional development.AMN: Given the ongoing work of diversity, equity and inclusion, can you talk about where things were when you started working in K-12 education and how it has evolved since then? LCT: Well, I'm not sure we have DEI much anymore. I used to be on the faculty at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and two weeks ago they said, "Take out every word that has anything to do with DEI." There are 13 states that are going to follow the lead of Chapel Hill, so I'm not sure we have DEI. It appears that DEI initiatives have been linked to the backlash against Critical Race Theory. Some states have implemented laws that do not allow the teaching of CRT in schools, universities, or diversity trainings. Similar to CRT, DEI is being viewed as unnecessary. That goes back to leadership preparation. We work in colleges of education that espouse a DEI social justice focus, but if we're being told that we have to take everything out, then how do we do that?AMN: What gives you hope or encouragement as you look to the future? LCT: I am hopeful that all children, and especially children of color who are underserved and undereducated, will experience the principal leadership that they deserve. I am hopeful that principals will be committed to the education of all children and will implement policies, practices, and procedures that help to ensure that all students receive more than an adequate education. University leadership preparation programs and other organizations can play a critical role in preparing effective school leaders who will be instrumental in educating all children. There is still much work to be done.

Wallace editorial team

2023-04-11T04:00:00Z

Scholar with extensive experience in the K-12 and higher education sectors discusses importance of effective school leadership for Black students

4/26/2023 7:13:38 PM

The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / What Do Black Students Need from Principals Scholar with extensive experience in the K-12 and higher education sectors

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Want Transformational School Leaders? Invest in Partnerships, Support, and Equity

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Back in 2016, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) committed to using federal funding to support school leaders. Those involved knew immediately that they needed the right voices at the table to help determine what that support would look like. Enter “The Big 5.”The five largest school districts in Wisconsin–known as “the Big 5”--along with the <a href="https://ulgm.org/" target="_blank">Urban League of Greater Madison</a> and the <a href="https://www.awsa.org/" target="_blank">Association of Wisconsin School Administrators</a>, signed on to the project. They began by participating in frank and open conversations with DPI about what school leaders in those districts needed to best support their students. DPI quickly recognized the need for professional development specifically geared toward school leaders in the Big 5 districts (Green Bay, Kenosha, Madison, Milwaukee and Racine).“There are unique characteristics and challenges that each of the big five districts face that the rest of the state wouldn’t face,” said Eric Gallien, superintendent of Racine Unified School District. He noted that the big five districts have their own specific, complex cultural and economic needs. They are also home to the majority of the state’s lowest-performing schools. <h2 class="wf-Element-H2">An Institute Is Born</h2>The creation of an ongoing, two-year professional development program for principals that would become the <a href="https://dpi.wi.gov/title-i/wisconsin-urban-leadership-institute" target="_blank">Wisconsin Urban Leadership Institute</a> (WI-ULI) became the focus of the team’s work. Members of the team were part of a Wallace-supported initiative called the <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/all-the-voices-statewide-collaborations-for-school-leadership-under-essa.aspx" target="_blank">ESSA Leadership Learning Community (ELLC)</a>. The initiative brought together 11 state teams that included representatives from districts, community groups, and state agencies to promote effective school leadership. Additionally, the Wisconsin team moved quickly to partner with the New York City Leadership Academy, which has supported the development of thousands of principals in school systems across the country with a focus on equity. NYCLA helped to develop the curriculum for the institute and the ELLC team worked to “Wisconsin-ite” it , aligning it to state professional development and leadership standards. Along with the Urban League and an outside facilitator from <a href="https://4amconsulting.com/">4AM </a><a href="https://4amconsulting.com/" target="_blank">Consulting</a>, the participating district leaders developed a set of competencies for successful principals in their schools that would serve as the framework for the institute. <img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/want-transformational-school-leaders-invest-in-partnerships-support-and-equity/wuli_handout_competencies-graphic.jpg" alt="wuli_handout_competencies-graphic.jpg" style="margin:5px;" /> The group identified four competencies of culturally competent school leaders and created a corresponding framework to help principals develop those competencies. The four competencies and equity dispositions are: <div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Designing a school improvement strategy for results</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Discovering self as an equity champion</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Developing cultural competence</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Building a school culture of excellence with equity</div>The institute’s two-year curriculum for principals focuses on monthly training, coaching, a capstone project and networking opportunities during the first year. Year two focuses on cohort coaching and continued networking opportunities.The institute launched in September 2018 with its first cohort of 27 principals from the Big 5 districts. Each district determined how it would select principals to attend; some, like Kenosha, had an application process, while other districts made the selections within the central office. WI-ULI quickly gained support from local and national partners and businesses: Northwestern Mutual hosted planning meetings in its offices and the Educators Credit Union ran sessions about personal finance management and even hosted a virtual “paint and sip” event for participants.The institute remained flexible and responsive through societal upheavals such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial justice uprising following the murder of George Floyd. In fact, the institute became a place where principals could connect and learn from each other about how to face these momentous challenges, noted Alisia Moutry, project manager and lead facilitator for the ELLC team.“It was nice to have a learning community to be that critical friend,” Moutry said of the shared ideas and best practices that emerged from the institute. Similarly, building camaraderie and mitigating isolation were major benefits for participating principals from Gallien’s–the Racine superintendent–viewpoint.“The greatest opportunity is getting to collaborate and learn from other leaders in similar settings,” Gallien said. “They see that the challenges they face are not unique to them.” Reflection on policy and practice was also a key component of the institute’s curriculum. For example, principals learned how to analyze data on their students from historically marginalized groups and how to lead meaningful conversations about racial equity with their school staff. Participants also had the opportunity to analyze and discuss policies that prevented them from leading with equity, which opened up conversations with the state about issues such as inequitable funding. And participants also reflected on their own practices, biases and expectations for students and teachers.“There was a lot of bravery in principals being really honest about what they learned about themselves,” said Leslie Anderson, senior managing director at Policy Studies Associates and documenter for the ELLC team.ELLC facilitator Moutry spoke highly of the partnerships that have supported the institute so far and suggested engaging even more partners through dedicated outreach. She believes the work of the institute already aligns with the missions of many organizations and businesses that want to support education–the connection just needs to be made for them sometimes.Looking to the FutureTo date, 89 principals have completed WI-ULI. Initial evaluations of the program have been positive, with nearly all participants surveyed reporting that the institute has positively affected their practice. The state has committed to funding and supporting the institute for the next ten years. Meantime, there are lessons in Wisconsin’s experience for other states. “Myles Horton (an educator and activist during the Civil Rights Movement) said, ‘It’s a hard truth, harder to live by than the golden rule: the people who have the problem likely have the solution,’” says Mary Dean Barringer, a consultant on the project. “The [state education agency] put money out there and said, ‘We’re going to learn from the people who have the problem; can we create a situation where they’re allowed to come up with a solution?’”The agency did just that by convening the districts who were calling for improved professional development for principals to not just inform, but lead on the development of a solution. As for the future of WI-ULI and principal development in Wisconsin, members of the team have a range of hopes and goals that include the desire to see similar programs implemented for rural and suburban districts.Additionally, Anderson would like to see formalized processes for participating principals to communicate with the state department about inequities in policy and practice. This would help provide principals with assurance that their work matters, she said, and help ensure that they are changing what needs to be changed so their students can thrive in school.“The ultimate goal is to create better student achievement,” Gallien says of his hopes for the institute’s lasting effects. “And enhance school culture as well.”

Andrea Ruggirello

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2023-03-02T05:00:00Z

How five large urban school districts in Wisconsin used federal funds to build a successful leadership institute

3/2/2023 6:00:08 PM

The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / Want Transformational School Leaders How five large urban school districts in Wisconsin used federal funds to build a

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All Hands on Deck to Support Principals

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“Replace isolation with collaboration.” That was the theme of a recent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n012s3KPDlg&feature=youtu.be">webinar</a>, which featured findings from a <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/states-as-leaders,-followers-and-partners-essa-luniversity-principal-prep.aspx">report</a> by Paul Manna, director of public policy and the Hyman Distinguished University Professor of Government at William & Mary. The report draws from two Wallace-supported initiatives aimed at developing and supporting principals. The ESSA Leadership Learning Community (ELLC) brought together 11 state teams that included representatives from districts, community groups, state agencies and others to promote effective school leadership. The University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI) focused on improving pre-service school leadership training by assembling universities, school districts, and state agencies to redesign university-based preparation programs. Manna shared the common lessons highlighted in his report:<div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">State standards are a powerful cross-cutting policy lever to help shape specific decisions about training, developing, and supporting principals.</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">When states foster networks that connect districts, universities and other partners, creative problem-solving emerges and programs are likely to succeed. </div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">States, districts, universities, and other partners each have a role to play in supporting principals. </div>You can find Manna’s full presentation <a href="/News-and-Media/Videos-and-Presentations/Documents/ecosystems-of-policy-and-practice-develop-support-principals.pdf">here</a> and view the webinar <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n012s3KPDlg&feature=youtu.be">here</a>. A panel followed the presentation and, while the central theme was collaboration, panelists representing districts, state, and universities did not shy away from the challenges. For Ebony Love, director of continuous improvement at the Texas Education Agency, building trust was something that took time but was critical to true collaboration. She said her team worked on listening and demonstrating that their goal was not compliance but partnership. She noted that when organizations and partners started to see the state education agency as an advocate, their conversations moved in a more positive direction. “Are we willing to lay down our righteousness and do what’s best for kids?” Smith-Anderson said. Sheila Smith-Anderson, district leadership consultant at St. Louis Public Schools, similarly shared that every collaborator comes to the table with their own agenda. It’s important to remember, she said, that at the end of the day, their agendas are about helping our nation’s children.“Are we willing to lay down our righteousness and do what’s best for kids?” Smith-Anderson said.Moderator Carol Johnson Dean, a former school superintendent, acknowledged that doing more together takes time and effort. “It will require a different mindset about what has to happen,” she said.“I can attest to the fact that it’s worth it,” said Richard Gonzales, an associate professor at the Neag School of Education at UConn.Gonzales highlighted one successful approach to the <a href="/news-and-media/blog/pages/it-takes-a-village-to-train-an-effective-principal.aspx">collaborative efforts he led as part of UPPI</a>: expanding the definition of expertise to be more inclusive. He pointed out that while universities are often seen as the experts, states, districts, communities, families and students all bring their own expertise to the table. All of their voices should be part of building effective preparation programs, he said. “Start somewhere,” Manna said. “Get some wins and feel the momentum, feel the energy, build around that, and eventually you’ll start to add up these small wins.” All panelists agreed that there is no one-size-fits all approach to supporting principals. “Start somewhere,” Manna said. “Get some wins and feel the momentum, feel the energy, build around that, and eventually you’ll start to add up these small wins.”Watch the full webinar <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n012s3KPDlg&feature=youtu.be">here</a>.

Andrea Ruggirello

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2023-02-09T05:00:00Z

Your source for research and ideas to expand high quality learning and enrichment opportunities. Supporting: School Leadership, After School, Summer and Extended Learning Time, Arts Education and Building Audiences for the Arts.

2/9/2023 7:02:01 PM

The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / All Hands on Deck to Support Principals State, district, and university leaders discuss systems and tools to better equip

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Pennsylvania Voices Unite for a Diverse Pool of Teachers–and Principals

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The statistics were sobering. Fully half of the public schools in Pennsylvania and more than one-third of the state’s school districts had no teachers of color on staff. For a team seeking to improve school leadership in the Keystone State, those 2020 figures from the<a href="https://www.researchforaction.org/research-resources/k-12/teacher-diversity-in-pennsylvania-from-2013-14-to-2019-20/" target="_blank"> Research for Action</a> education research group drove home the need for action.After all, the team members reasoned, without a diverse pool of teachers how could school districts hope to have a diverse pool of principals, given that school leader ranks are filled with former teachers?The team in question was the Pennsylvania cohort in Wallace’s <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/all-the-voices-statewide-collaborations-for-school-leadership-under-essa.aspx" target="_blank">ESSA Leadership Learning Community</a>, a six-year effort in which 11 states brought together state education officials, local school districts, community organizations and others to collaborate on promoting high-quality school leadership in their locales. (The ESSA part of the name comes from the Every Student Succeeds Act, a major source of federal funding for education.) These teams were unusual in that they forged partnerships among people and institutions that don’t normally sit at the same table, despite their common interest in improving public school education. <img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/pennsylvania-voices-unite-for-a-diverse-pool-of-teachers-and-principals/esther-bush-0004_1200xx-1795-1009-0-280.jpg" alt="esther-bush-0004_1200xx-1795-1009-0-280.jpg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:309px;height:174px;" />“For each partner, educator diversity had been a priority,” said Esther Bush, who was the president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Urban League and a member of the Pennsylvania team.  “But we had been working in silos. By coming together, we could see that we wanted the same thing.”The team was comprised of state, district and local partners: <div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">A+ Schools, which works to improve equity in Pittsburgh schools</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Duquesne University</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">The Heinz Endowments</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">NEED (Negro Educational Emergency Drive), which helps students prepare for and access college</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Pennsylvania Department of Education </div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium, a nonprofit working to increase educator diversity in the state</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Pittsburgh Public Schools</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">The School District of Philadelphia</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, the local affiliate of the national civil rights organization </div>Initially, the group hoped only to add a written chapter on equity to the superintendent’s academy, a two-year professional development program for school leaders across the state. Eventually, it set its sights on galvanizing the entire state around diversifying the teacher workforce, beginning with the western part of Pennsylvania, which had fewer teachers of color than the eastern part.The result to date? A number of accomplishments. Using technical assistance grants, the team commissioned a study on how to recruit and retain teachers in western Pennsylvania. It then began working with Pennsylvania universities on an effort, now in its early stages, to help high schoolers develop an interest in teaching and provide a pathway into the universities’ education programs.In addition, the state education agency co-sponsored a number of conferences and meetings focused on the need for a more diverse school leader workforce. The agency’s work incorporated evidence from the Urban League about the beneficial impacts on students of having a diverse educator workforce, as well as data on the disparity between percentages of Black students and percentages of principals of color. <img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/pennsylvania-voices-unite-for-a-diverse-pool-of-teachers-and-principals/Andy-Cole-150x188-1.jpg" alt="Andy-Cole-150x188-1.jpg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;" />One key to the progress was that the team members worked together well. Andy Cole, an education consultant who facilitated the team’s work for Wallace, points to the simple fact that the Pennsylvanians were able to have dinner together the night before their day-long convenings and got to know each other one on one. “Breaking bread helps you see each other as people,” he said.Although the ESSA Leadership Learning Community formally ends in December of 2022, the Pennsylvania team is hoping to sustain its endeavors through a coalition it formed with the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium, a nonprofit working to increase the number of teachers of color in the state. “This is an effort that worked,” Bush said. “The United States needs these new models.”For states seeking to develop similar efforts, Bush urges state leaders to look to expanding work that is already under way.“It might be a small community organization, it might be a PTA in a single school,” she said. “Try to reach out and pay attention to the baby steps that are being made and try to expand those steps into something that can positively impact all of our efforts.”Here are three lessons the team learned along the way:<h3 class="wf-Element-H3">Community-based organizations deserve a seat at the table – sometimes at the head of the table.</h3>The effort “encouraged all voices to be heard and respected,” said Bush, underscoring the importance of making sure the community perspective was represented. “This taught communities that their voices were powerful.”Cole saw the community partners on the team shift into more of a leadership role as it became apparent that district and community engagement would be a significant part of the work. The community-based organizations had stronger relationships with the school districts than the state department of education, according to Cole. And in turn, by bringing those community voices up to the state level, the state agency helped elevate and amplify the community’s efforts and needs around teacher diversity. <h3 class="wf-Element-H3">Data are key to garnering support.</h3>A turning point in the Pennsylvania team’s work was the introduction of a map which depicted vivid data on the percentage of teachers of color in each school district in the state. <img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/pennsylvania-voices-unite-for-a-diverse-pool-of-teachers-and-principals/ELN-Meeting-6_3_22---2022-06-03-10-map.jpg" alt="ELN-Meeting-6_3_22---2022-06-03-10-map.jpg" style="margin:5px;" /> The map clearly illustrated that teachers of color compose less than 5 percent of the teacher workforce in the vast majority of districts, with many districts having no teachers of color at all. Seeing the data so starkly laid out shifted not only the focus of the group but its engagement in the effort. The team, particularly state agency leaders, realized lack of teacher diversity was a significant problem for districts, communities and students that needed to be urgently addressed, according to Cole. <h3 class="wf-Element-H3">Strong relationships and trust are critical to collaboration.</h3>“We were working with people, not organizations,”  Cole said of the relationships built as part of the learning community. “Those relationships cannot be minimized.”Cole pointed to “good-faith” conversations between team members as well as learning from other state teams as crucial to making progress. He noted that it was helpful to see other states grappling with their own challenges and to jointly acknowledge that the work is hard.“States should know it’s okay to interact with other states and other organizations,” he said. “You can learn a lot from each other.”Bush saw that trust build over time. She observed that while each organization or individual may have had a different approach, the team members respected those differences because they all had the same end goal – to improve educator diversity and, in turn, better support all students in Pennsylvania.

Andrea Ruggirello

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2022-11-30T05:00:00Z

How data and cooperation helped make educator diversity a Keystone State priority

12/1/2022 4:39:11 PM

The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / Pennsylvania Voices Unite for a Diverse Pool of Teachers–and Principals How data and cooperation helped make educator

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Focusing on Principal Wellness: 6 Questions for School Leaders

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For many, this year has been the start of a return to normalcy. But the overwhelming challenges facing schools, students and principals continue to evolve. According to <a href="https://survey.nassp.org/2022/?__hstc=180157371.bac77909d6215da4a21e8c328eb24c35.1664827493701.1665580618882.1665602121992.5&__hssc=180157371.4.1665602121992&__hsfp=3339776304#leaders" target="_blank">NASSP’s 2022 Survey of America’s School Leaders and High School Students</a>, one out of two school leaders say their stress level is so high, they are considering a career change or retirement, and three-quarters of school leaders report they needed help with their mental or emotional health last year. That’s why the focus of this year’s <a href="https://www.principalsmonth.org/celebrate-your-principal/" target="_blank">National Principals Month</a> is on principal wellness. Celebrated every October, National Principals Month is an opportunity to honor school principals for their leadership and tireless dedication to their students and schools.We spoke with four principals—who, together, have more than 30 years of experience as school leaders—about what inspired them to become principals, how they deal with burnout and the impact of the pandemic, among other topics. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity. <img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/focusing-on-principal-wellness-6-questions-for-school-leaders/Kimberly_Greer_Photo.jpg" alt="Kimberly_Greer_Photo.jpg" class="wf-Image-Right" style="margin:5px;width:189px;height:252px;" />Kimberly Greer started her fifth year as principal at Langley High School in McLean, Virginia, this year. What inspired you to become a principal?<div> I have been inspired by the need to ensure success for all students. While it is easy to focus on the majority, we must make sure all students are seen, respected and their needs properly addressed. I feel it is my calling to ensure each student is valued and feels a part of their school community.</div><div> </div><div> Reflecting on the past two years, what are some of the biggest impacts that the pandemic has had on your job? </div><div> </div>Being a principal has never been easy. However, since the pandemic, school leaders have had to work on supporting the emotional needs of stakeholders. In addition to meeting the needs of students, we’ve had to address the emotional wellness of staff members. Mental health challenges faced by students are greater. The biggest impact of the pandemic is it has provided opportunities to have conversations regarding mental health. We’ve used the pandemic as a chance to normalize these conversations and to remove the stigma associated with the topic. There have been many articles circulating about principal burnout. Have you experienced this and if so, how have you dealt with it? I haven’t experienced burnout, but weariness has been felt at varying times over the past two years. I approach each day as a new opportunity. This has helped me to avoid burnout. Educational leadership isn’t easy. What keeps me going is the recognition that I have thousands of students and their families depending on me, as well as hundreds of staff members. I must provide support to all stakeholders so we are able to remain focused on students and their success. What do principals need in order to feel supported?We need first and foremost for our humanity to be recognized. We are people who carry the weight of our schools, divisions and communities on our shoulders. We need people to check on us and make sure we're okay. Concern for our mental and physical wellness goes a long way. We are strong individuals, but we are human. What advice do you have for aspiring principals?Build your network. Realize you can’t do it alone. Have fun. The job is tough, but find joy in the work. Young people are incredible, and we’re blessed to be a part of their journeys. What is the best part about being a principal? What experience will stay with you long after you’ve retired?The best part is seeing your vision realized. It is incredible to consider that our decisions today will continue to impact our students long after they graduate. The experience that will stay with me is hearing seniors at last year’s graduation recite the sign-off I have used during the morning announcements since I became principal in 2018. This gesture meant they were listening and taking to heart the message I work daily to impart to students: be kind-hearted human beings who take care of yourselves and one another. <img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/focusing-on-principal-wellness-6-questions-for-school-leaders/Twainna_Fortner_Calhoun_photo.jpg" alt="Twainna_Fortner_Calhoun_photo.jpg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:195px;height:195px;" />Twainna Calhoun, principal at Good Hope Middle School in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, has been in school administration for 20 years and has been principal at her current school for 17 years. What inspired you to become a principal?I think I've always had leadership in me. I have nine siblings, and I was led by awesome principals during my career. Every one of my principals saw something in me that they also thought would make a good leader. The legacy laid out in front of me inspired me to be a principal. Reflecting on the past two years, what are some of the biggest impacts that the pandemic has had on your job? The isolation. The students, teachers and parents had been social distancing. And we’re finally getting back to where we were in March 2020. The isolation had a huge impact on my building and getting everyone motivated again. It seemed like the students post-pandemic lost motivation and had given up, but we just had to make it fun again. For instance, we started having pep rallies and spirit days again. The kids really enjoy that. That’s part of the school experience. The social aspect is important as well as the academics. There have been many articles circulating about principal burnout. Have you experienced this and if so, how have you dealt with it? I have, definitely. As a matter of fact, this time last year I was job searching. I just thought I couldn’t do it anymore because one thing after another was compounding. But my principal colleagues—being a part of NASSP, being a part of the Louisiana Association of Principals—have helped me. Listening to their stories and knowing that I’m not alone helped me realize I can get through this. I’m not trying to be cliché, but the first day of school this year was probably the most excited I’ve been because I just put the spirit back into being a principal. I was born to do this. I came back and remembered my purpose. There are going to be roadblocks. My students, my staff and my own children are what inspired me to keep going. What do principals need in order to feel supported?Districts can show support by attending our sporting events. It is helpful for district personnel to drop in and visit, not simply when there is a crisis. An "atta girl" goes a long way when you are a building leader. What advice do you have for aspiring principals?Be confident. Because you are the building leader. You have to make decisions that are not popular, but you have to be confident in what you do. You have to be intentional, and be a good listener. Listening goes beyond paying attention when other people talk. It’s your response. You have to be a motivator. But I think the most important thing is being confident in what you do. You have to be prepared to be the decision maker. Take the bad and the good. You’re going to get the praise one day, and not so good feedback the next. Be organized. Be balanced, and be a visionary. You have to see beyond tomorrow. What is the best part about being a principal? What experience will stay with you long after you’ve retired?The best part of being a principal is building relationships. I was born and raised here, and I’ve been in my building for 17 years. I’ve built relationships with teachers, and even after they’ve retired, I still communicate with them. One of my students is about to be my dentist now. Another student is now a teacher in our building, and he said I inspired him to become a teacher. I’ve actually had three students come back to teach. So just that experience of them coming back and wanting to be part of the process will stay with me long after I’ve retired. <img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/focusing-on-principal-wellness-6-questions-for-school-leaders/Aaron_Huff_Headshot.jpeg" alt="Aaron_Huff_Headshot.jpeg" class="wf-Image-Right" style="margin:5px;width:189px;height:284px;" />Aaron Huff, principal at Benjamin Bosse High School in Evansville, Indiana, spent three years working as an assistant principal and has now been a principal for 11 years. What inspired you to become a principal?I started working at the YMCA in youth outreach my senior year of high school and continued that work through college as an afterschool care supervisor while attending Ball State University. Upon graduation, I returned to my school district and started working as a site coordinator. During my time at BSU, my mother had become an assistant principal, and I watched her impact generations of children and families. She became a highly recognizable assistant principal and principal. One who garnered the respect of the whole community. People always spoke about the impact she had on their life. Little did I know that my becoming a principal would lead to me replacing my mother as the principal of Bosse High School. Reflecting on the past two years, what are some of the biggest impacts that the pandemic has had on your job? I would say the biggest impacts the pandemic has had on the principalship relate to the mental health of students and staff. Also, I have seen an increase in student apathy. We are now experiencing the ripple effects of a prolonged pause in education. There are economic impacts and prolonged health impacts. The shortage of teachers and administration is a real challenge for the future of education. There have been many articles circulating about principal burnout. Have you experienced this and if so, how have you dealt with it? I'd be lying if I said I hadn't. I am just fortunate to have a village around me that is extremely supportive and encouraging. I work with great individuals and students that keep me motivated. Burnout is experienced when I have to deal with the outside noise around education that prevents me from doing the things most important to our children and advancing our school. I also try to find the "balance," literally and figuratively. I have taken up hot yoga, and that time on the mat is precious and is the opportunity for me to hit the reset button. What do principals need in order to feel supported?I think principals need to be heard. Their voice then causes decision-makers to reevaluate, reconsider and adjust policy, practice and protocols that negatively impact the principalship. Acknowledge and support the work principals are doing to improve student educational outcomes. What advice do you have for aspiring principals?Anyone can put time and energy into a position. As a principal, pour your heart into it, and keep students at the center. Organizations can't grow without great leaders willing to grow the people around them while they grow. Seek out various perspectives and schools of thought. Don't be consumed by maintaining day-to-day operations. Choose to think outside the box, and give permission to the people you lead to think outside the box. What is the best part about being a principal? What experience will stay with you long after you’ve retired?The students, families, colleagues and friends you interact with daily. They become your family. I love the ability to alter a young person's life for the better.  I value collaborative leadership and learning from others. Giving space for teachers to become leaders within the building. Creating an environment that students, families and community members love and want to be a part of. I cherish the connections with students and former students. Those are great memories. When you run into former students in the community, and they simply say thank you and share what they are doing now is what will stay with me. <img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/focusing-on-principal-wellness-6-questions-for-school-leaders/Lawson_Charles_Derrick__Headshot_2022.jpg" alt="Lawson_Charles_Derrick__Headshot_2022.jpg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:159px;height:239px;" />Derrick Lawson has been principal at Indio High School in Indio, California, for seven years and is in his 37th year of working in education. What inspired you to become a principal?During my high school years, I was facing some significant personal life challenges. One of the assistant principals at my high school went the second, third and fourth mile to make a difference in my life and to ensure that the potential he saw in me would come to fruition. He and his wife both invested time and resources to help me stay connected to school and get through the circumstances that could have resulted in my going off in a direction that would have led me to become a very different person from who I am today. I want to do the same for others. Reflecting on the past two years, what are some of the biggest impacts that the pandemic has had on your job? First, recalibrating the way I spend my time in order to address the needs of my staff. We’ve had to find a new balance to their own responses to trauma and new energy levels when they are taxed to the point of exhaustion trying to meet the needs of students in this new post-COVID paradigm. The second biggest impact is leading my school family in the reestablishment of our school culture. So many of our kids came back impacted by anxiety, fear and personal trauma, or they have returned with an exuberance and zeal for being back at school. There really is no middle ground and, in reality, only my seniors were truly a part of the school culture that existed prior to the pandemic. It is as if we are having to begin at “ground zero” once again. I am perpetually reminding everyone that we cannot take for granted that all of our staff and students fully remember, understand or embrace all of the traditions, expectations and experiences that make us who we are as a school. There have been many articles circulating about principal burnout. Have you experienced this and if so, how have you dealt with it? While burnout has not been something I’ve experienced, I will say yes, I have experienced some exhausting times of stress and have had to take some specific actions to make sure that burnout does not become a potential on my horizon. I make it a point daily to take a break and find my point of joy. When I was an elementary school principal, that was visiting a kindergarten class full of kids hanging on my pant leg and wanting to hang all over me as I read a story to them. That was such a gratifying and fulfilling experience. In my high school, it may be shooting a few hoops at PE with some of my kids, going to the band room and having an impromptu performance on the piano during a practice piece or joining a science lab group as one of the students. My kids keep me level. What do principals need in order to feel supported?From parents, principals need patience and grace. We care about their kids, too! But when we are juggling so many things at once, some days it is like drinking water from a firehose. I tell my parents, your issue or concern is not lost or ignored, we just may need time to be able to address it appropriately. From peers, we need one another’s empathy on those challenging days. Brilliance and expertise on days when we need to tap the skill set of others so that we can learn. Being the leader at the top can be a solitary place at times. From the district, we need flexibility in mandates and deadlines. Every day is different as we strive to uplift our staff and students and as we try to address the demands and pressures to provide a “return to normalcy” while also entertaining the changes of a whole new education paradigm. From students, we need their commitment to: experience school—get involved in activities, clubs, sports and career tech pathways; Explore—new learning, stretch yourself, grow; and Exhibit—good character, acceptance of others, making good choices and being a member of our school family. What advice do you have for aspiring principals?I feel strongly that as school site administrators, we have the potential to have the greatest impact on shaping the next generation. I recommend my own version of the ‘three R’s’: relationships, reflection and renewal. It is important that we take the time to first build relationships with fellow site administrators and to provide mutual support and inspiration. Second, it is important to end each and every day with a moment of reflection. What would you do differently? Give yourself some kudos and reflect on something you did well or on how you made an impact, and let that be the last thing you think about when you go home for the evening. Make certain that it is not the challenges, but the successes that you bring home with you. Finally, take time for renewal. Refill your emotional bucket with some self-care. Refill your professional bucket by learning something new. And then include time for physical renewal with exercise, meditation, or something else that recharges your battery. What is the best part about being a principal? What experience will stay with you long after you’ve retired?The best part about being a principal is the relationships that we build as we seek to guide and develop better talents for the futures of students and staff. I have a folder that I call my “blue folder”. Here I save every card, every story, every email—the smiles, the memories and the treasured moments where I was able to make a difference. While I may not be rich in dollars, I am one of the wealthiest people you will ever meet when it comes to memories and connections. I am blessed daily to cross paths with people who, over my years as a principal, stop to share a smile, a hug, a thank you or a treasured memory. That is pure gold.

Jenna Doleh

2022-10-26T04:00:00Z

Four principals reflect on their experiences and share how we can support them during National Principals Month—and throughout the year.

10/26/2022 6:23:06 PM

The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / Focusing on Principal Wellness: 6 Questions for School Leaders Four principals reflect on their experiences and share how

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University's Revamped Principal Training Yields Changes for District, Too

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When Henrico County Public Schools and Virginia State University began their partnership six years ago, their goal was to improve the university’s principal preparation program. Here’s what wasn’t on the horizon: redesigning the district’s leadership professional development. But what began as a Wallace-sponsored initiative to ensure that university training of future principals reflected research-based practices, ended up sparking a big rethink of leader prep within Henrico itself. The result? Changes to and expansion of professional development across the spectrum from teacher-leaders all the way up to principal supervisors. “This was an opportunity for us to develop a new partnership, to strengthen our principal pipeline and to be involved in the work of the principal preparation program,” says Tracie Weston, director of professional development at Henrico County Public Schools, which serves about 50,000 students in suburban Richmond. The  “opportunity” in question was the University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI), in which seven universities in seven states each worked with a handful of local school districts and others to reshape their school-leader training programming to incorporate what research has found about everything from curriculum and clinical experiences to candidate admissions. Virginia State was one of those universities, and Henrico County was one of its partner districts, working, like all the other initiative districts, to ensure that the university programs responded to the needs and circumstances of the locales that hired program graduates. An unexpected outcome, however, was that working to boost the university programming inspired the district to boost its own development efforts, according to a <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/district-partnerships-with-university-principal-preparation-programs.aspx">study</a> by the RAND Corp. The initiative “raised the visibility of school leadership in the district and created a window of opportunity where district leadership supported PD,”  RAND reported, using the initials for “professional development.” A number of changes resulted. For example, some of the topics addressed in the refashioned district PD, including leadership dispositions and equity, reflected priorities that Virginia State and its partner districts had discussed in redesigning the university program, according to RAND’s <a href="/knowledge-center/Documents/redesigning-university-principal-preparation-programs-full-report.pdf">in-depth examination</a> of the initiative. And Henrico’s PD for sitting principals began pairings of district leaders with sitting principals to emphasize policy and practice–an approach used in the university program. Henrico County works successfully with a number of pre-service preparation programs, Weston says. As a district with a highly diverse student population, the school system welcomed collaborating as well with Virginia State, a historically Black university with a strong commitment to educational equity. “Much of our work in the college of education has been to bring about greater equity in the face of teacher education, counselor education and K-12 administration,” said Willis Walter, the university’s dean of education. “We have a fairly simple conceptual framework that is deeply rooted in culturally responsive pedagogy, and I think that is, for the most part, what attracted Henrico to some of the concepts we were teaching. We come at education from the standpoint of everyone has strengths.”When it started working with the university, the district had several different programs that looked at pieces of leadership, but not leadership as a whole. “To strengthen the things Henrico was already doing well, we wanted to make sure they had the right people at the table and the most vetted and best practices that were out there. And the best way of doing that was us working together,” Walter said. The school system and university representatives bonded quickly,  according to Walter. “I think that's because there was a common passion and a common focus,” he said. “We had some real knock-down, dragged-out conversations, but because everyone in the room trusted and appreciated the point of view that the other was coming from, it was never taken to an extreme.”At the start of the initiative, Henrico had a small team responsible for providing professional learning for school leaders. Because these team members had all been principals, they recognized the need for ongoing, job-embedded professional learning for all leaders, including teachers. Throughout the UPPI partnership, Weston recalls, there were conversations about additional areas that needed to be included in a principal preparation program to ensure that leaders understood the responsibilities of the position, and that they were prepared for those responsibilities. These conversations led to taking a closer look at what professional learning the partner districts themselves were providing for school leaders. The “moment of magic” as Weston calls it–the moment that led to the district wanting to revamp its entire professional development process–occurred when Henrico visited Gwinnett County, Ga., whose school district, known for its leader-development endeavors, worked with Virginia State in the UPPI.  Within the first six months of seeing the work in Gwinnett (a participant in an earlier Wallace venture), Henrico had developed its Aspiring Leader Academy, a district program designed to help prepare those aspiring to leadership jobs for their future administrative positions. Henrico’s goal was to create a program that was “meaningful, relevant and sustainable,” according to Weston. The interest in that academy was so high that Henrico expanded and introduced some new features to it.  “In year two, not only were we looking to identify our next school leaders, but we also wanted to provide professional learning for teachers who wanted to lead from the classroom–those who wanted to stay but grow,” said Weston. So, Henrico introduced a track for teacher-leaders. Both aspiring principal and teacher-leader tracks were aligned with national model standards for school leadership, the <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/professional-standards-for-educational-leaders-2015.aspx">Professional Standards for Educational Leaders</a>, and, while in training, the two groups came together for the morning sessions, which were led by the school system’s top administrative leaders–superintendents and directors–so that the candidates had the opportunity to “learn through the broader lens vision of how we work together to maximize student achievement.”The afternoon sessions were tailored to the two different tracks, with the aspiring principals in one room and aspiring teacher-leaders in another.District leaders also identified a gap in Henrico’s professional learning effort: development for assistant principals. They created a third track based on the teacher-leader effort, called the Assistant Principal Learning Series. In this track, candidates participate in “action research,” where assistant principals look at a problem of practice at their school. In their second year of the program, they can tap into more personalized options–at present more than 17 to choose from.“So in the year we kicked off the AP learning series, every leader in Henrico County was getting a minimum of one day of professional learning targeted to an area of leadership where they felt they needed growth,” Weston said. After adding APs, Henrico expanded the program yet again to include principal supervisors. That means that today the district has professional learning opportunities for aspiring leaders to assistant principals and principals all the way up to supervisors.There may be more to come. “We're so excited about the work that we were exposed to and the connections we made, that we want to create a statewide cohort of principal supervisors so that principal supervisors across the state are receiving quality, relevant, practical professional learning for their positions,” Weston said.Weston and Walter credit the partnership between the university and district for improving principal development on both sides. “We were looking at best practice from a theory standpoint, and they were looking at best practice from an application standpoint,” Walter said. “I think the merging of those two benefited both of us. We were able to bring more relevant examples to our candidates that were about to graduate as well as to make sure that our faculty were on the right page when it came to the conversations they were having with prospective administrators in many of our surrounding communities.”Although the grant from the University Principal Preparation Initiative has ended, Henrico and VSU have continued their strong partnership.“It's an ongoing partnership where we lift one another, we share resources, we share experiences,” Weston said. “We're helping Virginia State see what the boots-on-the-ground challenges are, and how that can be reflected in the coursework that the students are being exposed to so that when they graduate, they are ready for the real-life challenges of K-12.”Both Weston and Walter have advice for other districts and universities that wish to take on similar partnerships to revamp the way they develop and support school leaders. “We always focused on the K-12 student, not on the personality, not on the administration,” Walter said. “It was all about what is best for the K-12 students in that community.”Weston emphasized the importance of being willing  to lean on partners for support. “Have conversations, reach out, make connections,” she said. “Because we learn from one another.”

Jenna Doleh

2022-09-14T04:00:00Z

9/14/2022 2:10:49 PM

The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / University's Revamped Principal Training Yields Changes for District, Too How one school district looked to its university

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Five Takeaways for Developing High-Quality Principals

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Effective principals are important—but they don’t grow on trees. Their preparation, development and support can make a major difference, not just for principals themselves but for teachers, staff and students as well. Two new reports show how states, districts and universities all have a role to play in improving the quality of principal preparation across the board: <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/developing-effective-principals-what-kind-of-learning-matters.aspx">Developing Effective Principals: What Kind of Learning Matters?</a> from the Learning Policy Institute (LPI), and <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/redesigning-university-principal-preparation-programs-a-systemic-approach-for-change-and-sustainability.aspx">Redesigning University Principal Preparation Programs: A Systemic Approach for Change and Sustainability</a> from the RAND Corporation. Authors from the two research teams recently <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsHGy7lCZLA&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">presented highlights from their work</a>, along with a panel of experts to help dig into the findings. Here are five key takeaways from that conversation:<h3 class="wf-Element-H3">Leveraging federal funding can help improve principal preparation</h3>Federal COVID relief funds can play an important role in supporting principal development, according to Peter Zamora, director of federal relations at the Council of Chief State School Officers. He cited examples from Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Nevada, all of which have created some sort of program to help train, mentor and develop principals. Zamora pointed out how the new research from LPI and RAND can help states seeking to use federal funds for similar types of work. He referred to an earlier example shared by the RAND researchers, which notes how states can use Federal funds from ESSA Titles I and II, as well as the <a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/american-rescue-plan-five-things-state-and-district-leaders-need-to-know-now.aspx">American Rescue Plan Act</a>, along with state funds, to create leadership academies and paid internships for school leaders. “We do a thousand things in a day, make a thousand decisions in a day,” Tyson said. “So I appreciate those informal times, be it just a text message or a quick phone call.” <h3 class="wf-Element-H3">Mentorship matters</h3>Developing a cadre of mentors to support principals is important, Marjorie Wechsler, principal research manager at LPI, emphasized. These mentors are often retired, successful principals who, importantly, receive training, ongoing support and networks of other mentor principals to learn from. Strong mentorship programs take significant time to build a culture of trust, Weschler said. And she pointed to the importance of good matches between mentors and administrators. Rashaunda Tyson, assistant principal at University High School of Science and Engineering in Hartford, Conn. shared her experience with a clinical supervisor who became her mentor, noting that the best part for her was the informal, in-the-moment support she received. “We do a thousand things in a day, make a thousand decisions in a day,” Tyson said. “So I appreciate those informal times, be it just a text message or a quick phone call.”<h3 class="wf-Element-H3">Truly collaborative partnerships are critical</h3>Daniel Reyes-Guerra, associate professor at Florida Atlantic University and a project director for the University Principal Preparation Initiative’s work at FAU spoke about the importance of collaboration in the success of his program’s redesign. FAU’s principal preparation program partnered with the university’s local school district for co-construction. The program also collaborated with state policymakers so they could see firsthand what the needs were on the ground and incorporate them into state-level policies.In Florida, policymakers created a new set of educational leadership standards and program approval standards for universities and districts. They also passed new legislation that governs how the state supports educational leadership professional development.This kind of deep partnership takes time to cultivate, noted Reyes-Guerra, and requires a culture shift at the university. “Just sitting in a room and lecturing doesn’t do it,” Domenech said. <h3 class="wf-Element-H3">Clinical experiences can make a big difference</h3>Dan Domenech, executive director of AASA, the superintendents association, underscored the importance of strong clinical experiences for pre-service principals.“Just sitting in a room and lecturing doesn’t do it,” Domenech said. He said that pre-service principals learn best by having the opportunity to practice the skills they’re learning and work closely alongside a principal. This hands-on experience also applies to developing current principals who can visit other schools and work with more experienced principals. And when it comes to these clinical experiences, strong partnerships between universities and districts continue to remain important. In one survey conducted by AASA, principals reported having less-effective clinical experiences when that strong partnership was not in place.<h3 class="wf-Element-H3">Equitable access to high-quality support continues to be an issue</h3>The role of the principal is continuing to evolve, Domenech said. Districts should support and encourage leaders to participate in high-quality development programs because it has such an impact on performance and staff. But as the research from LPI points out, not all principals have equal access to those programs. With principals from higher-poverty schools reporting fewer quality professional development opportunities than those from lower-poverty schools, equity must continue to be at the forefront of improvement conversations.“It’s a whole new ballgame today,” said Domenech. “What are the needs, what are the skills and how do we provide opportunity to our administrators so they have the leadership that can ensure all of our students have the quality education they’re entitled to.”See the full webinar recording <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsHGy7lCZLA&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">here</a>.

Andrea Ruggirello

114

2022-06-28T04:00:00Z

Backed by new research, expert panel discusses how universities, districts and states can better prepare and support school leaders

6/28/2022 12:00:48 PM

The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / Five Takeaways for Developing High-Quality Principals Backed by new research, expert panel discusses how universities

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Pandemic Recovery Cannot Happen Without Great Principals

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James Lane, assistant secretary of the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education in the U.S. Department of Education, began his address on a recent webinar for education leaders with gratitude for principals. “You’ve stepped up in ways that none of us could have ever imagined,” he said, going on to thank principals for their dedication, perseverance and tenacity in keeping communities together during the pandemic.  Citing the report, <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/how-principals-affect-students-and-schools-a-systematic-synthesis-of-two-decades-of-research.aspx">How Principals Affect Students and Schools</a>, Lane emphasized the importance of school leaders, quoting the report authors: Principals really matter.Indeed it is difficult to envision an investment with a higher ceiling on its potential return than a successful effort to improve school leadership. He underscored this point by reviewing the Department of Education’s priorities and its supplemental priorities.The supplemental priorities include: <div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet"> Diversifying the education workforce to reflect the diversity of students.</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Addressing staffing shortages through measures such as encouraging states to increase compensation; improving teacher working conditions; supporting teacher-wellbeing; and building a cadre of substitute teachers.</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Investing in an educator pipeline by establishing loan forgiveness, teacher development residencies and teaching as a registered apprenticeship.</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Providing technical assistance to states and studying teacher shortages in order to provide researched guidance as to how to increase the number of teachers in the pipeline and improve retention.</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Preparing and developing principals by expanding the definition of “educator” in certain grants to include not only classroom teachers but all those involved in education, including principals. These grants include the <a href="https://oese.ed.gov/offices/office-of-discretionary-grants-support-services/innovation-early-learning/education-innovation-and-research-eir/" target="_blank">Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grant program</a>, and <a href="https://oese.ed.gov/offices/office-of-discretionary-grants-support-services/effective-educator-development-programs/supporting-effective-educator-development-grant-program/#:~:text=The%20purpose%20of%20the%20SEED%2cenhance%20the%20skills%20of%20educators." target="_blank">Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grants</a>.</div>Lane also addressed the administration’s commitment of federal funds to meet the needs of students and educators trying to recover and reimagine schools.“We have got to invest those dollars now,” Lane said, addressing education leaders across the country. Lane and his colleagues are meeting with district leaders nationally who are using their federal funding to support activities such as partnering with community organizations to provide holistic services to students, putting a health clinic on campus that is open to the entire community and others. Lane ended his remarks urging district leaders to be bold about the actions they take to make sure every student has the support they need to be successful.You can view the recording of the webinar <a href="https://vimeo.com/705801954/334fd7c94b" target="_blank">here</a>.

Andrea Ruggirello

114

2022-05-31T04:00:00Z

U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education explains how the department is prioritizing educators now and in the future

5/31/2022 5:30:34 PM

The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / Pandemic Recovery Cannot Happen Without Great Principals U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education explains how the department

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Missouri’s Ongoing Effort to Develop Principals Pays Off

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<div>Eight years ago, officials at Missouri’s state education department reflected on all they’d accomplished with principal preparation—a highly-regarded leadership academy, mentoring for new principals—and wondered where they’d gone wrong. <img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/missouri-ongoing-effort-to-develop-principals-pays-off/Paul-Photo.jpg" alt="Paul-Photo.jpg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:190px;height:266px;" />“Why weren’t schools getting better?” they wanted to know, said Paul Katnik, assistant commissioner at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. “Why were principal retention rates low? What were we missing here?”In the end, they determined that there was nothing amiss with the content of their effort. “But it was being done at a scale that didn’t have any real measurable impact,” Katnik said: Only 120 out of 300 new principals got mentoring each year. The 25-year-old Leadership Academy served only 150 principals annually out of 2,200 in the state. “We thought, we need to rethink this. We need something big and systemic.”  In 2016, when Missouri launched one of the nation’s most comprehensive statewide principal development initiatives, that something big happened. The <a href="https://dese.mo.gov/educator-quality/educator-development/missouri-leadership-development-system" target="_blank">Missouri Leadership Development System (known as “MLDS”)</a> now offers professional development to every principal in the state—aspiring to retiring—based on a common set of leadership competencies. Today, 45 percent of Missouri principals participate annually, and the retention of early career principals is rising. <img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/missouri-ongoing-effort-to-develop-principals-pays-off/missouri-blog-post-MLDS-Domains-small.jpg" alt="missouri-blog-post-MLDS-Domains-small.jpg" style="margin:5px;" /> Since 2018, the year-to-year retention rate for Missouri principals in their first three years on the job has grown steadily from 82 percent to 87 percent in 2021. And retention rates for those enrolled in the professional development system is even higher—a remarkable 98 percent annual retention rate over the past three years. “When you’re a new principal, it’s a whirlwind, and in Missouri, we have a large number of rural districts so there’s really no one else to talk to,” said Michael Schooley, executive director of Missouri Association of Elementary School Principals. “MLDS gives them a knowledge specialist and a peer support network which is critical, so they don’t get overwhelmed.” “Our principals have had an incredibly tough job the last couple of years. We are going to be helping educators deal with the aftermath of the pandemic for a while.” Nationally, <a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/New-Research-Points-to-a-Looming-Principal-Shortage.aspx">concerns over a principal shortage</a> are growing. The National Association of Secondary School Principals recently released a report finding that 4 in 10 principals planned to leave the profession in the next three years, many citing political tensions and other stressors related to the pandemic as reasons. At the same time, <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/how-principals-affect-students-and-schools-executive-summary.aspx">rigorous research</a> points to the principal as key to improving academic achievement schoolwide. While teachers have more influence on the learning of their own students, studies find, principals with strong instructional leadership skills can help improve learning in every classroom. Such research was the impetus behind MLDS, said Katnik, whose state participated in a years-long effort, sponsored by The Wallace Foundation, to assist teams from 11 states in developing and implementing plans to use federal dollars to support effective school leadership efforts. <img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/missouri-ongoing-effort-to-develop-principals-pays-off/2Y8A9277.jpg" alt="2Y8A9277.jpg" style="margin:5px;" /> Today, Missouri is fueling an expansion of MLDS with American Rescue Act Plan funds, on top of other federal sources as well as state funding it had already applied to the system. “Making ourselves even more available to principals in the state is a great use of money” said Katnik. “Our principals have had an incredibly tough job the last couple of years. We are going to be helping educators deal with the aftermath of the pandemic for a while.” “How do you keep a tent from blowing away in the wind? You put stakes in the ground.” <h2 class="wf-Element-H2">Staying Power </h2> Thoroughness may be one key to the Missouri Leadership Development System’s success—and its staying power. School leaders throughout the state are invited to 15 hours or more of professional development annually offered through nine regional centers. Learning is provided at four levels—“aspiring” for those in education administration degree programs ; “emerging” for principals or assistant principals in their first two years on the job, which for principals comes with mentoring; “developing” for those in at least year three; and “transformational” for the most experienced. Early on, the state also aligned its principal certification requirements to the same set of competencies as its professional development. More recently, university education administration programs were encouraged to adopt the aspiring principal curriculum. Districts are encouraged to use a principal evaluation form aligned to those same competencies. And the statewide principals associations now offer 15 online, self-paced “micro-credentials” based on the competencies that count towards advanced state certification. <div> </div><div>“How do you keep a tent from blowing away in the wind? You put stakes in the ground,” quipped Katnik, an official in a state that has had its share of stormy weather; the education commissioner lost her position in 2017 under a new governor but was reinstated a year later when the political winds shifted. Through the turmoil, the Missouri Leadership Development System endured. “When it’s embedded in that many places, it becomes ‘That’s just what we do here,’” he said. “That’s how you sustain it.” </div><div> </div><div> <img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/missouri-ongoing-effort-to-develop-principals-pays-off/2Y8A9154.JPG" alt="2Y8A9154.JPG" style="margin:5px;" /> The collaboration that went into the system’s design is another key to its success, according to Katnik. “When we first started, we said, ‘Everyone who works with a leader has to be a partner in this or it won’t work.’” </div><div> </div>“You’re in people’s turf and people had their own good ideas. We just kept bringing it back to the vision. Do we believe that we need a statewide system? If we do, we have to figure this out.” <div> </div><div>The partners who began their efforts in 2014 in a windowless basement conference room in Jefferson City included the statewide principals and superintendents associations, the Missouri Professors of Education Administration, and representatives from the state’s nine regional professional development centers.</div><div> <img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/missouri-ongoing-effort-to-develop-principals-pays-off/Jim-Photo2.jpg" alt="Jim-Photo2.jpg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:179px;height:228px;" />If anyone had said a decade ago that the principals and superintendents associations would be working that closely with the state education department, “people would have laughed,” remarked Jim Masters, a former superintendent and now the education department’s coordinator of educator evaluation and training. “The department was seen as compliance driven and less of a partner in helping schools get better,” he explained, so coming together “was a little bit of a leap of faith.”Collaborating wasn’t always easy, Katnik said. “You’re in people’s turf and people had their own good ideas. We just kept bringing it back to the vision. Do we believe that we need a statewide system? If we do, we have to figure this out.”Within a year, the team had agreed on 41 principal competencies organized into five domains: visionary, instructional, managerial, relational and innovative leadership. All were aligned to the <a href="https://www.npbea.org/psel/" target="_blank">Professional Standards for Educational Leaders</a>. <h2 class="wf-Element-H2">Hands-on Learning </h2>Crafting the professional development for each level was the next challenge. Busy principals needed engaging and relevant content, not “50 people in a room and a PowerPoint presentation,” said Mike Rutherford, a consultant who led the curriculum design and later trained the regional facilitators, all of them former principals. “From the outset, we thought about the experience that principals would have just as much as what kind decision-making model or what kind of theory of [school] change to include.” <img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/missouri-ongoing-effort-to-develop-principals-pays-off/2Y8A9202.JPG" alt="2Y8A9202.JPG" style="margin:5px;" /> The content was also designed “to be put in the hands of people who have had experience with adult learning, motivational learning and instructional design,” Rutherford added, with enough flexibility to tailor it to the needs and interests of participants. “I can’t emphasize enough that the results that MLDS is getting is really due to that design.” Content-wise, MLDS didn’t break much new ground, he said. Topics for emerging principals included strategies for getting the school year off to a strong start, such as by communicating expectations and leading effective meetings. New principals also delve into how to build relationships, shape school culture, develop effective instruction, manage time and make good decisions. But learning was active with readings, discussion, writing exercises, brainstorming, roleplay and field experiences, such as touring a school with peers to observe and analyze school culture. Travis Bohrer, now superintendent of Dixon R-1 School District, enrolled in MLDS the summer before he became a high school principal. “That first meeting was transformational,” he recalled.  “I went from feeling anxious to feeling confident that I had the tools for that first day, first week and first month of school.“That was just the tip of the iceberg,” he continued. “It became this really powerful network of mentors facilitating the learning and the network of colleagues attending these meetings who are experiencing the same challenges.” “It [MLDS] had a profound impact on the culture of my own building when we started telling teachers, ‘You do this well and kids learn from it, and I hope you’ll share it with your team later today,’” said Bohrer. One of the most valuable experiences, he found, were the Coaching Labs. Small groups of principals visit a school with their regional facilitator, observe and analyze classroom instruction and then take turns providing teachers with “30-second feedback,” describing how the teacher’s instruction had a positive impact on student learning. “While you’re doing this, your cohort and coach are listening to you,” he said. The group would offer on-the-spot feedback, such as, ‘This phrase is effective,’ or ‘You’re trying to give affirming feedback and you just canceled it by saying that.’”The goal of 30-second feedback is to draw teachers’ attention to promising practices they can build on, according to Rutherford, who developed the technique based on research about effective coaching for teachers (which is timely and specific) and positive psychology, which focuses on developing strengths. Principals are taught to use the technique to build trust and open the door to more extensive craft conversations about instruction, another topic the curriculum covers. The idea is to spread effective practices schoolwide. “It had a profound impact on the culture of my own building when we started telling teachers, ‘You do this well and kids learn from it, and I hope you’ll share it with your team later today,’” said Bohrer. <img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/missouri-ongoing-effort-to-develop-principals-pays-off/2Y8A9119.JPG" alt="2Y8A9119.JPG" style="margin:5px;" /> Gabe Burris, an elementary school principal in Harrisburg, Missouri, credits both the Coaching Labs and the roleplaying of difficult conversations during workshops for strengthening his communication with teachers. “I was able to be successful at some things as a first-year principal that I wouldn’t have been without that resource,” he said. “From the first meeting on, it has been a tremendous experience.” Mentoring during his first two years also improved his instructional leadership, said Burris. While mentor principals receive online training videos and a handbook with content to cover, they will still tailor their guidance to each new principal’s interests and needs. At his request, Burris went to his mentor principal’s school to observe how the problem-solving team tackled student learning and behavioral challenges.  “MLDS keeps us grounded in the work of being an instructional leader,” which helps participating principals keep from getting swept up in “the day-to-day logistics of managing a building.” Now in his third year, Burris said the mentoring continues informally. “I talk to him to this day. ‘I have this discipline situation, I’m going to handle it this way what do you think?’ or ‘How would you handle it?’”Tabitha Blevins, an elementary school principal in St. Joseph, Missouri, said that “MLDS keeps us grounded in the work of being an instructional leader,” which helps participating principals keep from getting swept up in “the day-to-day logistics of managing a building.” Currently she is working on developing a more “data-driven approach” for grade-level teams to analyze and strengthen instruction using an approach from a recent MLDS workshop for developing principals. She let her teachers know that their professional development was a byproduct of her own: “I am essentially modeling that we are not stagnant in our professions and we should be seeking out the shared knowledge of our peers.” <img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/missouri-ongoing-effort-to-develop-principals-pays-off/2Y8A9289.jpg" alt="2Y8A9289.jpg" style="margin:5px;" /> <h2 class="wf-Element-H2">Getting More on Board</h2>Partly because of the pandemic’s disruption to schooling and testing, it’s unclear whether the system has yet made a measurable impact on student learning—although annual external program evaluations find the system gets high marks for quality and relevance. And not everyone across the state is on board with MLDS. “Many large suburban districts think they can do their own thing better,” said Schooley of the Missouri Association of Elementary School Principals, noting that some districts prefer to tailor training to local practices. And while some urban districts have signed on, including St. Louis, Kansas City and Springfield, rural districts are the most likely to seek out the support.  Still, he said, “There are more and more districts participating because they find out its good stuff.”To expand professional development to more districts, the state education department tapped newly available federal COVID-19 relief, which paid for increasing the number of regional trainers from 18 to 27. The 2021 <a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/making-a-wise-investment-in-principal-pipelines.aspx">American Rescue Plan Act</a> provides more than $126 billion for K-12 schools and additional funding for early childhood and higher education that states can tap into. Other blended federal funds that help support MLDS include Title I and Title IIA funds, depending on district eligibility, and early childhood funds. Katnik’s team is also working to win over university education administration programs. Beginning in fall 2020, MLDS provided training for directors of educational leadership programs across the state interested in adopting the aspiring principal curriculum. “Why reinvent the wheel when they could take it [MLDS] from us and tweak it? I think our system could be a great launching pad for any state that was thinking of doing something like this.” “They actually did some activities as if it was a class and we were students,” said Jane Brown, director of the educational leadership program at Missouri Baptist University who participated in the curriculum development. She knows of at least five programs that have formally adopted the curriculum and others that done so to some degree at professors’ discretion. “Since it was designed collaboratively, I think a lot of people understood it and took it back to their universities,” she said.MLDS is beginning to reach superintendents, too. As principals trained through the system move into district leadership, they are looking for a similar professional learning experience, said Katnik. In response, the MLDS team recently wrote new competencies for superintendents aligned to those for principals. This school year it piloted executive coaching for superintendents and also revised the rules for superintendent certification to align with the new standards.  “I’m not sure we’ll ever be done,” said Katnik, whose team often dreams up new ways to improve and expand the leadership development system. For states wanting to get started, Schooley observed that all MLDS content is in the public domain. “Why reinvent the wheel when they could take it from us and tweak it? I think our system could be a great launching pad for any state that was thinking of doing something like this.” Photos courtesy of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education </div></div>

Elizabeth Duffrin

2022-05-17T04:00:00Z

5/18/2022 3:02:17 PM

The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / Missouri’s Ongoing Effort to Develop Principals Pays Off The state’s comprehensive system now offers professional

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How Principals (and their Bosses) Can Use Technology for Learning and Management

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The timing was certainly not intentional, but shortly before the Omicron variant surged late last fall and sent schools across the country into another round of reliance on remote and hybrid learning, Wallace published a study titled <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/principal-leadership-in-a-virtual-environment.aspx">Principal Leadership in a Virtual Environment</a>. The report offers early considerations from a field of emerging research on how school districts can develop a large corps of principals adept at employing technology to manage their schools and keep students learning. It centers on the idea that high-quality, equitable education in the digital realm—described as “powerful learning”—emerges through the combination of three essentials: meaningful use of technology; inclusive access to it; and, notably, the leadership of principals with the know how to implement both. The report, commissioned by Wallace, was produced by <a href="https://digitalpromise.org/" target="_blank">Digital Promise</a>, a nonprofit that works with districts and schools nationwide on the effective use of technology. Recently, as the nation began what almost everyone hopes will be an emergence from the worst of COVID-19, the Wallace blog caught up with Stefani Pautz Stephenson, the publication’s lead author and director of educator community partnerships at Digital Promise. Through an email exchange, she discussed how the embrace of technology for learning and school operations during the pandemic may have a lasting influence on school leadership.  Wallace Foundation: What have school leaders learned over the last two years about leading in a virtual environment?Stefani Pautz Stephenson: In our report, we share the emerging finding that nimbleness and flexibility are essential traits for both principals and principal supervisors who are leading in a virtual environment. This continues to hold true today. School leaders have learned how to make decisions with limited information, or information that’s rapidly changing. They’ve learned how to be responsive with their own learning, by re-learning or upskilling their own leadership abilities. They’ve also learned a lot about how to lead people who aren’t physically in the same space. Just as teachers have learned to teach students who aren’t in the same classroom, school leaders have learned how to, for example, virtually observe a classroom and virtually model risk-taking and growth mindset.WF: In a recent EdWeek Research Center<a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/the-teaching-strategies-educators-say-will-outlast-the-pandemic/2022/03" target="_blank"> survey</a>, principals and other educators listed pandemic-spurred changes that they thought would stick, and at or near the top were technologies, including teaching software and platforms to monitor students’ progress. What innovations do you think are here to stay, and what can principals and/or districts do to ensure they are used effectively?SPS: The survey states that educators believe the digital learning platforms most likely to stay are those that facilitate making assignments and monitoring progress. I think that’s an accurate assessment. Many school districts were already using a learning management system, at least in some capacity, prior to the pandemic. But the pandemic turned it from a nice to have to a must have. The learning management systems that integrate student learning, teacher feedback and communication with families are likely to have the greatest longevity because they support the school-to-home transparency that all stakeholders have grown accustomed to in the last two years.To ensure technology is used effectively, school leaders must set clear expectations for use. As with any technology adoption, there will be innovators and early adopters who embrace it and want to use it to its fullest potential. There will also be those who are slower to adopt and want to know what the “must-dos” are. School and district leaders will see more successful implementation if they are clear about how the technology is supportive and set baseline expectations for how it is integrated. It has to be clear that it's not an add-on. Then, it’s critical to provide ongoing, growth-oriented feedback and to make professional learning and coaching readily available.WF: EdWeek has also reported that educators who had scurried to learn about and then use digital tools were<a href="https://www.edweek.org/technology/tech-fatigue-is-real-for-teachers-and-students-heres-how-to-ease-the-burden/2022/03"> </a><a href="https://www.edweek.org/technology/tech-fatigue-is-real-for-teachers-and-students-heres-how-to-ease-the-burden/2022/03" target="_blank">experiencing some tech fatigue</a>. How can principals keep the momentum for sound use of technology going?SPS: One strategy is to help teachers manage all of the incoming information, including the amount of technology they’re learning. Focus on a few critical pieces of technology and look to technologies that serve multiple functions and can be implemented across the board, like a learning management system. Aim for deep learning with those technologies, and give it the time it needs.Attending to educators’ social-emotional needs is also essential. The Council of Chief State School Officers published<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/163ZNDs7sZ0FWOT7-1JFxQ9Lbo6zbQNJhaHSs0LbljCE/edit#heading=h.85w6zatiiauu" target="_blank"> guidance on fostering staff wellbeing and connection</a>, highlighting the importance of creating opportunities for staff to reconnect, heal, and feel safe and supported. School leaders can, for example, give staff an opportunity to engage in a community-connection activity prior to formal professional development on technology implementation. Creating those opportunities for connection, coupled with clear and realistic expectations for technology use, can help prevent burnout.WF: One lesson from the pandemic seems to be that Zoom or similar conferencing technologies have allowed for more inclusive communications with families, enabling schools to maintain contact with parents and others who had previously found it hard to attend in-person meetings because of work or other circumstances. How do you think this lesson will influence principal-parent interactions once schools fully reopen?SPS: We continue to see positive responses from school administrators to the increased communication with families. Schools have seen the positive effects of conferencing technologies in breaking down barriers to participation, and they want that level of family engagement to continue. Parents have also gained a new insight into what and how their students are learning, and they value that transparency. We’ve heard these things consistently, across the country. This is here to stay.WF: The report highlights considerations for districts that want to ensure that their principals can manage schools equitably and well in a virtual environment. Among them:  revising principal standards and updating principal preparation programming to take account of virtual learning and management. Have you seen movement in these areas? SPS: We haven’t seen movement on these fronts yet, and we still believe these recommendations are mission critical if we want to develop better leadership capacity for the virtual environment. There is increased funding going into broadband, and technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial intelligence are rapidly advancing in education. We haven’t prepared leaders for this. We need to take action so that school leaders can think both conceptually and practically about these topics and others like them.Education officials can begin with advocacy. On the local level, they can start with human resources directors and offices of organizational effectiveness advocating for changes in standards for evaluation and principal preparation. At universities, they can make the case to deans and other officials who are making decisions about programming that leads to licensure. They can work with state departments of education that set certification requirements. Change starts by making people pay attention to the issues. The pandemic drew everyone’s attention to virtual learning; now it’s time to draw attention to the changes needed for the future of education leadership.

Wallace editorial team

2022-05-10T04:00:00Z

School Leadership, principals, principal pipeline, school districts, technology, virtual learning, education research

5/10/2022 3:27:02 PM

The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / How Principals (and their Bosses) Can Use Technology for Learning and Management Co-author of study reflects on nimbleness

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