Selection & Deployment - Principals Capturing Our Learning

Overview Purpose: To source and match the best candidates to a specific school’s vacancy, which requires HR to know the schools and communities well enough to determine which candidates would be the best fit and to provide a robust selection process with clear roles and responsibilities for all involved Key Elements of Selection & Deployment Developing an Early and Aggressive Hiring Timeline Clarifying Roles and Responsibilities in the Hiring and Selection Process Establishing a Clear and Transparent Selection Process Developing an Advertisement Based on a School's Leadership Profile Collaborating with Principal Supervisors to Match Assistant Principal Candidates to School Needs Supporting Principal Supervisors on Leadership at High-Needs Schools See the Principal ABC Tool and Executive Summary of the Principal Puzzle Pieces for additional information Urban Schools Human Capital Academy

Key Research High-needs schools are more likely than other schools to have principals who are in their first year at the school and are the least likely to be led by principals with more than five years of experience Rice. (2010) Deliberate selection and support could ameliorate this churn; however most districts lack a consistent process to assess a candidate’s fit for a particular school position Doyle & Locke. (2014) Urban Schools Human Capital Academy

Metrics Key metrics to understand performance in this function include: % of principals with effective or higher ratings at end of years 1-3 by pathway Applicants per vacancy % of vacancies filled by April 1 (March 1 for high-need schools) Principal supervisor satisfaction with the pool Distribution of principal effectiveness ratings across high- and low- need schools Urban Schools Human Capital Academy

Key Content Selection & Deployment

HR’s Role in Principal Quality Betsy On the principal side, we know that effective principals are: Good instructional leaders, that is – they can facilitate teachers’ learning about how to improve instruction Good HC managers – they know how to get and keep the best people in their schools Have a strong vision and can build a strong culture of academic excellence Align and manage their resources for student achievement – budget, people, processe Potential questions to ask the group after reviewing this slide: Do you feel like these are comprehensive, or do you feel like anything is missing? Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014

The Principalship is Challenging Demanding and increasing workload and expectations Limited autonomy over key decisions coupled with strong accountability Isolation and lack of support Pay can overlap with differentiated teacher pay Betsy Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014

What We Know: Get the Best Many districts: Have had limited success hiring external candidates with proven results Hire internal staff, leading to a lack of diversity Have inconsistent process to identify and build high potential leaders Shuffle 12% of low-performing principals between schools each year Source: Doyle & Locke, 2014 Betsy Districts are too passive in recruitment; missing out on whole segments of the potential pipeline Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014

What We Know: Deploy Deliberately More challenges in high-needs schools: More likely to have a principal in their first year Less likely to have a principal with more than 5 years experience 50% less likely to be led by the same principal over six year period 28% of high-needs principals leave each year Impact is felt in schools: Schools that lost principals more likely to see drop in performance in next year It can take up to five years to build up trust and culture to improve academic performance Betsy Source: Bierly & Shy, 2013; School Leaders Network. Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014

District Conditions & the Paradox of the Principalship Effective Instructional Leadership Most Commonly lacking condition: ability to target resources where they are needed hire the best available teachers provide teachers with the opportunities they need to improve keep the school running smoothly Grissom & Loeb, 2009, p. 32 create appropriate staffing models ability to hire, promote, and dismiss teachers. Ikemoto, et al., 2014, p. 11 Betsy IF we get great principals – it becomes impossible to keep them because of the conditions in the district. The dysfunctional district will win every time. Even High Quality Principals cannot be great HC Managers or even effective managers in this kind of environment Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014

Creating Great Principals at Scale Strand 1: Aligned goals, strategies, and resources Strand 2: Culture of collective responsibility, balanced autonomy, and continuous learning, and improvement Strand 3: Effective Management and Support for Principals Strand 4: Systems and policies to effectively manage talent at school-level Betsy IF we get great principals – it becomes impossible to keep them because of the conditions in the district. The dysfunctional district will win every time. Even High Quality Principals cannot be great HC Managers or even effective managers in this kind of environment Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014

What Can HR Do to Contribute? Bring Data & Information to the Table Share Power Metrics and ABC Tool strategies Identify effective teachers and APs Provide Ideas, such as: Create teacher leadership and “stepping stone” positions Seek top performers’ input about what keeps them in your district Lead/support efforts to make the role more manageable (Admin Managers) Facilitate Dialogue How can the district remove/limit barriers and set enabling conditions? How can we share and facilitate promising practices between principals? Betsy This is a service. Widen your organizational influence Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014

Tools and Activities

Tools Principal Power Metrics – Actions of Impact Offers HR/HC teams actions that have an impact in each bucket of the Principal Power Metrics. It also includes: Snippets from the Research Power Metrics Recap Actions of Impact – High-impact, often low-cost ideas Top USHCA Tools and Materials Sample Principal Supervisor Survey Suggests sample survey questions to gauge Principal Supervisor satisfaction with key HR policies, tools and systems in order to provide best possible service Urban Schools Human Capital Academy

Activity: Rate Your District Does your district: Get the best principals consistently? Deploy principals deliberately? Retain principals strategically? Deliver services to principal supervisors effectively? Rate your district on a scale from 1 (worst) to 10 (best) Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014

Activity: Principal Power Metrics Analysis Directions: What do our Principal Power Metrics show? In what “bucket” area will we focus to improve principal quality Review the Actions of Impact tool for this area. Any promising ideas? What is our vision for working with Principal Managers on this? What are 2-3 concrete steps we will take to contribute to improved principal quality? Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014