Education Leadership How districts can grow and support a pipeline of highly effective leaders Presentation to: SREB Leadership Forum Jody Spiro Senior Program Officer The Wallace Foundation May 5, 2011

Page 2 Today’s presentation I: Lessons learned from a decade of work in education leadership work II: What Wallace is doing – the “principal pipeline” initiative

Wallace’s education leadership initiative:  Began in 2000 as a “big bet”  24 states; 15 main urban districts  Commissioned research to fill gaps  Learning community  Resulting in: - Over 70 research reports - 21 sustained, high-quality leader preparation programs - Strengthened laws and regulations - 7 new nonprofit organizations Page 3

Page 4 Leadership is key – to improving teaching & learning “Leadership is second only to classroom instruction among all school related factors that contribute to what students learn at school.” ― How Leadership Influences Student Learning, Kenneth Leithwood, et al, University of Minnesota, University of Toronto, 2004 “Six years later we are even more confident about this claim.” ― Learning from Leadership: Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning, Leithwood, et al, 2010

Page 5 Leadership is crucial to making school reform succeed “There seems little doubt that both district and school leadership provides a critical bridge between most educational reform initiatives, and having those reforms make a genuine difference for all students.” ― How Leadership Influences Student Learning, 2004

Page 6 Especially in difficult situations “…there are virtually no documented instances of troubled schools being turned around without intervention by a powerful leader.” ― How Leadership Influences Student Learning, 2004

Page 7 Improving principal preparation is a cost-effective strategy Superintendents and principals are the leaders with the most influence in schools. “Efforts to improve their recruitment, training, evaluation and ongoing development should be considered highly cost-effective approaches to successful school improvement.” ― How Leadership Influences Student Learning, 2004

A new look at the principal role – leader of leaders  Set transformational vision and make it happen  Share leadership  Use data  Promote and join in teacher learning and development  Develop policies and incentives that support learning of both students and adults Page 8 Sources: Learning-focused Leadership and Leadership Support, Knapp, et al, 2010; Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning, Leithwood, et al, 2010

Effective principals are key to retaining good teachers  “It is the leader who both recruits and retains high- quality staff. Indeed, the number one reason for teachers’ decisions about whether to stay in a school is the quality of administrative support – and it is the leader who must develop this organization.” -- Preparing School Leaders for a Changing World, Linda Darling- Hammond, et al, Stanford University, 2007 Page 9

Wallace’s “Principal Pipeline” initiative: When an urban district and its principal training programs provide large numbers of talented, aspiring principals with the right pre- service training and on-the-job evaluation and support…. …. the result will be a pipeline of principals able to improve teaching quality and student achievement district-wide. Page 10

The pipeline components  Leader standards  High quality pre-service training - Recruitment and selection - High quality training  Selective hiring  Evaluation and on-the-job support for new principals (including mentoring) And….  All aligned and all in support of the district’s reform agenda  Brought to district-wide scale Page 11

Leader standards Districts and training programs adopt clear standards for principals based on the effective leadership characteristics that research has identified.  ISLLC 2008  VAL-ED  Gallup Page 12

Page 13 High quality pre-service training Effective training programs are: –More selective of applicants –Based on leadership standards –More focused on improving instruction –More closely tied to the needs of districts –Including robust, paid internships –Making efforts to place graduates They are more expensive, but graduates are: –Better-prepared –Perform better in high-needs schools –Twice as likely to actually become principals (60 percent vs percent) Source: Preparing School Leaders for a Changing World, Linda Darling- Hammond,et al, Stanford University, 2007; The New York City Aspiring Principals Program: A School-Level Evaluation, New York University, 2011

Selective hiring  Rigorous selection progress for filling principal and assistant principal job openings with the most qualified applicants  The district also gives hiring preference to graduates of high quality programs and places them in schools based on the best fit and match between the candidate and available vacancies Page 14 Source: Districts Developing Leaders: Lessons on Consumer Actions and Program Approaches from Eight Urban Districts, Education Development Center, 2010

Page 15 Evaluation and on-the-job support for new principals  Professional development based on continuous improvement  Carefully selected, well-trained principal mentors – and mentoring lasting for one year, ideally two  Supported by state and local funding that ensures mentors receive high-quality training and appropriate stipends  Evaluations that reflect leader standards, measure those behaviors, and school and student outcomes

The district role is essential  “ Both our qualitative and quantitative evidence indicate that district priorities and actions have a measurable effect on professionals at the school level.”  Leaders in higher performing districts communicated explicit expectations for principal leadership and provided learning experiences in line with these expectations; they also monitored principal follow- through and intervened with further support where needed. Page 16

The Wallace Foundation seeks to support and share effective ideas and practices that will strengthen education leadership, arts participation and out-of-school learning. For a digital library of the publications cited here on education leadership, as well as others, visit the online Knowledge Center at The Wallace Foundation 5 Penn Plaza, 7th Floor New York, NY Telephone