0. PreK-3 Principal Leadership Series
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PreK-3 Principal Leadership Series
St. Paul:

1. Multiple Stories Worth Telling
How school leader preparation (Early Learning for school leaders) is changing in the US: implications for PreK-3
The necessity of policy and practice change at all levels to support PreK-3 leadership: the UIC story
What we know about how principals dramatically improve student outcomes
What high-quality PreK-3 looks like, and the principal’s role in achieving it
A World-Class Education, A World-Class City 1

2. From Coleman & Jencks to Chicago Consortium
1960s: SES is prime contributor to student learning outcomes; there’s little that schools can do (yet Head Start begins . . .)
1970s: “Effective Schools” research: successful high-need schools have successful leaders
1980s: A Nation at Risk launches 30 years of teacher ed reform
1990s: What Matters Most and the quality of classroom instruction (true for P-3, but what is instruction in ECE?)
2000s: From No Child Left Behind to a growing recognition of the impact of school leadership and ECE on student learning P-12
2010: Bryk, Sebring, et al. Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago-- 5 essential supports for improving schools
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3. Leadership and Learning Outcomes
“Leadership is second only to classroom instruction among all school-related factors that contribute to what students learn at school” (Leithwood, et al., 2004) (K-12)
“Six years later we are even more confident about that claim” (Louis, et al. 2010)
The limitations of such thinking: Bryk et al. 2010
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4. CPS vs. Illinois XCPS: 2001 Grade 3
Kauerz & Coffman (2014): Framework (Cycle) (also 8 NAESP policy recs--both raise leadership expectations at every step)
Cross sector work (governance, strategy, funding)
Administrator Effectiveness (licensure, support for P-3)
Teacher Effectiveness (supporting adult learning in schools)
Instructional Tools (state role in standards, assessments)
Learning Environments (achieved only via adult learning)
Data-Driven Improvement (creating local & state systems)
Family Engagement (one of the 5 essential supports)
Continuity and Pathways (multiple ECE paths to success)
A World-Class Education, A World-Class City
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5. 2001 ILXCPS v. CPS: Reading & Math-
2001 ILXCPS v. CPS: Reading & Math
Grade Grade Grade 8 5

6. 2012: ILX CPS Vs. CPS--Reading & Math
Grade Grade Grade 8 6

7. Percent Scoring At or Above Statewide Medians
3rd Grade Reading
Percent Scoring At or Above Statewide Medians

8. Pre-school for all legislation/P-12 Prin. Endorsement
What happened?
Pre-school for all legislation/P-12 Prin. Endorsement
Concerted effort to establish the most ambitious
school leader development pipeline of any urban
district in US (selection, treatment, assessment)
Extensive engagement of the funding community
The multiplier effect of school leadership
Research ongoing: how do we explain Chicago?
A World-Class Education, A World-Class City

9. :
Early Learning and Quality Instruction: What’s a State/District Leader to Do?
PreK-3 education and school leadership as key levers
Growth of Pre-K in and out of elementary schools and importance of quality ECE for later learning
Quality PreK-3 as an organizational property of the school—instruction, integration, adult learning
Developing/supporting school principals who “get it”: challenges at multiple levels of principal development
Policy and resources for the field(s) at scale now exist
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10. A Short Bookshelf of Resources for Leadership In P-3 Education (First, the Science)
 Allen, L. & Kelly, B. eds. (2015) Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation. Committee on the Science of Children Birth to Age 8. Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. Washington, DC ( National Academies Press.
Anderson A., Anderson, J., Hare & McTavish (2016) Language, Learning and Culture in Early Childhood. NY: Routledge.
Shonkoff, J. P. & Phillips, D. A. eds. (2010) From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. Board on Children, Youth, and Families, National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

11. A Short Bookshelf (Policy and Practice)
Goffin, S. (2013) Early Childhood Education for a New Era: Leading for our Profession. NY: TC Press.
Heckman, James J. (2013) Giving Kids a Fair Chance (A Strategy that Works). Cambridge: Boston Review.
Kauerz, K & Coffman, J. (2013) Framework for Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating PreK-3rd Grade Approaches. Seattle, WA: College of Education, UW.
Ritchie, S., & Gutmann, L. (2014) First School: Transforming Prek-3rd Grade for African American, Latino, and Low-Income Children. New York: Teachers College Press.
Teale, W., Walski, M. et al. (2015) Early Childhood Literacy: Policy for the Coming Decade. Chicago: UIC Research on Urban Education Policy Initiative Brief.
Zaslaw, M., Martinez-Beck, et al., eds (2011) Quality Measurement in Early Childhood Settings. Baltimore: Paul H Brookes Publishing.

12. A Short Bookshelf (Organization and Leadership as Foundations for Learning)
Bryk, A. S., Sebring, P. B., Allensworth, E., Luppescu, S., & Easton, J. Q. (2010). Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Bryk, A., Gomez, L. et al. (2015). Learning to improve: How America’s schools can get better at getting better. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Kostelnik, M. J. & Grady, M. L. (2009) Getting It Right from the Start: The Principal’s Guide to Early Childhood Education. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press and NAESP.
Leading PreK-3 Learning Communities: Competencies for Effective Principal Practice (2014) Alexandria, VA: National Association of Elementary School Principals.

13. Your system, any system . . .
. . . is perfectly designed to obtain the results you are obtaining (Carr, 2008)
Our current system of public school inequity has to be disrupted if we are to produce different results
School leader development & P-3 are key system components that can disrupt current outcomes
(Could not have presented this material 10 years ago; it wasn’t there, in school leadership or PK-3)
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14. Leadership and Learning Outcomes (implicit theory of impact)
Bryk, Sebring, et al (2010) Organizing Schools for Improvement (5 Essential Supports)
School Leadership (“and pick 2”)
Parent Community School Ties
Professional Capacity
Student-Centered Learning Climate
Instructional Guidance
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15. Root Cause: Within-school Improvement of Student Learning
Within-school Improvement of Student Learning (explicit theory of impact)
Administrative
Leadership
Instructional
TEAM
Organizational
Resources
(e.g. 5 Es, and
P-3
alignment)
Teaching/
Instruction
Student Engagement and Learning
Cosner, 2014;Gamoran, et al., 2000; Sporte, et al., 2006
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16. The PK-3/Leadership Nexus
Growth of PreK in elementary schools and importance of quality ECE for later learning
Carson School Principal in Chicago: “ I could not have done it without the PreK program” (NAESP 2015)
Quality instruction, quality integration from 3 to 3rd requires quality school leadership, CBO leadership
P-3 education and ed org leadership as key levers
Yet too often in separate conversations
The need for intentional cross-sector work (Kauerz & Collins; NAESP)
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17. Challenge: PreK-3 Leadership at scale requires change agency at key leverage points
Leadership ==> Org Capacity ==> Instructional Capacity ==>PreK-12 Student Learning
Quality PreK as an organizational property of the school—instruction, integration, assessment, adult learning
Developing/supporting school principals who “get it”: pushing down vs. pushing up (at scale: 100,000 principals, only 400 annually in Illinois)
IHEs, districts, and state policy: turning ECE teachers into leaders AND turning leaders into Early Childhood Educators
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18. Implications for state systemic approach
Kauerz & Coffman (2014): Framework (also 8 NAESP policy recs--both raise leadership expectations at every step)
Cross sector work (governance, strategy, funding)
Administrator Effectiveness (licensure, support for P-3)
Teacher Effectiveness (supporting adult learning in schools)
Instructional Tools (state role in standards, assessments)
Learning Environments (achieved only via adult learning)
Data-Driven Improvement (creating local & state systems)
Family Engagement (yet another of the 5 essential supports)
Continuity and Pathways (multiple ECE paths to success)
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19. Leadership Challenge to School Districts
NAESP: Leading PreK-3 Learning Communities--
Embrace the PreK-3 Early Learning Continuum
Ensure Developmentally Appropriate Teaching
Provide Personalized Learning Environments
Use Multiple Measures of Assessment of Learning Growth
Build Professional Capacity Across the Learning Community
Make Schools a Hub of PK-3 Learning for Families and Communities (Adult learning for staff and stakeholders)
WHY DISTRICTS? Principals CAN do these alone, but leadership matters at every level (layers needed: it’s cold out there)
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20. Implications for District/Bldg. Leaders
“Good leaders don’t build followers; they build leaders.”
True for principals as it is true for district leaders;
Transformative principals need to build strong teacher leadership
Effective district leadership needs to build strong principals systemically (Montegomery Cty, MD)
Current PK-3 disjunctures and misalignments must be addressed at both the building and the district level, “from the inside out”: providing necessary supports for high quality aligned instruction, which requires high-quality leadership
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21. What would it look like to prepare such principals? UIC example:
University/District Partnership: pre-service/inservice
High selectivity for all program admissions
Full-year paid residency leading to P-12 principal licensure
Integration of research/theory with practice throughout
The Early Learning default rule for all courses
Three years of post-residency coaching in leadership roles
Ed.D. program supports 4 – 5 years of leader development
High-quality leadership is learned over time, intentionally
A World-Class Education, A World-Class City 21

22. Challenges to preparing P-3 leaders (at scale)
Knowledge base? Not so much.
Ron Edmonds, 1978: “We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us.  We already know more than we need to do that. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven’t so far.”
Then what’s the problem? Leading, organizing, mobilizing for institutional change

23. OK—but how do we get there from here?:
OK—but how do we get there from here?
“Change Agency in Our Own Backyards” Tozer 2015
If we want teachers to change their practices, then principals will have to be effective change agents
“Change agent”—Ken Benne et al. in OD literature
Not everyone signed up for change agency
Making a living
Making a difference
Making institutions change (“Changing the world”)
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24. BUT: Your system, any system . . .
Some key steps in disruptive school/district change
Secure “senior support” for focus on selected lever
Convene stakeholders with adept process leadership
Collaboratively examine the data and shape diagnosis
Collaboratively recommend solutions & sustainability
Communicate recommendations strategically and widely
Seek administrative (and legislative) implementation
Implement disciplined cycles of inquiry: diagnose, plan, implement, assess (diagnose collaboratively)
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25. “Increases in math and reading achievement often double and quadruple the gains seen elsewhere.”
Chicago's gains also stand out in comparison to the state and the nation. A study by the Center for Urban Education Leadership at the University of Illinois at Chicago found that from 2001 to 2015, student growth in Chicago exceeded growth elsewhere in the state among all racial subgroups. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress Chicago's trajectory has defied the declines reported in many other cities as well as the stagnating progress of the nation as a whole.
--Crain’s Chicago Business 6/15/16
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26. “Change Agency in Own Backyards” (2015) Steve Tozer: stozer@uic.edu
Questions and Comments
A World-Class Education, A World-Class City