News Brief
Wallace Foundation Releases New Report on Cultivating Great Principals
By Mary CanoleThe Wallace Foundation's has released a new 2013 report titled: Districts Matter: Cultivating the Principals Urban Schools Need. According to the report, great principals are key to turning around urban schools and effective school leadership should be cultivated by school districts. Districts Matter describes nine steps districts can take to ensure that they have principals who can effectively lead and improve teaching and learning in their schools.
Along with sharing the research findings, the report includes examples from the six Wallace Principal Pipeline Initiative districts that are developing a definition and clear standards of "high quality leadership" that is in close sync with the definition of a high-quality school and then using that definition and standards to build recruitment, selection, professional learning, and evaluation systems for their principals.
In Gwinett County, GA and Prince George's County, MD, districts are tightening their hiring practices. In Hillsborough, Florida, the district is providing differentiated training to principals through a new leadership course called Fierce Conversations so principals are better able to offer detailed feedback to teachers on how they can improve their instructional practice.
The Wallace report provides a preliminary sense of what districts can do to grow their own great principals. More work is needed to determine what each of the nine steps/strategies look like in action and how these efforts play out. The report has been posted on CCSSO's SCEE Collaborative site. You can access the full report here.The Wallace Foundation's has released a new 2013 report titled: Districts Matter: Cultivating the Principals Urban Schools Need. According to the report, great principals are key to turning around urban schools and effective school leadership should be cultivated by school districts. Districts Matter describes nine steps districts can take to ensure that they have principals who can effectively lead and improve teaching and learning in their schools.
Along with sharing the research findings, the report includes examples from the six Wallace Principal Pipeline Initiative districts that are developing a definition and clear standards of "high quality leadership" that is in close sync with the definition of a high-quality school and then using that definition and standards to build recruitment, selection, professional learning, and evaluation systems for their principals.
In Gwinett County, GA and Prince George's County, MD, districts are tightening their hiring practices. In Hillsborough, Florida, the district is providing differentiated training to principals through a new leadership course called Fierce Conversations so principals are better able to offer detailed feedback to teachers on how they can improve their instructional practice.
The Wallace report provides a preliminary sense of what districts can do to grow their own great principals. More work is needed to determine what each of the nine steps/strategies look like in action and how these efforts play out. The report has been posted on CCSSO's SCEE Collaborative site. You can access the full report here.