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9 Feb 2017
Brief

Principal Professional Development: New Opportunities for a Renewed State Focus

Cortney Rowland

Over the years, most states and districts have focused professional development on teachers rather than principals. However, evidence suggests that principals can play an important role in reaching our national goals of high achievement for all students. School leaders are powerful levers for change—when given the right training and support. But most of our nation’s school principals do not have access to professional learning that reflects what is happening in schools today.

Improving principal professional development is going to require a new way of thinking, prioritizing, and budgeting—at the state and local levels. Some states and districts are already doing this work, and there is research that illustrates what can be done to enhance on-the-job principal professional development.

This policy brief describes:

  • The need for more and better principal professional development to improve principal effectiveness, decrease principal turnover, and more equitably distribute successful principals across all schools;
  • The research on the importance of principals and how professional development can improve principals’ effectiveness; and
  • Options and examples for leveraging current policies to revisit and refocus efforts concerning principal professional development.
PDF icon Principal Professional Development: New Opportunities for a Renewed State Focus (PDF)

Related Projects

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Evaluating Principal Preparation Programs

Principals are second only to classroom teachers when it comes to impact on student learning. The George W. Bush Institute and AIR collaborated on a two-year study that looks at effective ways to evaluate principal preparation and describe policies to get, support, and keep great principals.

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Building and Supporting Great School Principals and Leaders

Principals impact student achievement through their influence on classroom instruction, organizational conditions, community support, and setting the teaching and learning conditions in schools. Read about what our researchers are learning about leading schools and how they are applying that learning to improve state policy, district programs, and school practices aimed at developing and retaining effective leaders.
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Developing Leaders: The Importance—and the Challenges—of Evaluating Principal Preparation Programs

The role of today’s principal is changing, as is the principal workforce. Understanding how to better prepare new leaders for the role of principal is an urgent policy concern. The George W. Bush Institute and AIR have partnered to evaluate the impact of five principal preparation programs in the United States on student outcomes, and this policy paper presents their recommendations.
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States Can Drive Change to Make Principals Prepared on Day One

Too many new principals say they are underprepared for critical leadership tasks which—combined with high job demands, poor support, and increased accountability—raises principal stress to a boiling point. In this blog post, Matthew Clifford describes 18 “high leverage” state-level policies that hold promise for increasing innovation and improving principal preparation.
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1 Jan 2017
ESSA

ESSA │Developing and Supporting Leaders

Principals impact student achievement through their influence on classroom instruction, organizational conditions, community support, and setting the teaching and learning conditions in schools. Under ESSA states have additional opportunities to attract, support, and retain effective principals. AIR's researchers have investigated school leadership and supported practitioners to apply best practices to improve state policy, district programs, and school practices aimed at developing and retaining effective leaders.
Topic: 
Education, District and School Improvement, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Principal Preparation and Performance

Further Reading

  • ESSA │Developing and Supporting Leaders
  • States Can Drive Change to Make Principals Prepared on Day One
  • Teacher Shortages: Top 10 Ideas from the First State ESSA Plans
  • Navigating ESSA with the AIR Co-Pilot: 13 Key Resources
  • ESSA │College and Career Readiness
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Cortney Rowland

Cortney Rowland

Principal TA Consultant

Topic

Education
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
Principal Preparation and Performance

RESEARCH. EVALUATION. APPLICATION. IMPACT.

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