The Principal Internship: How Can We Get It Right?

Examines educational leadership degree programs in the SREB region. Focuses on the problems within internships, and provides ideas on how programs can be designed to produce good school leaders

A Tripartite Framework for Leadership Evaluation

The Tripartite Framework for Leadership Evaluation provides a comprehensive examination of the leadership evaluation landscape and makes key recommendations about how the field of leadership evaluation should proceed. The chief concern addressed by this working paper is the use of student outcome data as a measurement of leadership effectiveness. A second concern in our work with urban leaders is the absence or surface treatment of race and equity in nearly all evaluation instruments or processes. Finally, we call for an overhaul of the conventional cycle of inquiry, which is based largely on needs analysis and leader deficits, and incomplete use of evidence to support recurring short cycles within the larger yearly cycle of inquiry

Staff Development and Student Achievement: Making the Connection in Georgia Schools

The purpose of this study is to examine the connection between staff development and student achievement and to develop a base of knowledge for improving staff development in Georgia. Since 1985, the state has appropriated funds for staff development under the Quality Basic Education Act, one of the most comprehensive statewide initiatives for school improvement in the United States. In fiscal year 1998, Georgia appropriated over $35 million for staff development in schools and school districts. The Georgia Department of Education has collected information about uses of resources, levels of participation, and accomplishments of effectiveness of staff development in Georgia schools have not been conducted. Indeed, evaluations of staff development programs at a state level are rare. This study provides information to policy makers about whether or not state staff development funds are used in such a way as to have an impact on student achievement. The study also provides information that can be used to help schools maximize the effectiveness of their staff development efforts.While staff development can be defined in a number of ways, for this study we used the following definition: An organized learning opportunity for teachers to acquire knowledge and skills to help them become more effective teachers. Staff development activities may consist of activities such as a single workshop, a conference, a workshop series, summer institutes, college coursework, or organized peer coaching and study group sessions. A staff development activity may be sponsored by many entities including a school, the school district, Regional Education Service Agencies, state agencies, teacher academies, colleges, or professional networks and organizations.In this study we ask the question, "Do differences in the ways schools and school districts provide staff development for their teachers account for some of the variation in student achievement across Georgia schools?" The general strategy for the investigation was to select a sample of higher and lower achieving schools across a full range of socio-economic status, to gather data on staff development in these schools, and to test the extent to which the characteristics of staff development varied in the two groups of schools. Sixty schools in 35 districts participated in the study. At each school, we interviewed school administrators, conducted a focus group discussion with six to ten teachers, and surveyed teachers in the school (1,150 teachers responded). At the district office, we interviewed the staff development coordinator, personnel director, and finance director to determine the context in which staff development occurred at the schools

Making the Most of Interim Assessment Data: Lessons from Philadelphia

Under No Child Left Behind, urban school districts have increasingly turned to interim assessments, administered at regular intervals, to help gauge student progress in advance of annual state exams. These assessments have spawned growing debate among educators, assessment experts, and the testing industry: are they worth the significant investment of money and time? In Making the Most of Interim Assessment Data: Lessons from Philadelphia, Research for Action (RFA) weighs in on this issue. The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) was an early adopter of interim assessments, implementing the exams in 2003. Unlike teachers in some other regions, Philadelphia elementary and middle grades teachers rated these 'Benchmark' assessments highly. However, the study found that enthusiasm did not necessarily correlate with higher rates of student achievement. What did predict student success were three factors -- instructional leadership, collective responsibility, and use of the SDP's Core Curriculum. The report underscores the value of investment in ongoing data interpretation that emphasizes teachers' learning within formal instructional communities, such as grade groups of teachers. This research was funded by the Spencer Foundation and the William Penn Foundation

Good Principals Aren't Born -- They're Mentored: Are We Investing Enough to Get the School Leaders We Need?

Draws on survey data from a sample of experienced principal mentors who have guided interns in university-based principal preparation programs, and describes the present condition of mentoring for aspiring school leaders

Word Generation in Boston Public Schools: Natural History of a Literacy Intervention

Describes a program to teach high-frequency academic vocabulary and discourses skills, promote effective teaching strategies for vocabulary, comprehension, and discussion, and facilitate faculty collaboration; its implementation; and evaluation results

Rethinking Leadership: The Changing Role of Principal Supervisors

In the fall of 2012, the Council of the Great City Schools launched a two-part study of the ways principal supervisors are selected, supported, and evaluated in major school districts across the country. The first part involved a survey administered to district staff serving as principal supervisors in the fall of 2012. The second part of the study involved site visits to the six districts participating in The Wallace Foundation's Principal Pipeline Initiative -- Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Denver Public Schools, Gwinnett County Public Schools, Hillsborough County Public Schools, the New York City Department of Education, and Prince George's County Public Schools. This report provides a summary of findings from both the survey and site visits. Part I presents a description of the organizational structure and general features of the various principal supervisory systems, including the roles, selection, deployment, staffing, professional development, and evaluation of principal supervisors, as well as the preparation, selection, support, and evaluation of principals. Part II provides recommendations for building more effective principal supervisory systems. Based on the survey results and observations from the site visits, these recommendations identify those structures and practices that are most likely to result in stronger school leaders and higher student achievement

Impact Philanthropy to Improve Teaching Quality: Focus on High-Need Secondary Students

Offers models for improving teachers' skills, including through apprenticeships and in-school mentoring; for creating an environment for great teaching through better leadership and whole-school reform; and guidance for donors on the policy environment

Strong Leaders Strong Schools: 2007 State Laws

Summarizes state laws enacted during the 2007 sessions to support school leadership initiatives, including efforts to improve statewide standards, training, mentoring, certification, professional development, assessment, compensation, and governance