Covering School Leadership: Three Stories to Steal
In my prior post, we talked about “10
Questions to Ask” when writing about school leadership. This
time I’m offering three stories to steal. For more on this issue,
I recommend you check out
“The School Principal as Leader: Guiding Schools to Better
Teaching and Learning,” a report which came out earlier this
year from the Wallace Foundation. If you want to dig deeper into
other aspects of
school leadership and governance, we have an excellent
backgrounder over at Story Starters, EWA’s online resource.
While researching ideas for the story list, I reached out to
education reporters who write about school leadership regularly,
including Lesli Maxwell of Education Week. I also spoke with
experts in the field: Michael Foran of New Britain (Conn.) High
School, and the MetLife 2011 Principal of the Year; The Wallace Foundation;
and Michelle Young, professor at the University of Virginia’s
Curry School of Education and executive director of the University Council for Educational
Administration. For more background, check out Spiro’s piece
in the November issue of Kappan magazine: Effective
Principals in Action.
Stories to Steal
1. The Common Core: Are Schools – and Their Leaders –
Ready? How are school leaders adapting to the rollout of the
Common Core State Standards? What is being done to support
teachers and provide professional development? What support are
principals receiving to help them lead their school communities
through what could be a rocky transition? How confident are
principals that the Common Core will improve outcomes for
students? As the new standards take hold over the next few years,
what do principals expect will change in their schools when it
comes to student achievement? How are principals preparing
parents for the changes in their children’s classes and homework?
(You might want to look over an
action brief from the National Association of Elementary
School Principals on implementing the new standards.)
2. Time to Lead: Priorities and Pressures for the School
Principal. The informal “walk-through” of schools by
principals, a hallowed tradition of the job, might be doing some
harm and little good when it comes to helping teachers teach and
students achieve, according to a new
study from researchers at Vanderbilt and Stanford
universities. Try to find a principal willing to let you shadow
her for a full week – or even two. How does she spend the bulk of
her time? Does she hold meetings with parent groups or the
central office’s facilities staff? How often is she meeting
directly with teachers to discuss what’ happening in the
classrooms? How much control and responsibility does the
principal have over daily operations, from the budget to
staffing? Principals are expected to be instructional leaders,
campus managers, and even professional communicators, says Ed
Week’s Maxwell. Which of those responsibilities are taking
priority? How would the principal reallocate her time if she had
the option?
3. The Leadership Ladder: How Fast a Climb? Rapid turnover
in school leadership is commonplace, particularly in urban
districts. At the same time, it’s not unusual for an educator to
move from the classroom to a principalship within five years – a
rate of advancement that used to be the exception. A 2012
study by the RAND Corporation found one out of every five new
principals leaves within two years, and that turnover can have
long-term effects on schools’ academic progress. How quickly are
school leaders moving up the ranks in your district? How does
that compare to regional and national averages? What professional
development is offered to teachers who express an interest in
leadership? Once they take their posts, are they provided with a
mentor or coach, particularly in their first three years on the
job? Are any of the new school leaders coming from alternative
routes to licensure, such as Teach For America? How are their
early educational experiences shaping their approach to
leadership? Conversely, how many teachers in your district are
earning leadership credentials (perhaps at the local school of
education) and the accompanying salary bump, but are then opting
to remain in the classroom? What’s keeping them from moving up?
Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Contact Emily Richmond. Follow her on Twitter @EWAEmily.
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