Presentation made by Benjamin Fenton, Chief Strategy and Knowledge Officer and Co-Founder of New Leaders for New Schools at the IASA sponsored workshop on November 18, 2011 at the Triple I Conference.
4. A leadership effectiveness strategy starts with a shared vision of leadership and uses levers throughout the span of principals’ careers to ensure quality across the district. The foundation for Principal Effectiveness Shared Vision of Leadership Pipeline Development Pre-Service Training Evaluation and Management Selection and School Match Retention, Rewards, Dismissal In-Service Support District and Data Support Systems Successful District District Governance and Principal Autonomy
11. Tools for Principal Practice Evaluation Principal Practice Standards Principal Practice Rubric School Observation Tools Staff, Community, Student Surveys Non-Achievement School Data We recommend rolling up staff/community surveys and non-achievement data into the overall rating of principal practice Including clear examples of evidence
19. “Student Growth” versus AYP Sets a hard cut-off date to control for student mobility Requires that same student was in the school for at least two testing experiences on same assessment Looks only at the change in percentage of students at “meets and exceeds” Includes growth across the spectrum – students moving from Below Basic to Basic, or from Meets to Exceeds Compares this year’s 4 th graders to last year’s 4 th graders Looks at same students over time – how a group of students performed in 3 rd grade and in 4 th grade Adequate Yearly Progress Student Growth
Slide 3 – Ben does overview and asks key questions – whether in-service support (for all principals or at least first-year principals) is part of their vision. Is pipeline development from teacher to teacher leader ahead of the pre-service program part of the design vision? ---- We tend to think about a Principal Development Program as encompassing some component of Pipeline Development & aligned Pre-Service Training, culminating in some form of in-service support – all aligned to evaluation and management systems. Unifying framework is the shared vision of school leadership: this is made concrete through the development of Principal Performance Standards & Practice Rubrics – work DCPS has done through the principal Impact Framework. Key next step in thinking about leader development: the trajectory of skill & competency development from high potential through “ready now” for the Principalship – and any variations for school level and type. DCPS has many of these pieces in place, or is working on implementing them – a lot to build from.
New survey and detailed research on link from principal effectiveness to teacher effectiveness IF WE ARE GOING TO MAKE TEACHER EVALUTION SYSTEMS ALSO ABOUT DEVELOPMENT AND RETENTION – WE MUST FOCUS ON PRINCIPAL EFFECTIVENESS Not surprising feedback from teachers on importance of principal role (give case study of Charlotte in terms of attracting teachers to turnaround schools) CALDER Center – more in-depth – saw specific differences for most effective principals: Differential retention – Selected teachers that were more effective on average Some demonstration of greater growth, though this finding was not as detailed
From our community research on principals making largest gains in student achievement – we identify from public data but also from value added data – did comparison study Are these VISIBLE, SEEN AS A PRIORITY, CHANGE CONCEPTION OF ROLE Not surprising – instructional leader – though we found much deeper work on curriculum alignment, consistent routines and practices, and data driven instruction in the highest-gaining schools. Important to create more detailed expectations and rubrics for these areas Human capital manager – all in service of teacher effectiveness – relentless hiring and recruiting, clear expectations and evaluations, professional learning structures and protocols, building and developing an effective instructional leadership team (who can also do all of the instructional leadership roles) – often principals feel they don’t have these freedoms School Culture – not strongly enough mentioned in many standards – often only a sub-area, or only focused on “safety or discipline” – building beliefs about what students can do, develop a deep and consistent set of values and code of conduct