Solutions for Principals

Supporting and Retaining Veteran Principals

With attention focused on recruiting and retaining quality teachers and school leaders, veteran principals have had minimal opportunities for coherent and sustained professional development. Yet they are expected to operate in a rapidly changing and highly charged environment where the landscape is substantially different from what it was just ten years ago.

Principals today are expected to be true instructional leaders, focusing relentlessly on improving student achievement, and inspirational leaders who effectively lead and manage change smoothly. The knowledge and skills for successful instructional and inspirational leadership is vast and, in response to emerging mandates and priorities, growing. In response, some principals aggressively seek the support and training they need. Others wait for district/state workshops for meetings of professional organizations. Still others leave the profession.

Teachscape proposes an approach to improving principal quality and retention that focuses on ensuring principals have opportunities to deepen and enhance their knowledge and skills relative to 21st-century demands and on offering effective principals the opportunities to mentor and support new principals. This solution requires Teachscape to wok closely with states and districts to:

• Strengthen 21st-century instructional leadership skills, including leading change, using data to inform instructional decisions, and promoting and supporting strategies to improve student achievement
• Provide intensive support to principals in charge of schools designated as in need of improvement
• Provide training and support to enable veteran leaders to effectively mentor and develop new principals

Strategies to enable this resource include face-to-face and online guided and independent professional studies coupled with coaching support to ensure implementation of the featured strategies and techniques.

Strengthen 21st-Century Instructional Leadership Skills: Believing the adage that "what got you here won't get you there," Teachscape proposes offering veteran principals opportunities to develop knowledge and skills appropriate to addressing emerging issues and concerns. This will include:

• Surveying principals to determine the professional learning they are most interested in, relative to a set of pre-selected topics that include leading change, using data to inform instructional decisions, and promoting and supporting strategies to improve student achievement
• Supporting the fullest participation possible by providing the professional learning through a variety of formats, seminars, webcasts, institutes, Podcasts, Internet-based learning, at-elbow coaching, and others
• Ensuring comprehensive and coherent professional learning by providing Teachscape coaches to collaborate with the principals in developing individual professional development plans

Provide Intensive Support to Principals in Charge of Schools Designated as in Need of Improvement: Schools designated in need of improvement are often challenged by consequences of failing to meet AYP and, while technical assistance is provided to address the requirements of the process, implementing the improvement strategies is often left up to the school. Teachscape proposes providing intensive support to schools in need of improvement. This support will include:

• Advising the overall implementation of the improvement strategies and processes, including in the development of plans for instructional improvement, teacher mentoring, use of Title I professional development set-aside, SES activities, and others
• Providing data-informed professional development for teachers that reflects actual student learning needs and engages the principal and leadership team in monitoring implementation of the professional learning strategies and measuring their impact through a customized classroom walkthrough tool and process
• Supporting the school community in using data to monitor student achievement, track changes over time, and identify and implement data-informed instructional decisions

Provide Training and Support to Enable Veteran Leaders to Effectively Mentor and Develop New Principals: Veteran principals are both interested in supporting their new colleagues and appropriate for the task. Teachscape leadership coaches will help ensure their success by:

• Developing a data-informed program of professional study that focuses on ensuring the mentors fill any gaps in their educational leadership knowledge and refine their professional mentoring skills to better support new leaders. These mentoring skills will include skills such as effective communication, action research studies, modeling, and a range of others.
• Providing ongoing support and advisement for the mentors. Teachscape coaches will mentor the mentors, not only offering needed support, but also modeling effective ways to build trusting, reflective relationships.