Transcript Slide 1
The Principal’s Impact on Student Achievement
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Teacher and Leader Effectiveness Student Achievement
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Leading and teaching is challenging work.
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What do good principals do?
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Design a Principal
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Personal Qualities • Caring • Commitment • Fairness • Focus • Professional • Etc.
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What do Good Principals Do?
Instructional Leadership Professionalism Communication & Community Relations The Principal Organizational Management School Climate Human Resources Management
Stronge and Associates Educational Consulting, LLC The Principal’s Impact on Student Achievement
Two Facts and a Fib
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Instructional Leadership
1. Principals of high-achieving schools have a clear vision and communicate to all stakeholders that learning is the school’s most important mission.
2. A transformational leadership style yields greater student achievement effects than an instructional leadership style.
3. Effective principals understand that they cannot reach instructional goals alone, so they distribute leadership across their schools, which in turn contributes to sustainable improvements within the school organization.
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Instructional Leadership
1. Principals of high-achieving schools have a clear vision and communicate to all stakeholders that learning is the school’s most important mission (Cotton, 2003; Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005; Zmuda, Kuklis, & Kline, 2004).
2. FALSE!
A transformational leadership style yields greater student achievement effects than an instructional leadership style.
There is growing evidence that basic “instructional” leadership activities have a greater impact on student learning than a focus on transformational leadership (Hattie, 2009). 3. Effective principals understand that they cannot reach instructional goals alone, so they distribute leadership across their schools, which in turn contributes to sustainable improvements within the school organization (Blasé & Blasé, 1999; Hargreaves & Fink, 2003).
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School Climate
1. There is a positive relationship between school climate and leadership, which affects overall school effectiveness.
2. Attempting to change the prevailing culture of a school is one of the more time-consuming, yet easiest tasks of the school leader.
3. Relationship-building and stakeholder involvement are of fundamental importance in establishing and sustaining school success.
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School Climate
1. There is a positive relationship between school climate and leadership, which affects overall school effectiveness (Barth, 2002; Hallinger, Bickman, & Davis, 1996; Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005; Villani, 1997).
2. FALSE!
Attempting to change the prevailing culture of a school is one of the more time-consuming, yet easiest tasks of the school leader. Attempting to change the prevailing culture of a school is one of the more difficult tasks of the school leader (Barth, 2002; Fullan, 2001).
3. Relationship-building and stakeholder involvement are of fundamental importance in establishing and sustaining school success (Cotton, 2003; Fullan, 2001; Kytheotis & Pashiartis, 1998; Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005).
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Human Resources Management
1. The principals of effective schools work with ineffective teachers over an extended period of time to improve their performance.
2. Effective administrators provide the time, resources, and structure for meaningful professional development and recognize the teacher leadership within the building.
3. Principals who are risk takers and who help in problem solving are more likely to empower and retain teachers.
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Human Resources Management
1. FALSE! The principals of effective schools work with ineffective teachers over an extended period of time to improve their performance.
Principals of effective schools expect ineffective teachers to change, or they are removed (Mendro, 1998) .
2. Effective administrators provide the time, resources, and structure for meaningful professional development and recognize the teacher leadership within the building (Blasé & Blasé, 2001; Cotton, 2003; Drago-Severson, 2004; Fullan, Bertani , & Quinn, 2004).
3. Principals who are risk takers and who help in problem solving are more likely to empower and retain teachers (Blasé & Blasé, 2001; Charlotte Advocates for Education, 2004).
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Organizational Management
1. Maintaining a safe and orderly environment can affect teaching and learning positively and is therefore a fundamental responsibility of school administrators.
2. Principals of effective schools respect teachers’ skills and judgment, but limit their autonomy in organizing and managing their classrooms. 3.
The principal’s skill in organizational management (e.g., hiring, providing PD, managing budgets) has a greater impact on school effectiveness than observing in classrooms.
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Organizational Management
1. Maintaining a safe and orderly environment can affect teaching and learning positively and is therefore a fundamental responsibility of school administrators (Cotton, 2003; Lashway, 2001; Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005; Shellard, 2003).
2. FALSE! Principals of effective schools respect teachers’ skills and judgment, but limit their autonomy in organizing and managing their classrooms. Effective principals allow their teachers considerable autonomy in managing and organizing their classrooms (Cotton, 2003).
3. The principal’s skill in organizational management (e.g., hiring, providing PD, managing budgets) has a greater impact on school effectiveness than observing in classrooms (Horng, Klasik, & Loeb, 2009).
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Communication & Community Relations
1. Successful school leaders must be able to work effectively with parent, community, business, and government representatives.
2. Relationship-building and stakeholder involvement are of fundamental importance in establishing and sustaining school success.
3. While important, principals seldom lose their jobs for negative interpersonal relationships.
Stronge and Associates Educational Consulting, LLC Communication & Community Relations 1. Successful school leaders must be able to work effectively with parent, community, business, and government representatives (Leithwood & Riehl, 2003).
2. Relationship-building and stakeholder involvement are of fundamental importance in establishing and sustaining school success (Cotton, 2003; Fullan, 2001; Kytheotis & Pashiartis, 1998; Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005).
3. FALSE! While important, principals seldom lose their jobs for negative interpersonal relationships. The number one reason that principals lose their jobs is for negative interpersonal relationships (Davis, 1998).
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Professionalism
1. Effective principals communicate and model core values through their interactions with students and teachers; most importantly, they model that they care for and have a genuine concern for children. 2. Effective principals balance responsibilities associated with educating students with the needs of teachers.
3. Effective principals should receive professional development that focuses mainly on their roles and responsibilities.
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Professionalism
1. Effective principals communicate and model core values through their interactions with students and teachers; most importantly, they model that they care for and have a genuine concern for children (Cotton, 2003).
2. Effective principals balance responsibilities associated with educating students with the needs of teachers (Gross & Shapiro, 2000; Tschannen-Moran, 2004) 3. FALSE!
Effective principals should receive professional development that focuses mainly on their roles and responsibilities. Just as important is professional development with a focus on the nuances of context that affect their decisions. The
when
2004).
and
why
are just as critical as the
what
and
how
(Waters & Grubb,
Stronge and Associates Educational Consulting, LLC Overall Impact of Principals 1. The quickest way to change the effectiveness of a school, for better or worse, is to change the principal.
2. The principal variable accounts for between 2% and 8% of the variance in student test scores.
3. Principals in high performing schools place higher pressure on their teachers to perform well on standardized tests.
Stronge and Associates Educational Consulting, LLC Overall Impact of Principals 1. The quickest way to change the effectiveness of a school, for better or worse, is to change the principal.
2. The principal variable accounts for between 2% and 8% of the variance in student test scores.
3. False! Principals in high performing schools place higher pressure on their teachers to perform well on standardized tests.
“
Principals in lower performing schools are more likely to modify their leadership focus to place a greater emphasis on improving test scores. Principals in higher performing schools seemed to focus on educating the whole child rather than simply concentrating on raising test scores” (Reed et al., 2001).
Stronge and Associates Educational Consulting, LLC Quiz “Grading”: How’d You Do?
# of Correct Answers Classification
8+ You can’t count 6 – 7 Major genius 4 – 5 2 – 3 Regular sort of genius Not too shabby 1 0 Thanks for playing; please try again Good news! Zero is as low as you can go!
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Instructional Leadership
• Building a Vision • Sharing Leadership • Leading Learning Community • Using Data • Monitoring Curriculum & Instruction
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School Climate
• Positive Climate • High Expectations • Practice of Respect
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Human Resources Management
• Selecting Quality Teachers & Others • Inducting & Supporting Staff • Providing Growth Opportunities • Retaining Quality Staff • Evaluating Teachers
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Hiring Effective principals know the hiring system and use the information to gain access to the best possible candidates.
Hallinger & Heck, 1996
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Fragmented HR Functions
Hire Evaluate Develop
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Aligned HR Functions
Hire Develop Evaluate Develop
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Teacher Evaluation
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Grade Inflation
Chicago: 2003-04 through 2007-08 Superior
25,332
Excellent
9,176
Satisfactory
2,232
Unsatisfactory
149
New Teacher Project, Widget Effect, 2009
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Organizational Management
• Safety • Daily Operations • Facilities Maintenance • Securing & Using Resources
Stronge and Associates Educational Consulting, LLC Communication & Community Relations • Effective Communicator • Communicate with Families • Communicate with Larger Community
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Professionalism
• Ethical Standards • Role Model • Professional Development for the Principal
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What is the impact of principals on student achievement?
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Teachers
30%
Home
5-10%
School
5-10%
Peers
5-10%
Students
50% Hattie, http://acer.edu.au/documents (2003)
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“ …the principal pipeline seems to leak”
Viadero, 2009, Oct 28, EdWeek, p. 14
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Average Tenure of Principals
Elementary School = 4.96 years Middle School = 4.48 years High School = 3.38 years Study of Texas 16,500+ principals, 1995-2008 Fuller & Young, 2009, UCEA
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Principal Turnover
After 6 years – percentage still working as principals: North Carolina: Illinois: 48% 38% Gates, RAND Corp., 2004
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The harder I work the luckier I am.
Gary Player
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… but it is hard work.
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