In Part II of this special two-part EdLeader series on the Effect of Principals, Dr. Jackson sits down with fellow former State Principals of the Year to review the recently released Wallace Foundation Report, "How Principals Affect Students and Schools: A Systematic Synthesis of Two Decades of Research." The researchers found that "an effective principal’s impact is stronger and broader than previously thought, making it “difficult to envision” a higher return on investment in K-12 education than the cultivation of high-quality school leadership, according to this research synthesis."
In a previous episode, Dr. Jackson spoke with Dr. Anna Egalite, coauthor of the Wallace Foundation Report on how principals affect students and schools, to delve into the research from the researcher's point of view. This time, skilled practitioners dig into the study's findings and find much that resonates with their practice.
Ms. Kisha Clemons is the 2020 Wells Fargo North Carolina Principal of the Year. She is currently the principal at Shuford Elementary in Newton-Conover City Schools and a doctoral student in the Educational Leadership Department at UNC-Greensboro.
Dr. Carrie Tulbert is currently in her 11th year as a middle school principal. She is the 2014 North Carolina Principal of the Year. Carrie is a graduate of Wingate University with her Ed.S and Ed.D.
Mr. Tabari Wallace earned a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree in Rehabilitation from East Carolina University. In 2018, he was named North Carolina’s Principal of the Year. He was a recent guest on the Ellen show and is a passionate educator.
Dr. Rob Jackson on Twitter
EdLeaderPod on Twitter
How Principals Affect Students and Schools: A Systematic Synthesis of Two Decades of Research by Dr. Jason A. Grissom, Vanderbilt University; Dr. Anna J. Egalite, North Carolina State University; and Dr. Constance A. Lindsay, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Summary of Key Findings - How Principals Affect Students and Schools
1. Effective principals are at least as important for student achievement as previous reports have concluded—and in fact, their importance may not have been stated strongly enough.
2. Principals have substantively important effects that extend beyond student achievement.
3. Effective principals orient their practice toward instructionally-focused interactions with teachers, building a productive school climate, facilitating collaboration and professional learning communities, and strategic personnel and resource management processes.
4. Principals must develop an equity lens, particularly as they are called on to meet the needs of growing numbers of marginalized students.
5. Effective principals are not equitably distributed across schools.
6. Principals are becoming more racially and ethnically diverse, but representation gaps with students are growing, which is concerning, given the payoffs to principal diversity.
7. Research on school principals is highly variable, and the field requires new investment in a rigorous, cohesive body of research. (as summarized by the NCDPI Weekly Top Ten)
