Instructional leadership is a complex dimension, which requires that principals possess expertise in goal setting, leading the instructional program, and creating the conditions for a successful school environment. Effective instructional leaders manage the instructional program by planning, coordinating, and evaluating the work of teachers and…

Purpose: Organizational learning (OL) has been conceptualized as a critical component in school change processes. Nevertheless, OL in the school context is still somewhat obscure and difficult to comprehend, thus it is rarely translated into operational structures and processes and later permanently sustained. The purpose of this study is to…

According to a national poll of high school students that the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) and the Kentucky Student Voice Team developed in 2022, students are not getting the information they need. State, district, and local education leaders must take actions to help students, their communities, and schools by sharing information about context,…

The U.S. education system is facing severe challenges, including student learning loss, declining academic performance, a youth mental health crisis, and increasing absenteeism. Yet these challenges also provide a catalyst for transformational change. But a new paradigm for education cannot be done without the support for transformative school…

This study focuses on the culturally responsive leadership practices of a South Texas school principal. Texas ranks second out of 10 states with the highest emergent bilingual enrollment. Culturally responsive leadership integrates a dynamic view of the socio-political and cultural contexts in a school setting. As the student population becomes…

While facilitating a data dialogue concerning racial opportunity gaps in an elementary school, Evelyn Nguyen, a preservice principal candidate, overheard a disturbing and racialized dialogue among third-grade teachers. Evelyn had to decide whether to move an uncomfortable and emotional discussion forward or segue to the next item on the agenda to…

All students, regardless of race or ethnicity, benefit from having teachers and school leaders of color. Since principals of color are often more likely to hire and retain teachers of color, increasing school leader diversity is a key lever for addressing educational inequities. To provide advocates and policymakers with context on this important…

Systems thinking involves attempts to understand and improve complex systems, examines systems holistically, and focuses on the way that a system's constituent parts interrelate. This essay provides examples of how systems thinking can enable principals to demonstrate instructional leadership and nurture learning-focused schools in the current era…

This research summary provides the key findings and interpretive summary--chapters 3 and 4--from the full report, "Reaching for Improvement: Teacher Evaluation and its Role in Instructional Improvement." The full report contains additional details on the context, methodology, and findings of this study. This document has minor…

In this policy forum commentary, we call for improved national and state-level data collection and access relevant to the principal pipeline. We focus specifically on how access to quality data can inform, has informed, and is critical to policy and practice across three segments of the principal pipeline--principal preparation, licensure, and…

Most districts help teachers use data to improve student learning, often supporting this effort with federal funds. But many teachers feel unprepared to use student data to inform their instruction -- referred to as data-driven instruction (DDI) -- and there is little evidence of whether it improves student achievement. One hundred and two…

State leaders are grappling with generation-defining challenges as they work to fully understand and address the impact of the pandemic on students and communities. As leaders turn their attention to the upcoming school year, data continues to be a critical tool for informing recovery efforts. Data Quality Campaign's (DQC) 2021 public opinion…

Multiple researchers have described walkthroughs as effective ways for instructional leaders (commonly principals, but also various other roles like assistant principals and teacher coaches) to play an active role in generating focused, qualitative data to inform schoolwide improvement efforts (Bole & Farizo, 2013; Starrett, 2015). In addition…

This report describes examples of actions that school principals have taken in trying to lead turnaround. Most principals have either not worked in a turnaround situation or have fallen short in a turnaround attempt, despite their best efforts. Not all of the principals highlighted in this report have successfully turned around their schools, but…

Today's school principals face unprecedented challenges that can overwhelm even the most dedicated among them. What can they do when their initial enthusiasm for the job begins to deflate, when the demands of the job seem to outnumber the rewards? How can they regain the energy that propelled them early in their career? "The Principal…