Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K) programs are becoming increasingly common in elementary schools across the United States--in fact, a recent analysis of federal data revealed that 57% of public schools have a Pre-K grade. Despite the prevalence of Pre-K programs in schools, principals--known to be among the most important factors in school success--often…

In 2014, The Wallace Foundation launched the Principal Supervisor Initiative (PSI), a four-year, $24 million effort to redefine principal supervision in six urban school districts. The PSI aimed to help districts overhaul a position traditionally focused on administration, operations, and compliance to one dedicated to developing and supporting…

The purpose of this descriptive embedded case study is to address a reading literacy problem at a rural school district through a principal's instructional leadership and to determine whether student outcomes improved. Campus principals are tasked with the responsibility of ensuring every student receives high-quality instruction that aligns with…

Given the increasing emphasis on student achievement in the public school setting the development of building leadership is vitally important. As a school-based factor, principal leadership is second in its impact only to the effects of the classroom teacher (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004; Darling-Hammond, Davis, LaPointe, and…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Pathway to Leadership in Urban Schools (PLUS) program as implemented in a large urban school district. The program was designed to select and develop school assistant principals (APs) to be more effective at instructional leadership. The study spanned four school years, 2015/16 through 2018/19, and…

The 21st-century job description for school principals requires greater areas of leadership and accountability utilizing student data to improve instruction as mandated by state legislative reforms. The Principal's accountability is measured using the principal evaluation system. The general problem is that many principal evaluation systems are…

Research over the past 35 years consistently reveals that principals spend minimal amounts of time on instructional leadership activities. Similarly, we know very little about how principals might be trained to change their time allocation to focus more on instructional leadership tasks. The paper describes the implementation and the time use of…

In today's world of accountability, the preparation of school leaders has never been more critical. Many states are now developing policies and processes that seek to enhance school leadership preparation programs. Enhancing school leadership preparation programs is particularly important in the area of instructional leadership because research…

Each school should have a well-prepared principal capable of improving student performance. While principal preparation advocates identify important program features (e.g., extended internships), few studies assess the impact of placing new principals trained by programs exhibiting these features on student learning. Using comparative interrupted…

This report presents a snapshot of selected features of the condition of education in Wisconsin in 2019. With support from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute for Education Sciences, and in collaboration with colleagues at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), the authors set out to measure practices in PK-12 education…

This research study intended to discover the perceptions of 10 Illinois Generation Y novice high school principals pertaining to the effectiveness of their principal preparation programs in terms of how well it prepared them to lead in the first three years of their principalship, and what subsequent professional development they deemed necessary…

The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) is making significant strides in guiding and supporting the implementation of Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) as well as a teacher and principal evaluation (TPE) system statewide. MSDE support focuses on helping districts prepare for full SLO implementation by providing technical assistance with…

The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) provides grants to support performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in high-need schools. The study measures the impact of pay-for-performance bonuses as part of a comprehensive compensation system within a large, multisite random assignment study design. The treatment schools were to…

The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) provides grants to support performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in high-need schools. The study measures the impact of pay-for-performance bonuses as part of a comprehensive compensation system within a large, multisite random assignment study design. The treatment schools were to…

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of public school leaders about principal leadership for special education in ten leadership categories: understanding law and policy, using data to improve teacher performance, using data to improve student performance, creating an inclusive culture, collaborating with families,…