Purpose: We examine the extent to which assistant principals' time spent in different leadership roles (instructional leadership, student affairs, and school management) is associated with their perceptions of the evaluation system. We focus on this outcome because individuals are more likely to engage with evaluation feedback if they have…

School leaders, specifically principals, play a pivotal role in shaping student learning outcomes. The benefits of strong leaders extend beyond academic achievement, such as reductions in absenteeism and exclusionary discipline. While quality principals are critical for creating and sustaining quality schools, the staffing pipeline is facing…

Research was limited when it came to the roles and responsibilities of middle school assistant principals. Even less research was dedicated to how middle school teachers perceived the roles and responsibilities of their assistant principals. Due to the overall lack of research regarding both facets, further research was necessary to form a better…

Assistant principals (APs) are important education personnel, but empirical evidence about their career outcomes remains scarce. Using administrative data from Tennessee and Missouri, we provide the first comprehensive analysis of AP mobility. While prior work focuses on promotions into principal positions, we also examine APs exiting school…

Building from previous research on self-efficacy, sustained professional development, instructional leadership, and the science of reading, this quantitative correlational study explored the interrelationship among 51 purposively sampled Tennessee's elementary turnaround leaders' participation in sustained, systematic early literacy professional…

Assistant principals are important education personnel, both as essential members of school leadership teams and apprentice principals. However, empirical evidence on their career outcomes remains scarce. Using statewide administrative data from Tennessee and Missouri, we provide the first comprehensive analysis of AP mobility. While prior work…

In this qualitative case study of a district-led, school leader preparation program in Tennessee during the 2021-2022 school year, I sought to reveal district stakeholder perceptions using an open-ended questionnaire, on the design, possible benefits, and possible challenges of the district's Associate Principal Program. For this study,…

The purpose of this article is to examine a 'grow your own' model of leadership preparation and placement of educational administrators in the state of Tennessee. The growing need for school and district administrators in the rural counties of Tennessee mirrors a nationwide issue, and state policymakers and practitioners must respond appropriately…

Previous reports suggest that administrators rarely dismiss low-performing teachers despite the changing policy landscape allowing them to do so. This brief uses survey data from Tennessee to investigate the underlying reasons explaining administrators' decisions to retain low-performing teachers. The presented analysis suggests that…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the factors influencing school systems' decisions behind crafting, developing, and revising differentiated pay plans that require districts to abandon the practice of providing only across-the-board salary increases for experience and advanced degrees by adding at least one additional criterion for…

Over the past 25 years, the number of assistant principals has been steadily increasing, as has the number of principals with prior experience as an assistant principal. However, the knowledge base on assistant principals has not grown in parallel with their increased presence in schools. There is also little discussion about how the assistant…

In their plans to carry out the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states universally recognize what New Leaders has long known: "leadership changes everything." In fact, every single state has committed to directing some portion of its federal funding into investments in leadership--from teacher leaders to principals and…

This research study addressed measuring the level of instructional leadership effectiveness of the high school assistant principal and the high school instructional leadership teams (ILT) at over forty (40) Shelby County Schools. More specifically, this research study examined their impact on teacher effectiveness and student achievement in their…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate whether an administrators' professional teaching background and years of administrative experience influence their perceptions of the opportunities and challenges they face guiding the improvement of teaching and learning. Specifically this research analyzed administrators' perceptions of…

New Leaders created the Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) initiative in 2006 to learn from educators driving achievement gains in high-need urban schools. EPIC identifies school leaders and teachers whose students are making significant achievement gains and financially rewards these educators in exchange for sharing and documenting…