“School Leadership Matters"

“School Leadership Matters: A guide for Connecticut donors, and education and legislative leaders”

Fairfield County boasts levels of education and wealth that are among the highest in the nation—but it is also home to one of the nation’s widest achievement gaps between African-American and Latino students and their white peers. This guide starts from the idea that principals are “ground zero” in the work of closing this gap. Recent studies have found that principals have a profound impact on student achievement, second only to that of classroom teachers. Yet the pipeline of excellent school leaders is faulty--principal preparation programs are inconsistent in rigor and quality, and have been too slow to adapt their programs to adequately prepare graduates to meet the real demands of the principalship. This guide outlines features of a strong principal preparation program. It also puts forth a model alternate route to the principal’s desk to ensure our new principals can turn urban schools into places where children succeed and teachers thrive. Readers can take note of the guide’s suggested action steps to help reach this goal.

CT Context

In May, Connecticut’s state legislature took a crucial step forward by passing SB 438 that created new pathways for our most talented classroom teachers to become principals. By maintaining selective admissions criteria but reducing burdensome coursework requirements—just as programs like Teach for America do for teacher certification—alternative certification programs can bring talented new principals to schools that need them. These programs will be critical for areas like Fairfield County, which—as this study points out—faces an impending school leader shortage, as 92 percent of current principals in Bridgeport, Danbury, Norwalk and Stamford plan to retire by 2012.

Source: The Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN), an advocacy organization building a new movement of concerned Connecticut citizens working to create fundamental change in our education system.

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