Case Studies of Promising KIPP Leadership Practices

• In Event: Understanding the Effects of KIPP as It Scales Up

Abstract

In this paper, we document promising leadership practices observed in five KIPP regions that demonstrated some of the highest student achievement impacts in our analyses of KIPP elementary, middle, and high schools. We conducted semi-structured interviews and guided observations to understand how these KIPP regions, and specific schools within each region, structured leadership teams, planned for leadership needs in new and existing schools, and selected, developed, and evaluated leaders. We visited 15 schools in the five KIPP regions to interview 130 respondents, including regional staff, principals, vice and assistant principals, teacher-leaders such as grade level and department chairs, and teachers interested in future leadership. We also observed six leadership team meetings, five coaching sessions, and a community of practice event to identify best practices in leadership planning and development across these regions and schools.

Our case studies suggest that KIPP regional staff strongly value informal leadership practices led by principals and other school-level leaders, but attempt to balance these practices with more formal programming through the KIPP Foundation and at the regional level. In determining leadership team structures, KIPP regional staff give considerable leeway to schools to best accommodate their needs and school communities. When planning for leadership needs, regional staff are heavily involved in strategizing about leader transitions to establish new schools and place new leaders in existing schools. Regional and school leaders in all five regions have mainly used closed and informal selection processes for selecting new leaders, but leaders in at least four regions have recently started using open and formal selection processes for some leadership positions. Throughout the five regions, KIPP regional staff and principals focused on cultivating leaders through both structured programming, such as regional trainings and communities of practice, and less formal practices, including intensive coaching, role-plays of difficult discussions, and assigning “stretch” activities as development opportunities.

All five KIPP regions reported facing internal and external pressures in sustaining and retaining current leaders and potential future leaders. Common pressures included staff leaving for other professional opportunities, including leadership positions in other charter school networks; complaints that salaries were uneven or inadequate; and concerns about slow regional growth, which has resulted in fewer new schools and leadership opportunities for staff. Regions responded to these pressures by introducing awards and recognition for staff and leaders, broadening and/or creating new leadership opportunities and responsibilities, and allowing for more flexibility in the typically-demanding KIPP school schedule. Standardizing and increasing rigor in evaluation systems represented a major potential area of growth throughout all five regions, with some leaders wanting more thorough and objective evaluation systems, and others thinking this was unnecessary. Many leaders expressed that the support of the national KIPP network was instrumental, because of its KIPP School Leadership Programs training for leaders at all levels.

This paper presents a detailed documentation of school leadership practices within the largest and most-prominent charter-school network in the country, offering an opportunity to understand leadership mechanisms within KIPP regions and schools.

Authors

• Mary Anne Anderson, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc

• Alyson Burnett, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc

• Virginia Knechtel, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc