If You Train Them, Will They Lead? Building a High-Capacity School Leadership Pipeline in a Contracting Urban District

• In Event: The Role of Principal Professional Development and Evaluation in Promoting Effective School Leadership Practices

Abstract

Objective
This paper presents qualitative implementation results from a mixed-methods evaluation of a grow-your-own, two-year, school leadership residency program in a small, urban district in the eastern United States. Whereas the larger study examines school culture and student performance in schools staffed by residents relative to comparison schools, this paper focuses on implementation of the program and the experiences of residents during the program and in the first year following their residency. It examines residents’ perceptions of the formal training and leadership coaching offered by the program, their leadership experiences in their respective school placements, and their expectations of the leadership pipeline’s long-term sustainability in the district.

Framework
The paper draws on the theory of distributed leadership, in which the work of leading instructional improvement is distributed among individuals in formal and non-formal administrative roles, including teacher leaders (Spillane, Halverson, & Diamond, 2001). It also examines the tension around such an approach in a shrinking school district in which formal opportunities to lead schools are increasingly scarce.

Data Sources and Methods
As of the 2016-17 academic year, the program had selected and trained three cohorts of residents – 25 residents in total – about 56 percent of whom found residency placements in administrative roles in district or charter schools, with 44 percent finding placements in teacher leadership roles in district schools. Data were collected in one-hour focus groups with residents in the autumn of their first and second residency years and through individual, one-hour case study interviews with 3 to 4 residents from each cohort who were interviewed repeatedly each spring (from their entry into the program through spring 2017) about the evolution of their leadership roles and career goals. Altogether, 24 residents took part in at least one focus group, and 10 residents took part in the longitudinal case study interview process. Data were audio recorded, transcribed, thematically coded, and analyzed for common themes across cohorts and years, as well as for discrepant insights and perspectives.

Findings
Residents perceived a strong tension between the formal training and coaching they received from the program, which they perceived as highly rigorous and practical, and the constraints of their roles in their residency schools, where their job responsibilities limited their ability to carry out the instructional leadership tasks that the program emphasized. As residents advanced through and beyond the program, some saw the scarcity of future school leadership openings in the district as a signal that they might affect greater change by pursuing career pathways outside the district, and raised concerns about the sustainability of the culture of school leadership emphasized by the program.

Significance
The program studied here aims to build leadership capacity across the community, in district and charter schools, by creating a cadre of like-minded instructional leaders working in a variety of roles. The paper illuminates the tension between this long-term human capital strategy and the urgent pressures facing a contracting urban district.

Authors

• Jennifer L. Steele, American University

• Elizabeth D Steiner, RAND Corporation

• Laura S. Hamilton, RAND Corporation