Growing Your Own Leadership Pipeline: The Case of an Urban School Leadership Residency

• In Event: New Advances in the Preparation, Supervision, and Evaluation of Principals

Abstract

Objective and Perspective. Rather than hiring from a pool of school principal candidates prepared by local universities, school districts may choose to play a more hands-on role in preparing their own future principals (Corcoran, Schwartz, & Weinstein, 2012; Gates, Baird, Doss, et al., 2019; Gates, Baird, Master, & Chavez-Herrerias, 2019; Korach & Cosner, 2017). In most U.S. states, school administrative preparation and licensure require several years of classroom teaching experience, passing a state licensure test, and obtaining a graduate-level degree in school administration or leadership (Campbell & Gross, 2012). But in some cases, localities have developed alternative administrator preparation and licensure routes that feature on-the-job training and embedded professional development. These alternative routes have arisen to address regional shortages in licensed school leaders as well as concerns about variation in traditional preparation program quality (Herrington & Wills, 2005).
Data and Methods. This paper presents implementation results from a case study of a school leadership residency program in a small U.S. city. Forty-two promising educators (referred to as residents in this program), most of whom were experienced teachers in local schools, were hired as junior administrators or teacher leaders and provided with two years of intensive leadership professional development in the urban district located in this city. Our implementation analysis draws on data collected over a three-year period from annual focus groups with 35 residents in their first or second years in the program, annual interviews with a subset of 12 longitudinal case study participants, and interviews with 4 mentor principals and 4 district or charter management organization administrators.
Results. In this study, residents reported that they felt able to support teaching and learning in schools that had adopted a distributed leadership approach. These were disproportionately schools staffed by graduates of the residency program. Residents in assistant administrative roles reported greater alignment between their jobs and the expectations of the residency program compared to those in teacher leadership roles. Over four years, residents’ career paths diverged markedly, highlighting the need for districts to leverage aspiring leaders in a variety of formal and informal roles.
Significance. School systems contemplating the launch of similar leadership residency programs should consider the local demand for principals relative to supply. In addition, they may also wish to consider the following recommendations: (a) frame the mentor principal's role as a core part of the program; (b) increase the centrality of culturally relevant and operational leadership skills in addition to instructional and school climate leadership; (c) attempt to co-locate program residents in the same schools, especially in schools staffed by more-senior residents or program graduates; and (d) encourage a distributed leadership approach to instructional improvement across schools.

Authors

• Jennifer L. Steele, American University

• Elizabeth D Steiner, RAND Corporation

• Laura S. Hamilton, ETS