An Exploration of the Role of the Principal Supervisor in Mid-Size Districts in Supporting Principals' Instructional Leadership

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: District Leadership in Complexity: Navigating Competing Demands of Academic Excellence, Evidence-Based Decision-Making, Inclusion, and Care in a Time of Crisis

Abstract

The principal supervisor role has been redesigned in many large urban districts, but we know little about how principal supervisors in mid-size districts contribute to principals’ instructional leadership growth. This qualitative case study addresses this gap by examining how district shepherds (aka principal supervisors) enact their roles and by exploring the key work tasks in which they engage with principals at underperforming schools in 5 mid-sized districts enrolled in one university partnership program. We found that district shepherds who provided support to principals, and did not supervise, mostly engaged in talk moves and classroom observations with principals. District shepherds who also served as the principals’ supervisors (i.e. evaluators) engaged in joint work tasks related to principals’ roles as instructional leaders.

Authors

• Rebecca Ann Thessin, The George Washington University

• Coby Meyers, University of Virginia

• Elizabeth Leisy Stosich, Fordham University