EFFECTIVE PRINCIPALS

Policy Action: Invest in Principals and Empower Them to be Effective

At present, Illinois grants more than 2,500 Type 75 certificates, the license required to be a principal or administrator in public schools, each year. Only a small fraction of these newly licensed administrators will ever become principals. Why? First, Illinois fills just 400 or so principal vacancies each year. Second, many candidates gain their Type 75 certificates simply as a means of boosting their salary, with little intention of ever seeking an administrative position.27

What this means is that Illinois can and should afford to be much more selective in recruiting and admitting candidates. This involves moving beyond an admissions process that entails little more than filling out an application form and making a tuition payment, and creating a certificate that is exclusively for principals, rather than for an array of administrative positions.

Illinois is overdue to revisit and revise the content of its preparation programs to match up with new leadership standards and expanded skill sets. As it stands, for example, few programs train principal candidates in essential skills, such as using data to inform instruction, engaging parents and community partners, or evaluating teachers with an eye toward developing talent.

As importantly, the state does not have an agreed-upon way to measure principal effectiveness. Indeed, until recently, Illinois did not even require that principals be evaluated. It is essential that we get clear about the skills necessary to successfully lead a school, and equally clear about identifying success when we see it. It is this performance that should drive the training principals receive, their evaluations and development, and any decisions about which principals to certify and which preparation programs to accredit.

Clearly define what it means to be an effective principal, and require more rigorous evaluations. Until 2006, Illinois did not require that its principals be evaluated. Now, principals are evaluated at least once every contract cycle. The next step is to ensure that these evaluations are meaningful.

Rigorous and research-based evaluation tools and methods are emerging around the country. Illinois should adopt a comprehensive, standards-based evaluation framework for principals that incorporates data on (1) student achievement and persistence, (2) academic rigor and support, and (3) teacher recruitment, impact, satisfaction and professional climate (including how effectively principals evaluate teachers).

Revamp principal preparation and tighten entry and accreditation standards. Per the recommendations of the State Leader Task Force, Illinois should toughen the basic entry requirements and standards required to be a principal.28 With leadership from the Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois Board of Higher Education and key Task Force partners, this work is well underway, and the General Assembly should promptly adopt recommendations as they come forward.

Once Illinois establishes more substantive and rigorous entry and program requirements, all current programs should be required to reapply for accreditation against these new standards.

Finally, going forward, accreditation of programs should be tied not only to the quality of the coursework and field experiences provided, but to the performance of graduates in the field —arguably the most important evidence of a program’s impact.

Base certification on demonstrated effectiveness in the field. It is increasingly clear that a principal’s ultimate effectiveness is virtually impossible to determine on the basis of background and training alone. Instead, the most reliable way to determine which principals have the skill set necessary to earn certification is to see how they perform in the field. Accordingly, Illinois should move to a two-tiered certification system, with “standard” certification following “initial” certification—and coming after a period of time in the field, based upon a candidate’s actual performance.

It is worth noting that Illinois has such a two-tiered certification system for teachers that adds little to the caliber of the state’s teaching force. This is largely due to the fact that movement from initial to standard certification is not based on a candidate’s performance. Linking standard certification to demonstrated performance—backstopped by publicly available data —is intended to make this a more rigorous process.

Empower principals to be school leaders. Not only must Illinois overhaul its system for recruiting, training and licensing principals, but the state and school districts should take steps to give effective principals the flexibility to build a school culture that challenges and supports students and teachers to excel. As it stands, principals have little control over the school schedule—both the amount of time available and how it is used—a situation that limits the ability to incorporate reme- dial and enrichment programming into the school day, to provide teachers time to collaborate or to integrate professional development into the calendar. Nor do principals exercise much control over their staffing (e.g., how many counselors they employ, whether or not they have enrichment positions) or over their budgets.

Freeing schools and districts to exercise greater control in each of these areas will take time and effort. As a first step, we recommend that the state make funds available to principals and superintendents with promising ideas for addressing priority areas, such as placing effective teachers with at-risk students, building stronger student supports, using teacher compensation more creatively to address academic priorities, and more. (See Innovation Fund)

Click here for "Expectations and Support"