The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) has received a $435,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to study principals in Washington State and how they are hired and supported by the state’s school districts.
With new statewide teacher and principal evaluation provisions and an upcoming transition to Common Core State Standards, Washington is counting on its principals to drive school success everywhere in the state — from urban centers in the Puget Sound to small rural districts in the east and southwest. Do they have what they need? Are they prepared for the demands they face? How are districts helping?
Led by CRPE’s Policy Director Christine Campbell and Research Analyst Michael DeArmond, this 18-month project looks at these questions by examining the attributes and career paths of Washington State’s principal workforce, the ways in which the state’s school districts currently hire and support principals, and how principals view policy proposals for improving school leadership. Using a combination of administrative data and original surveys of school leaders and school districts, the project will examine who is leading Washington’s schools, how they got there, and what they need to succeed. These findings are intended to help state and district policymakers find ways to improve the pipeline and supports for high-quality school leaders.
This study is part of CRPE’s work on how states and districts can manage talent to better support school and student success and, more broadly, how state education agencies can oversee and support districts and school improvement in new and more productive ways.
On October 30, Campbell and DeArmond presented a webinar on “Washington State Principals: New Data on Who They Are and the Schools They Lead.” View the slides from the webinar.
