Building a Principal Pipeline.

• Author: Exstrom, Michelle
• Position: TRENDS - Wallace Foundation initiative for school leadership, partnership with school districts in North Carolina, Colorado, Georgia, Florida, New York, and Maryland

As schools struggle to improve student achievement, lawmakers are looking for solutions by strengthening the role of the school principal. Research shows that school leadership is second only to teaching in school-related factors that affect students' learning. Good leaders create the working and learning conditions needed to recruit and retain qualified teachers and build the strong community found in effective schools.

The Wallace Foundation partnered with six large urban school districts in 2011 to create a pipeline of well-prepared principals. The ongoing initiative is built on a cohesive system of training, hiring and supporting future administrators.

Research on what's working--and what isn't--is now emerging.

Adopting strong standards for the principal position and improving hiring practices have produced the biggest bang for the buck. Other successful policies include encouraging university and district partnerships to improve principal preparation, creating statewide leadership academies based on best practices, mentoring beginners, creating data systems that allow districts and states to identify where leaders are most needed and offering more pay for serving in struggling schools or areas of shortages.

States are working to put these policies into practice. Since Tennessee won its Race to the Top grant, it has stuck to its goal of improving student achievement and has found success on recent National Assessment of Educational Progress reports, aka the Nation's Report Card. State education officials...