Principal Turnover Impacts Student Achievement

As students in Washington, D.C., headed back to school this year, nearly one quarter of them were greeted by new principals [read the article]. In Pinellas County, Florida, 27 of the district’s 118 schools have new leaders at the helm this year, and 75 of those schools have had two or more principals over the past five years [read the article].

The high turnover rates among school leaders in those two districts are not all that unusual. High turnover is widespread. Such turnover is impacted by a wide range of causes, from early retirement packages offered to senior principals in order to generate budget savings to the appointment of new principals to turn around “failing” schools. In addition, some districts maintain policies that require principal rotation as a means of reinvigorating schools and their leaders.

Many of the reasons for school-leader turnover are unavoidable or can be justified. But districts would be wise to take notes from a study released in August that affirms the connection between strong and stable leadership and student achievement. Strong leadership has a more direct and meaningful impact on achievement than do factors such as geography or poverty, the study says.

The study also found that, on average, fairly rapid principal turnover (about one new principal every three to four years) can have negative effects on school culture. Principals newly assigned to schools who initially work within the existing culture of their schools -- rather than attempting to quickly, substantially change it -- are more likely to avoid negative turnover effects.

STRONG “COMMUNITIES” CAN WEATHER TURNOVER

According to the study, leaders are most effective when they see themselves as working collaboratively towards clear, common goals with district personnel, other principals, and teachers. District support for shared leadership -- including mentoring for new principals and professional development for all principals -- is the key.

The study also affirms that higher-performing schools ask for more input and engagement from a wider variety of stakeholders and provide more opportunities for influence by teachers. When teachers feel attached to a professional learning community, the impact on student learning is positive and measurable.

Most important of all, when teachers -- as well as parents and other community members -- are an integral part of the leadership in a school, they can often play a big role in ensuring that a change in leadership at the top will not negatively impact student achievement.

LEARN MORE

Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning
This study is the result of a six-year investigation of the links between leadership and student learning. It was commissioned by the Wallace Foundation and carried out by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement and the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education [read the study].

New Study Identifies Self-Control As One Key to Student Success

A study published in the July issue of Developmental Psychology confirms what you and all other educators already know: a child’s ability to exercise self-control is a determining factor in his or her success in school.

Indeed, self-control can be more important when it comes to ensuring student achievement than IQ or a host of other factors.

As a principal, you can walk into any classroom on any day and identify right away those students who are exercising self-control. You can see it in their ability to listen. You can see it in their focus. You can see it in their level of on-task behavior…

Your classroom observations -- and the recent study -- make the topic of self-control a perfect one for your next school-to-home “Principal’s Message” for parents.

TEACHING SELF-CONTROL

It used to be that students learned self-control at home. They learned the skills both directly and indirectly from parents and siblings, says Martin Henley, a professor of education at Westfield (Massachusetts) State College. But today, Henley adds, most teachers recognize that they play a large role in developing students' social skills, sense of responsibility, cooperative learning skills, and organizational abilities.

Can a teacher really teach the skills of self-control? Yes, says Henley, who helped identify a list of 20 social skills that comprise a student’s ability to exhibit self-control.

Just as there are reasons why some kids demonstrate self-control, there are reasons why others demonstrate deficiencies in self-control, added Henley. The fact that they were never taught the skills -- and never given opportunities to practice them -- are two of the main reasons. That’s why Henley developed Teaching Self-Control: A Curriculum for Responsible Behavior. His K-12 classroom curriculum provides specific activities for teaching all 20 social skills across the grades.

Parents still play a large role in teaching and reinforcing skills of self-control. For parents, the National Association of School Psychologists says it is important to select age-appropriate goals for children who are learning self-control. The key lies in setting simple, easily attained goals.

RESOURCES FOR PARENTS

If you take advantage of the release of this study as an opportunity to write about self-control in your next school-to-home newsletter, you might draw upon or share with parents these two fine resources:

Teaching Self-Control: Strategies for Parents
The National Association of School Psychologists offers strategies to help parents teach self-control and to help them deal with their child’s feelings as they teach the skills.

Teaching Your Child Self-Control
This KidsHealth.org article offers suggestions to help parents teach their children to control their behavior. Tips are provided for kids from infancy to adolescence.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCE

Teaching Self-Control: A Curriculum for Responsible Behavior
Education World chats with Martin Henley, creator of the Teaching Self-Control curriculum. Included: Twenty self-control skills all children need.

Who Said Rewards Don’t Work?

 
Who said rewards don’t work?

Certainly I’d like to think that making Honor Roll is reward enough and that ca$h supplements aren’t necessary. Maybe, too, kids shouldn’t earn prizes for doing the homework teachers expect them to do anyway. And perhaps giving gift certificates to the Golden Arches doesn’t send the best message to your Citizen of the Month.

But the fact is that rewards can help principals improve school climate and achieve school-wide goals.

Got an attendance problem? There’s nothing wrong with a little healthy competition between classrooms to see which one can score the Best Attendance award for the month, like Principal Frank Hagen did at Saint Michaels (Maryland) Middle School.

Looking for a way to keep kids focused on improving their grades? Principal Jeffrey Isaacs told us about a program that's been going on for six years at Whitney Point (New York) High School. Perhaps a school-wide program that rewards homerooms with points based on how much students pull up their class averages from quarter to quarter is one that would work in your school too.

School looking shabby? Maybe the incentive that Marcia Wright, principal of Clinton (Michigan) Elementary School, told us about would work for you. Each week, her school’s custodian awards one class with the Golden Dust Pan. On the strength of the custodian’s personality -- and with a dash of fun and very little expense -- that reward is doing its part to make the school sparkle in more ways than a white glove can reveal.

Those are just a few of the rewards that principals shared in an article posted last week on Education World, School-Wide Rewards Improve Behavior, Boost Achievement.

Even if talk of those kinds of rewards gives Alfie Kohn heart palpitations, principals can’t ignore the value of creative or fun or healthful rewards as tools for achieving school-wide goals and maybe even improving school climate and spirit.

Perhaps you’re doing something in your school that is working successfully to instill good work habits, reinforce good character, improve test scores, or build school community. If so, it would be excellent of you to take just a moment to click the pencil icon below to comment: to share what you’re doing as food for thought (even if your "food for thought" doesn’t involve chocolate or an end-of-year banquet) for principals who are looking for cool ways to recognize students’ extra efforts.