Why Invest in Leadership? It Matters
We all know how precarious the education landscape is these days. Between funding and political/social strife, finding and retaining teachers is a national problem. And now this problem is becoming a national issue for leaders, too. The pressures are enormous on our district and campus leaders to attract and retain their best teachers – and themselves. The Wallace Foundation has published a series of reports on how essential it is in today’s context to invest in leadership. For example, from this report we know that elective principals create strong outcomes:
- A synthesis of 20 years of research found that replacing a principal at the 25th percentile of electiveness with one at the 75th percentile of electiveness would yield roughly an additional three months of student learning in reading and math — close to the four months of gain produced by a teacher at the 75th percentile but over an entire school.
- Principal and teacher efforts go hand in hand, with the teacher as the key source of school-related influence in the classroom and the principal as the key source of school-related influence overall in the building. Principals also play vital roles in advancing equity.
We also know the risk of losing principals. It’s very costly and negatively impacts achievement and culture:
So, there are compelling reasons to invest. Great leadership is a win-win, in all ways.
How to Invest in Leadership? A little Analysis
Budgets are always on the minds of district and campus leaders. As mentioned before, the Wallace Foundation has published a guide that districts can use to create strategic leadership pipelines. That report is linked below, and we implore districts to consider utilizing the guide and its associated resources to create strong principal pipelines OR use the guide to improve upon existing pipeline efforts. It is a fantastic resource we want all districts to access and consider. A brief overview of the report’s implications is bulleted below.
- The Wallace Foundation report, Strong Pipelines, Strong Principals, is a strategy guide for districts to use to develop and support all levels of leaders.
- The guide shows how a vast array of federal funding can be used to do so, ranging from ESSER to all forms of ESSA funding, Higher Education Act (HEA), and even IDEA.
- The Department of Education strongly suggests districts scrutinize their allocations of federal funds to ascertain if they are getting their return on investment in what they are applying their funds to.
- The Department notes that in their studies of how federal funding is used by districts, that many “flip the funding” from one year to the next to avoid audits and because it is simple to do. They advise against this.
- HOWEVER, the Department also pointed out that for less that .5% of its Title funding (see webinar here, @14:40), a district can create a strong principal pipeline and support for seated leaders can also be accomplished.
- Retention: They advocate for investing in leaders, now, more than ever. Without high quality, effective leaders, districts lose a lot of money replacing them and the teachers who leave when they do.
- Outcomes: Schools with effective principals simply do better.
The guide contains seven “domains” through which a strategic principal pipeline can be created by districts and how federal dollars can be applied in the process. It is a fantastic resource for this alone.
However, the guide also serves a secondary purpose. As a relevant, experienced, data-supported, and research-based provider of leadership development in partnership with Rice University, the report can help districts that wish to partner with Leadership Partners as a guide to fund leaders to attend our Executive Education Academy at Rice or use our other services.
Recall, the Wallace Foundation and the Department of Education emphasize that districts scrutinize the use of their federal funds, which LEAs have tremendous control of. But where, specifically do they look? There are ESSER funds, ESEA funds, Higher Ed Act (HEA) funds, and IDEA funds, all of which can be used for leadership professional development. The report provides very detailed tables of funding uses related to building pipelines, but they also relate to what we provide in specific ways that cross over these domains:
The table shows how our Leadership Partners programming can easily be funded by looking at the domains that relate to our Executive Education Academy at Rice University, which fulfills the needs for all levels of education leaders. By carefully examining the use of federal funds, districts can easily support the leaders they need to support, transform, and retain. The research is compelling. Districts with better leadership do better. It is perhaps the single best investment a district can make.
Funding Scenario for Investing in Leadership
District X receives 50 million dollars in federal funds each year. This year, well before they get the new funding, they wisely scrutinize the use of funds under one umbrella: “Are we getting a good return on investment on how we apply these funds?” Supported programs and initiatives need to be analyzed. Questions need to be asked. Where is the evidence that the funds are producing positive results? Where they are not is the opportunity to invest in leadership.
So, by careful analysis, the district discovers 200K of funds that simply aren’t being used wisely. They invest in leadership, whether to build a pipeline or to simply get high-quality professional development, like you see below in our Theory of Action.
The district decides to support 10 leaders they dearly want to keep and are worried about losing. For their investment in those 10, they potentially save the district a million dollars. Please recall the cost to replace ONE principal is 100K, and good teachers leave when good leaders leave, an additional price tag. So, for a very small investment, they save the district a million dollars or more, retain their quality leaders and teachers, and improve outcomes. Now THAT is a return on investment!
It just takes the effort to scrutinize Title funds and make the decision that investing in leadership matters a WHOLE lot. Because it does!
To learn more about how Leadership Partners can support YOUR leaders, please contact Dr. Lawrence Kohn, founder and partner, at lkohn@leadershippartnerstx.com or call/text 281-850-4992. Executive Education Academy at Rice – Executive Coaching -Team Coaching
References
New Teacher Center (2018). Churn: The High Cost of Principal Turnover. New Teacher Center. Retrieved February 2, 2024, see here
Wallace foundation (2021). Strong Pipelines, Strong Principals. Wallace Foundation. Retrieved March 2, 2024, see here
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