January/February 2008

Leadership Lessons From Schools Becoming "Data Wise"

by Jennifer L. Steele and Kathryn Parker Boudett

When delivering her opening-day speech to faculty at McKay K–8 School in Boston, second-year principal Almi Abeyta hoped that displaying recent state test results would “light a fire” among teachers and spark a powerful conversation about instructional improvement. Instead, teachers reacted with stunned silence, quickly followed by expressions of anger and frustration. It was the first they had heard about the prior year’s decline in language arts scores. Almi felt as if she “had dropped a bomb” on the room. Far from igniting collaborative energy, her presentation of achievement data seemed to have squelched it.

As schools respond to external pressure to raise student achievement, the perils of examining data loom large. How, school leaders may wonder, do you convince colleagues that engaging in ongoing, collaborative data discussions is worthwhile? How do you discuss data and instruction without finger-pointing or leaping to conclusions? And how do you use insights gleaned from the data to make meaningful—and lasting—instructional improvements?

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A Guide on the Side

Mentors help new leaders prepare for life in the principal's office

by Robert Rothman

For Terrence Carter, the principal of Clara Barton Elementary School in Chicago, Jarvis Sanford made it a little less lonely at the top.

Sanford is the principal of Dodge Renaissance Academy in Chicago, which bills itself as a laboratory school for the training of future school leaders. Before becoming principal at Barton, Carter spent a year as a “principal-in-residence,” or apprentice principal, at Dodge, where he implemented a literacy curriculum, helped draw up the budget, and participated in meetings with teachers, among other activities. He also met regularly with Sanford to reflect on the principalship. Now, three years later, the two continue to talk frequently about issues that arise in their schools.

“The mentoring I received gave me the fortitude to know what I am doing and if it is correct or not,” Carter says. “I’m a better principal because of that experience.”

Carter’s experience is becoming more and more common. While mentoring for novice teachers has been a growing trend for over 20 years, mentoring for preservice and in-service principals is a relatively new idea. According to a 2007 study by The Wallace Foundation, Getting Principal Mentoring Right: Lessons from the Field, mentoring programs for principals were rare as recently as 2000. Now about half the states have adopted mentoring requirements for new principals. Many alternative principal-preparation programs emphasize mentorship experiences, and a number of professional organizations, such as the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, have initiated programs to train experienced principals to serve as mentors for their novice colleagues.

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Neither Art nor Accident
A Conversation with Robert Pianta

New research helps define and develop quality preK and elementary teaching

Study after study shows that quality teaching is the most powerful factor in student learning. But how do you define quality teaching in a way that can be measured and taught? Dr. Robert Pianta, director of the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning and the National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education, developed the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) to measure quality instruction in the preK–5 classroom. Nearly 1,000 observers from schools and districts in 23 states are now trained in administering CLASS, and about 600 teachers in 8 states are beginning to use MyTeachingPartner, an online professional development program based on CLASS. Pianta, who also serves as dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, spoke with Harvard Education Letter contributing writer Sue Miller Wiltz about how his research can help clarify and improve the quality of teaching in preK and elementary classrooms.

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