Our thanks to Sarah Rosenberg, Senior Director of Policy at New Leaders, for presenting on this week’s The Intersection: A Biweekly Education Policy Conversation. Sarah joined us to discuss New Leaders’ brief Prioritizing Leadership: Strategies & Opportunities in ESSA State Plans, which analyzes initiatives to develop high-quality school leaders included in state ESSA plans.
Key Takeaways:
All State ESSA Plans Commit to Funding School Leadership Development | ESSA plans signal a significant shift in how states think about school leaders. School leadership investments under ESSA illustrate an increased recognition of the role of principals as instructional leaders.
Concentrating on Leaders Can Make a Big Impact | Most states have fewer than 1800 school leaders. This relatively small group of individuals can have widespread effects on classroom instruction across our states. State education agencies are beginning to look at school leader development as a small lift that can have huge impact.
A Holistic Approach to Human Capital is Needed | States should consider creating a cascade of supports to nurture school and teacher leaders as they move up through various leadership roles. This requires states to get creative about how leadership development can cut across ESSA funding streams.
States Should Not Overlook Assistant Principals | Recently, states have placed significant emphasis on the development of principals and teacher leaders, with less support given to assistant principals. This creates a “leaky pipeline” where assistant principals are unprepared to transition into the principal role.
For more on our conversation with Sarah, check out the full webinar below!
We hope you’ll join us for our next webinar on Wednesday, March 7th, at 1pm (EST). We look forward to talking with Phillip Lovell from The Alliance for Excellent Education who will provide an update on what’s happening in federal education policy.
Stay tuned and follow us via Twitter (#HIWebinar) for details on how to register.
