Like any other organization, schools need strong leaders in order to be successful. Leadership is especially paramount today as schools face increasing pressure to improve student learning. Yet, despite the importance of school leadership, America's schools are facing a critical shortage of qualified principals and superintendents.
The leadership shortfall stems largely from the outdated, one-size-fits-all model of school leadership currently used to recruit, train, and pay school leaders.
One core problem with today's model is licensing requirements. While 47 states require principals to be licensed and 43 require the same for superintendents, the academic coursework and teaching experience required often do not prepare candidates for the challenges of leading schools in an age of accountability, competition, and technology, even as these regulations bar potentially skilled leaders without teaching experience from becoming school administrators.
Another core problem with today's model is pay. We fail to pay principals and superintendents enough to make school leadership competitive with other management positions in business and government, even while state and local governments spend millions of dollars annually subsidizing licensure coursework for candidates who may never become principals.
Current reform efforts focus on raising barriers to entry or recruiting a smattering of high-profile "superstar leaders" from careers outside education. But neither approach is sufficient to meet the long-term need for qualified school leadership. Instead, legislators should streamline requirements for school leadership to require that potential principals and superintendents:
- Hold a B.A. or B.S. degree and pass a rigorous criminal background check;
- Demonstrate to the potential employer experience sufficient to exhibit essential knowledge, temperament, and skills for the position; and
- Demonstrate mastery of essential technical knowledge and skills (for example, in areas of education law, special education, etc.).
However, it is not enough simply to remove licensure barriers; policymakers must also change the way we hire, support, and compensate school leaders to make them more accountable and provide the resources and support they need. This includes:
- Reconceptualize leadership so that we no longer imagine that each leader must embody all of the knowledge and skills the organization requires, but allow schools to distribute leadership responsibilities in different ways among a team of leaders (this includes changing state policy definitions and requirements for school leadership positions to allow schools and districts to experiment with different leadership arrangements and more flexible teacher pay policies so that schools can distribute more leadership to teachers and reward them accordingly);
- Make school leadership jobs subject to performance contracts;
- Develop reliable accountability systems for education leaders; and
- Improve support systems and ongoing professional development.
Several states have already taken steps in this direction. For example, Michigan eliminated licensure requirements for principals in 1999 and California radically streamlined licensure in 2002. And a variety of private organizations, such as the Broad Center for Superintendents, New Leaders for New Schools, and KIPP Principals' Academy, offer new models for recruiting, training, and supporting prospective principals or superintendents from a variety of backgrounds to meet the challenges of leading schools in the 21st century. This new leadership agenda is a sensible way to provide teachers and students with the qualified, committed, and accountable leaders they deserve, and to provide school leaders with the respect and professional opportunities they merit.
California Senate Bill 1655, 2002
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/01-02/bill/sen/
sb_1651-1700/sb_1655_bill_20020816_chaptered.html
New Leaders for New Schools
http://www.nlns.org
The Broad Center for Superintendents
http://www.broadcenter.org
The Broad Foundation
http://www.broadfoundation.org
Frederick M. Hess, A License to Lead? A New Leadership Agenda for America's Schools, Progressive Policy Institute, January 2003
http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?contentid=251239
&knlgAreaID=110&subsecid=135
Better Leaders for America's Schools: A Manifesto, Thomas B. Fordham Institute, May 2003.
http://www.edexcellence.net/foundation/
publication/publication.cfm?id=1
Senator Jack Scott
State Capitol, Room 2057
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 445-5976
(916) 324-7543 (fax)
senator.scott@sen.ca.gov
Frederick M. Hess
American Enterprise Institute
1150 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 828-6030
(202) 862-7178 (fax)
RHess@aei.org
Mr. Dan Katzir
Managing Director, The Broad Foundation
10900 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1200
Los Angeles, CA 90024
(310) 954-5050
(310) 954-5051 (fax)
dk@broadfoundation.org
Dr. Don McAdams
President
Center for Reform of School Systems
4544 Post Oak Place, Suite 270
Houston, TX 77024-7797
(713) 682-9888
(713) 682-8525 (fax)
mcadams@crss.org
Jon Schnur
Co-Founder & CEO
New Leaders for New Schools
30 West 26th Street, Suite 200
New York, NY 10010
(646) 792-1070
(212) 685-9291 (fax)
SchnurJhs@aol.com
info@nlns.org
Andrew Rotherham
Co-Founder and Co-Director
Education Sector
1201 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 850
Washington, DC 20036
(434) 973-2173
arotherham@educationsector.org
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