Dive Brief:
- A new report from the Wallace Foundation advocates for stronger support for school principals, who often rank low on legislative priorities and rarely garner the attention teachers do.
- The report — which was authored by Paul Manna, a professor of government and public policy at the College of William & Mary — offers suggestions on how policymakers can better support the work that school leaders do, starting with making them a priority.
- Manna also urges lawmakers to develop a better understanding of the challenges principals are facing at the state and local level.
Dive Insight:
The role of the principal in a school's success is far less understood than that of teachers, but studies have found that they have a significant impact on student learning. Still, the lack of principal unions and their relatively lower numbers, among other things, have kept them from playing the kind of pivotal role that teachers do in the national education conversation.
As Manna points out in the report, “Numerous state education policy initiatives developed during the last two decades depend heavily on excellent principals for their success.” The report also calls on lawmakers to look closely out how principals spend their time, compared with state education goals, and identify policies that distract principals from the state-mandated goals.
