News Release
'Principal Pipelines' to Develop School Leaders Can Be Affordable Way to Improve Schools
Jun 19, 2017
RAND Corporation analysts developed an approach for estimating the district resources required to put in place and operate principal pipelines — pipelines for preparing, hiring, supporting, and managing school leaders — based on data they collected from six urban districts that participated in The Wallace Foundation's Principal Pipeline Initiative. This report presents that approach and estimates of those resources and expenditures.
Costs and Other Resources
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States and districts are embarking on efforts to improve school leadership as a lever to promote school improvement. Such efforts have a solid base of research attesting to their effectiveness, and some view them as particularly cost-effective because principals "can be powerful multipliers of effective teaching and leadership practices in schools." Although the logic of this perspective is sound, in truth, very little is known about the resources required to improve school leadership.
This report fills an important gap in the literature on school leadership by presenting an approach for understanding the district resources and expenditures required to put in place and operate comprehensive principal pipelines — pipelines for preparing, hiring, supporting, and managing school leaders — and by presenting estimates of those resources and expenditures. All districts that employ more than a few school leaders devote at least some resources to these activities and might find some value to our approach. RAND Corporation analysts estimated school district costs for putting in place and operating principal pipelines based on data they collected from six urban districts that participated in The Wallace Foundation's Principal Pipeline Initiative. These estimates could aid districts in making strategic choices about investments to improve and strengthen their principal pipelines.
Overall, principal pipelines were not a big-ticket item for school districts participating in the Principal Pipeline Initiative. Districts contributed less than 1 percent of their total district expenditures to pipeline efforts.
Chapter One
Introduction
Chapter Two
Approach
Chapter Three
Findings on Pipeline Costs Overall and by Major Category
Chapter Four
Findings on Investments and Staffing Necessary for Pipeline Enhancements
Chapter Five
Conclusions
Appendix
Technical Details on Data Collection and Analysis
The research described in this report was funded by The Wallace Foundation and conducted by RAND Education.
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