To Make Educational Decisions, Look Beyond One Study

RESEARCH

To make educational decisions, look beyond one study

By Elizabeth Foster

Categories: Fundamentals, Research, Standards for Professional Learning

Researchers and informed consumers of research know that no single study is definitive. Developing a broad and multifaceted body of research is the best way to understand a topic and draw lessons for practice and policy. This allows for simultaneously seeing the big picture of a topic as well as nuances of specific questions — both the forest and the trees. The Principal Pipeline Initiative, a multi-year effort sponsored by The Wallace Foundation, is a case in point. The initiative funded research on the role of school principals and strategies for recruiting, supporting, and retaining them. It also supported six large school districts as they sought to develop key components of strong principal pipelines. Through a range of studies, the initiative identified a set of

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References

Anderson, L.M. & Turnbull, B.J. (2019). Sustaining a principal pipeline. Policy Studies Associates.
tinyurl.com/3mchfs9c

Booker-Dwyer, T., Aladjem, D.K., Fletcher, K., & Eyer, B. (2023). Assistant principal advancement to the principalship: A guide for school districts. Policy Studies Associates. tinyurl.com/3ycy7a3y

Bouffard, S. & Cohen, J.M. (2025). How district size matters to the principalship. Learning Forward. tinyurl.com/2ck4vp54

Diliberti, M.K., Schwartz, H.L., & DiNicola, S.E. (2024). How school districts prepare and develop school principals: Selected findings from the spring 2024 American School District Panel survey. RAND.
tinyurl.com/3pf76jpw

Gates, S.M., Baird, M.D., Master, B.K., & Chavez-Herrerias, E. (2019). Principal pipelines: A feasible, affordable, and effective way for districts to improve schools. RAND. tinyurl.com/5n78mjyz

Gates, S.M., Kaufman, J.H., Doan, S., Prado Tuma, A., & Kim, D. (2020). Taking stock of principal pipelines: What public school districts report doing and what they want to do to improve school leadership. RAND. tinyurl.com/ahew6bpp

Grissom, J.A., Egalite, A.J, & Lindsay, C.A. (2021). How principals affect students and schools: A systematic synthesis of two decades of research. The Wallace Foundation.
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Learning Forward (2022). Standards for Professional Learning.

Elizabeth Foster

Senior Vice President, Research and Strategy | + posts

Elizabeth Foster is the senior vice president of research and strategy at Learning Forward. She leads the organization’s research efforts for partnerships, programs, and fundraising. Elizabeth co-wrote the Standards for Professional Learning (2022) with Tracy Crow and now facilitates learning sessions about the standards and develops resources that support their use and implementation.