How Can We Sustain And Retain Principals?

FOCUS ON PRINCIPALS

How can we sustain and retain principals?

By Ayesha Farag

Categories: Continuous improvement, Leadership, Personalization

As my district’s assistant superintendent for elementary education, I supervise, support, and evaluate 15 elementary school principals. From this work, as well as my own 14 years as a principal, I can attest to the challenges principals face and the need for ongoing support, networking, and professional learning to sustain and retain strong school leaders. Despite the vital importance of principals in teaching and learning (Grissom et al., 2021), many who choose the role do not remain in the profession for long. Twenty percent of principals leave their schools in a given year (NCES, 2023), and the average tenure of principals is only four years (Levin & Bradley, 2019). While much research has focused on supporting aspiring and novice principals, far less has focused on

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References

Brown, B. (2018). Dare to lead: Brave work. Tough conversations. Whole hearts. Random House.

Edmondson, A.C. (2012). Teaming: How organizations learn, innovate, and compete in the knowledge economy. John Wiley & Sons.

Goldring, E.B., Grissom, J.A., Rubin, M., Rogers, L.K., Neel, M., & Clark, M.A. (2018). A new role emerges for principal supervisors: Evidence from six districts in the Principal Supervisor Initiative. Mathematica Policy Research.

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.

Levin, S. & Bradley, K. (2019). Understanding and addressing principal turnover. NASSP & Learning Policy Institute.

McGonigal, K. (2016). The upside of stress: Why stress is good for you, and how to get good at it. Penguin.

NCES. (2023, July 31). Roughly one in ten public school principals left profession in 2021-22 school year. Author

Ayesha Farag

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Ayesha Farag (faraga@newton.k12.ma.us) is Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education in Newton Public Schools in Massachusetts, a member of the Learning Forward Foundation board of directors, and a graduate of the Learning Forward Academy Class of 2021