Key Characteristics of Beat-the-Odds Principals

From the Marshall Memo #456

In this article in American Educator, Karin Chenoweth and Christina Theokas of the Education Trust summarize the specific leadership traits and actions they have found in their research on very successful high-poverty schools. “To begin with, these principals are deeply steeped in the classroom and the world of instruction,” say Chenoweth and Theokas. Most were teachers for many years before becoming principals and had specialized training in special education or working with second-language learners. But this is true of plenty of less-successful school leaders, in the same way that many teachers in middling and failing schools work hard every day. What do these beat-the-odds principals do that makes their experience and their colleagues’ hard work pay off? 

• They set the vision that all children will be successful. Success means more than high test scores, although these principals push hard for high academic achievement, knowing that without it, students won’t have access to future opportunities. But they also believe that children need to be curious, confident, and joyful about learning. 

• They establish a climate and culture of respect. “All of these principals know that many of their students are under great stress at home,” say Chenoweth and Theokas, “and they strive to make school a place where students feel comfortable, safe, and welcome.” The profiled principals didn’t come in with a fixed program. Instead, they built a sense of efficacy in teachers and convinced them to let go of authoritarian, punitive, fear- and sarcasm-based discipline techniques and show genuine respect for students. “How kids function is an absolute consequence of how adults function,” says Deb Gustafson, one of the principals. 

• They focus on instruction. These principals grapple successfully with what Chenoweth and Theokas call “the essential paradox of instruction: reaching all students is highly dependent on expert teachers, yet no teacher can possibly be expert enough to teach all things to all children.” So good leaders “deprivatize” teaching by getting teachers working with their colleagues to unpack standards, map out units, develop lessons and assessments, study interim assessment results, and share best practices. Effective principals also take hiring very seriously (often requiring candidates to teach model lessons), training new teachers (often assigning mentors), arranging for expert teachers to work with particularly challenging groups of students, and continuously supervising classroom instruction – supporting and redirecting struggling teachers where necessary but not imposing their personal teaching style on teachers.

• They manage the building to support instruction. Chenoweth and Theokas noticed that the most successful principals delegate significant responsibility to their colleagues, making a smooth-functioning building everyone’s job and empowering teachers and others to make appropriate decisions. Principals design the schedule to maximize uninterrupted learning time and provide teachers with regular team meeting blocks. “No one has the right to waste a day in the life of a child,” says Valarie Lewis, a New York City principal. Effective leaders also ensure that team and faculty meetings don’t waste time on routine matters. 

• They inspect what they expect. Effective leaders are frequently in classrooms, data meetings, curriculum planning meetings, and professional development sessions looking for high-quality performance. “They are, in other words, holding everyone accountable for their jobs and helping those who need help to improve,” say Chenoweth and Theokas. “But, more than that, they are helping all their staff members develop an evaluative sense about their work.” 

“Leading for Learning” by Karin Chenoweth and Christina Theokas in American Educator, Fall 2012 (Vol. 36, #3, p. 24-29, 32-33), http://bit.ly/SjAUEF; this article is drawn from the authors’ book, Getting It Done: Leading Academic Success in Unexpected Schools (Harvard Education Press, 2011)