Today's school leaders are responsible for demonstrating bottom-line results for all students. However, research indicates that the principal's role as instructional leader—a role that requires principals to use data to make decisions—has itself been left behind. In 2005, research revealed that only two percent of the course content in university principal preparation programs addressed accountability in the context of school improvement.

Recently, two-thirds of surveyed principals confirmed that their leadership programs in graduate schools of education are “out of touch” with the skills they need to succeed on the job.

Gubernatorial leadership is essential to eliminating this education leadership gap. Governors can use the bully pulpit, postsecondary funding levers, and commissions of higher education to hold preparation programs accountable for results. To recruit better candidates into the profession and support their professional growth, governors can propose funding for principal professional development and propose a variety of incentives to reward school leaders for improving student learning.

While governors have recently focused a great deal of attention on policies related to strengthening teacher quality, increasingly they see the connection between teacher quality and school leadership. For example the governor's support for the teacher working conditions surveys in North Carolina has expanded state policymakers' access to rich data highlighting the connection between teacher retention and strong principal leadership. Finally, as chief executives themselves, governors can empathize with the demands and constraints the system places on executive school leaders in a very real way.

Focus of Center Activities

Participation in the National Consortium
The NGA Center for Best Practices works with a consortium of three other national organizations including the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) and the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), to provide best practice research and technical assistance to states and policymakers highlighting the importance of developing and supporting strong instructional leaders to improving the effectiveness of the entire education workforce. Our areas of focus include issues of leadership preparation and professional development, the linkages between leader and teacher quality, and the role of principals, superintendents and teachers as instructional leaders. Currently NGA is working to expand policymakers understanding of school leadership integrating teacher quality issues so that states begin thinking about developing a comprehensive human capital agenda that improves the entire education workforce top to bottom.

Conferences and Meetings
In October 2007, the NGA Education Division brought several Governors' Education Policy Advisors to New York City for the Wallace Foundation's Annual Meeting: Education Leadership: a Bridge to School Reform. Participants from Mississippi, Michigan, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Nevada, Indiana, North Carolina, Colorado, Maryland and Georgia attended workshops, plenary meetings and networked with leading researchers and ground-level practitioners in an effort to outline state-level strategies for improving the quality of school leadership and build upon current policy efforts aimed at recruiting and retaining more effective school principals.

Foundation Support
NGA's work on educational leadership is supported by a grant from the Wallace Foundation.

Related Links:

News

• Georgia Strengthens Principal Preparation Programs 12/13/07
• Center for American Progress Releases New Study on Principal Pay 12/4/07

National Consortium Partner Organizations

• Council of Chief State School Officers
• National Association of State Boards of Education
• National Conference of State Legislatures
• The Wallace Foundation

School Leadership Resources

• Southern Regional Education Board
• Institute for Educational Leadership
• Interstate Consortium on School Leadership
• Center on Reinventing Public Education
• Vanderbilt University Center on Performance Incentives in Education