How School Leaders Learn

Since the 1970s, researchers have found that the most effective public schools tend to be led by highly skilled principals. Less clear, though, is what it takes to help principals learn to be successful leaders.

Morgaen Donaldson, Associate Dean for Research and the Phillip E. Austin Endowed Chair at UConn's Neag School of Education, is an author on a major new report showcasing how public school principals learn throughout their careers. This study addresses the research gap by asking public school principals to share information about their in-service learning opportunities, including the frequency of those opportunities, their subject matter, and their usefulness.

Donaldson partnered with Jason A. Grissom and Michelle Doughty of Vanderbilt University, as well as Jessica G. Rigby and Stephanie R. Forman of the University of Washington, for this national study, supported by the Wallace Foundation. Together, the researchers examined the current landscape of professional learning for principals: what they learn, how they learn it, and how well it meets their needs. Further, they developed recommendations for school districts to help support their leaders, who in turn can best support their faculty, staff, and students.

"Principals' professional learning is so important because they are really the primary drivers of schools," says Donaldson. "They shape the culture. They shape teacher learning and teacher quality … That's what makes it so shocking that there's so little research on this topic."

Donaldson and her research team worked with data from surveys administered to principals from across the country, as well as qualitative interviews with principals from Connecticut, Washington, and Tennessee. The large data set allowed them to track differences across geographic regions, school district characteristics (whether rural or urban), and principal demographics.

The idea for this project began to take root after Donaldson led an evaluation of Connecticut's pilot teacher and principal evaluation program in 2012. She found that, while the state was proactively assessing and addressing the development needs of teachers, principals' learning often felt like "an afterthought."

"Connecticut has a history of doing great work on professional development and professional learning for educators," Donaldson says. "So if it's an afterthought in Connecticut, it's likely to be an afterthought in other places too."

Donaldson and her team discovered that this was a recurring theme, affecting principals across the country.

Principals' professional learning is so important because they are really the primary drivers of schools. They shape the culture.

When asked about their professional learning opportunities, principals tended to respond by talking about their daily duties, rather than discussing how and what they learned.

It seemed that principals' professional learning was falling through the cracks. They were expected to do their jobs "in various degrees of isolation" and often received limited training or support.

"This work highlights how often we assume what principals know, or what they can figure out," rather than ensuring they have the proper educational resources available to them, Donaldson says.

Informal vs. Formal Learning

One important finding from the study was the significance of informal learning opportunities that principals pursued on their own. They sought out the latest publications in education research and read them on their own time; they listened to education leadership podcasts; they formed group chats with other principals, sharing challenges and receiving social and professional support. Principals tended to cite these strategies as key drivers for their professional success.

In terms of formal opportunities, principals said that the most common, and useful, topic for professional learning was instructional leadership, or helping teachers to improve their instruction.

"Principals really enjoyed this and found this useful for their development," says Donaldson.

But principals reported having relatively few opportunities to learn about other critically important leadership practices, including building collegial relationships among teachers and staff; maintaining a safe and productive school climate; managing school resources strategically; and ensuring that all students have equitable opportunities to learn.

What Districts Can Do

Overall, 67% of principals in the study said they felt satisfied with their learning. Still, about half (52%) reported that they did not receive enough learning opportunities. This highlights a major area where districts can improve the resources offered to principals.

"When a district convenes principals," such as at a summit or district meeting, "the urge might be to just get things done, and cross things off the list," says Donaldson. "But it's so important to ask people what they need to learn, and then to provide it. A lot of school districts are under tremendous pressure....but districts should really carve out time to support principals in learning."

Some groups in the study reported more professional learning opportunities than others. For example, early-career principals were often supported by mentoring programs specifically designed for them.

Additionally, the researchers found that Black principals reported more learning opportunities, even when controlling for all other factors such as their school's location. From this study, Donaldson says, it's not immediately clear why this is the case - opening up an avenue for further research.

"I hope this report highlights the complexities of the job," Donaldson says. "Sure, people can figure things out on their own, but that doesn't mean they're doing things in a way that makes the school as effective as possible. If we prioritize principals' learning more, maybe we could support them in becoming better practitioners, faster and more comprehensively."