EdLeader Podcast - Effective Principals Affect Students and Schools - Parts I & II

In this special two-part series of EdLeader, Dr. Jackson sits down with fellow former State Principals of the Year to review the recently released Wallace Foundation Report, "How Principals Affect Students and Schools: A Systematic Synthesis of Two Decades of Research." The researchers found that "an effective principal’s impact is stronger and broader than previously thought, making it “difficult to envision” a higher return on investment in K-12 education than the cultivation of high-quality school leadership, according to this research synthesis."

In a previous episode, Dr. Jackson spoke with Dr. Anna Egalite, coauthor of the Wallace Foundation Report on how principals affect students and schools, to delve into the research from the researcher's point of view. This time, skilled practitioners dig into the study's findings and find much that resonates with their practice.

Ms. Kisha Clemons is the 2020 Wells Fargo North Carolina Principal of the Year. She is currently the principal at Shuford Elementary in Newton-Conover City Schools and a doctoral student in the Educational Leadership Department at UNC-Greensboro. She is a North Carolina Principal Fellow and North Carolina Teaching Fellow alumnus from Appalachian State University. Under her leadership, Shuford Elementary has been selected as a National Title I Distinguished School and recognized for its work with personalized learning. Ms. Clemons’ personal vision is to inspire greatness in others and she is proud to be a champion for her students, staff, and community.

Dr. Carrie Tulbert is currently in her 11th year as a middle school principal. She is the 2014 North Carolina Principal of the Year. She has led schools that truly run the gamut of student populations and sizes. She is approaching her 20th year in education. She's proud to be a North Carolina Teaching Fellow. Carrie is a graduate of Meredith College with her BA in English; Gardner Webb University with her MSA; and Wingate University with her Ed.S and Ed.D. Her greatest honor is being a mother of 2 sons, her most important "students," She passionately believes in public school and its power to transform students' lives. She also truly believes that being a principal is the BEST job in education!

In the 1990s, Tabari Wallace aspired to a career in the NFL. With his long-held dream and his future at stake, he paid a visit to East Carolina University, where he was offered a walk-on spot on the team at ECU. He eventually earned a full scholarship and a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree in Rehabilitation. His football career continued after college, but it competed with a new passion: teaching. He turned all of his attention to education and rose quickly through the ranks of public school to be promoted to his first assistant principalship in 2003. In 2018, he was named North Carolina’s Principal of the Year. He was a recent guest on the Ellen show and is a passionate educator.

With a panel of North Carolina State Principals of the Year and exciting new research on the importance of the principal on student achievement, this is going to be great!

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How Principals Affect Students and Schools: A Systematic Synthesis of Two Decades of Research by Dr. Jason A. Grissom, Vanderbilt University; Dr. Anna J. Egalite, North Carolina State University; and Dr. Constance A. Lindsay, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Summary of Key Findings - How Principals Affect Students and Schools

1. Effective principals are at least as important for student achievement as previous reports have concluded—and in fact, their importance may not have been stated strongly enough.

2. Principals have substantively important effects that extend beyond student achievement.

3. Effective principals orient their practice toward instructionally-focused interactions with teachers, building a productive school climate, facilitating collaboration and professional learning communities, and strategic personnel and resource management processes.

4. Principals must develop an equity lens, particularly as they are called on to meet the needs of growing numbers of marginalized students.

5. Effective principals are not equitably distributed across schools.

6. Principals are becoming more racially and ethnically diverse, but representation gaps with students are growing, which is concerning, given the payoffs to principal diversity.

7. Research on school principals is highly variable, and the field requires new investment in a rigorous, cohesive body of research. (as summarized by the NCDPI Weekly Top Ten)