Principal Pipelines: Improving Schools on a Large Scale

1. Principal Pipelines: A feasible, affordable, and effective way for districts to improve schools Susan M. Gates • May 7, 2019 EWA National Seminar Baltimore, MD

2. What was the Principal Pipeline Initiative (PPI)? • The PPI was launched by The Wallace Foundation in 2011 • It was based on existing knowledge about: • What makes for an effective principal • Better ways to train them • It sought to explore whether comprehensive principal pipelines could be implemented at scale in six large districts and if so, to what effect

3. What were PPI districts expected to do? • PPI districts were asked to undertake comprehensive efforts to improve the four components of the principal pipeline • Defining and setting leader standards • High-quality pre-service preparation • Selective hiring and placement • On-the-job evaluation and support • Districts were also asked to developed systems and capacity to support and sustain these efforts

4. The PPI included six large school districts serving 1.85 million students

5. Pipelines are feasible • It is feasible to implement all components of a principal pipeline at scale in large districts

6. At the start, no district had all four components in place Status of Pipeline Components by District as of 2010-11 School Year

7. At the end, all districts had all components in place or partially in place Status of Pipeline Components by District as of 2016-17 School Year

8. Pipelines are affordable • The six districts spent less than ½ percent of their budgets to operate and enhance their pipelines • The cost per student, per year was about $42

9. Pipelines are effective • They benefited districts, schools and students

10. To look at effectiveness we compared changes in outcomes in pipeline and non-pipeline schools • 1,100 pipeline schools that got a new principal during the study time frame • 6,300 matched non-pipeline schools in other districts in the state that received new principals the same year • A positive effect means the change in outcomes was more favorable in pipeline schools than comparison schools • Larger growth or smaller declines in achievement

11. Schools in pipeline districts with a new principal outperformed comparison schools

12. These effects on achievement are meaningful and widespread • We found statistically significant, positive effects on student achievement • For the six districts taken together • In schools serving different grade levels • For the earliest cohorts of pipeline schools, showing benefits kicked in early • For schools in the lowest achievement quartile • We are not aware of any other comprehensive, districtwide intervention for which there is evidence of positive effects on student achievement of this magnitude

13. We also found effects on principal retention • Principal turnover is costly for districts and disruptive for schools • For every 100 new principals, pipeline districts saw nearly 6 fewer losses after two years and nearly 8 fewer losses after three years, compared with other districts in the state staffing similar schools

14. A suite of research reports documents methods, limitations and findings RAND’s reports are available at: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2666.html https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2078.html