Foster Leadership
Broaden the pool of Connecticut school and district leaders.
Recruit an expanded corps of diverse school and district leaders.
1 | Actively recruit effective school and district leaders from other states and grant automatic reciprocity.
2 | Create administrator Alternative Route to Certification (ARC) programs for individuals with varied professional backgrounds that have appropriate instructional leadership experience.
3 | Partner with the private sector to develop urban school leaders, including creation of an Urban Leadership ARC and expansion of Connecticut’s Urban School Leaders Fellowship.
Why This Recommendation Is Necessary
The second most important factor in student achievement (after teacher effectiveness) is educational leadership.73 The SDE has identified “an urgent need for highly effective administrators in high-need schools, a need that is not being met by existing preparation and recruitment strategies.”74 Beyond this immediate need, it is likely that many current school administrators will retire over the coming five to ten years, resulting in even higher demand for exceptional leaders. In 2008-09, the average age of administrators was 51 years and 38% were over age 55.75
Although authorized to establish reciprocity agreements with other states, the SDE has not done so.76 Nor does the state have ARC programs to prepare school administrators, although new legislation in 2010 has now specifically authorized this.77
Actions Required
— The Commissioner of Education should use the legislative authority granted to waive certification requirements for experienced out-of-state superintendents78
— Legislation is required to grant automatic reciprocity for principals and to open Alternate Route to Certification programs for principals to individuals with backgrounds other than education
Reform the process of administrator preparation, certification and support.
Reform the certification process for superintendents and principals to stress educator instructional leadership qualities, meaningful evaluations, field experiences and the assignment of highly effective mentors.
1 | Align preparation courses to these new requirements.
2 | Provide an induction year complete with a mentor and professional development based on the needs of the school/district.
3 | Provide a specialization strand that provides explicit training and work experience in improving urban/turnaround schools and districts.
Why This Recommendation Is Necessary
Low-achieving districts have a difficult time retaining teachers. A recent Connecticut study reveals that the primary reason teachers leave their schools is “poor leadership.” Principals are largely responsible for ensuring positive working environments…but principals interviewed for the study could identify few formal support mechanisms and little or no ongoing training in the strategies necessary to help retain teachers.79
Significant reform is required in the preparation and support of school administrators, particularly for those charged with school turnaround efforts in low-achieving districts. There is wide variation in curriculum and coursework required across school administrator preparation programs,80 including the amount of time focused on how to best support the instructional process.81 The differences in program quality are evident in the average first-time pass rates on the Connecticut Administrator Test, which range from 60 to 97% among the state’s eight programs.82
Actions Required
— Changing certification regulations requires Commissioner, SBOE and Attorney General (AG) approval, as well as a legislative regulatory review
— SBOE must approve programs to include an urban/turnaround school specialization strand
Extensively train existing principals in new evaluation systems.
Train principals in the use of the new student and teacher data systems as well as new evaluation systems with ample opportunities for practice.
Why This Recommendation Is Necessary
Teacher evaluations must be fair and consistent. For teacher evaluation programs with a strong focus on student growth to be valid, school principals must be skilled in both the growth data systems and the evaluation processes.83 Professional development and training for principals in teacher evaluations varies district to district. Recent legislation requires the SBOE to develop a statewide information system to track and report student, teacher, school and district performance data and establish guidelines for a model teacher evaluation program that includes multiple indicators of student academic growth by July 1, 2013.84 In order to effectively use these systems, school principals will require training in these new methods.85
Action Required
— Reallocate current administrator professional development dollars to ensure they are well prepared to use the new data and teacher evaluation systems
Hold school leaders accountable.
Require principals to develop annual goals regarding student achievement and other indicators and hold them accountable to meeting them.
1 | Principal compensation should be based on meeting their annual goals.
2 | Additional compensation should be offered for highly effective principals who agree to transfer to the lowest- achieving schools.
Why This Recommendation Is Necessary
Connecticut statutes do not require principals to develop or be held accountable for achieving annual goals, nor to have principals’ compensation be based on demonstrated student achievement.86 An exception to this is the Thompson School District, which recently adopted a performance-based pay system for school leaders.87 Currently, the state does not offer incentives to attract highly effective school leaders to low-achieving schools.88
Actions Required
— Legislative change is necessary to require principal evaluations be tied to annual goals based on student performance
— Funding is required to offer incentives to highly effective principals who transfer to low-achieving schools
Once a person assumes a school principal or assistant principal role, tenure should no longer be applicable.
Collective bargaining should not be permitted for administrators in such management positions.
Why This Recommendation Is Necessary
As management positions, principals and assistant principals should not have access to the protections and collective bargaining rights of a unionized position and tenure. Administrators below the rank of superintendent are currently included within the jurisdiction of the Teacher Tenure Act.89 As a result, administrators and even assistant superintendents can achieve tenure just as teachers do.90 Additionally, while administrators are “teachers” under the Teacher Tenure Act, they are also members of the separate “administrators’ unit.”91 The Connecticut Federation of School Administrators currently represents over 1,200 school administrators and supervisors.92
Action Required
— Legislation is necessary to modify administrator tenure and union regulations
Let district leaders run the system.
Boards of Education should develop policies and budgets and should hire the superintendent. Train Boards of Education (BOEs) and hold them accountable for policy, budget decision-making, and the hiring and evaluation of superintendents. Managing the operations of the school district, including hiring and evaluating other school personnel, is the responsibility of the superintendent.
1 | Boards of Education members should be required to undergo training at least once on the role of the Board and effective governance practices.
2 | Annual student performance goals should be set by the superintendent, approved by the board and reported to the public.
Why This Recommendation Is Necessary
Currently, BOE members are not required to undergo formal training on the role of the BOE and effective governance practices. Recognizing the importance of the BOE role in school reform, the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE) and SDE are collaboratively training five local BOEs on the Roles of Boards of Education in an Accountability Era, which has received extremely positive feedback from BOE members and superintendents.93 Inexpensive training programs are available.94
Regulations currently stipulate that a local BOE hires a superintendent, who has “executive authority over the school system and the responsibility for its supervision.”95 Although the board may transfer its ability to hire teachers and other personnel to the superintendent,96 some boards retain this authority, leaving the superintendent with minimal control over the adults responsible for student results.97 The BOE evaluates the performance of the superintendent based on mutually agreed upon guidelines and criteria which may or may not be made public and do not have to include annual goals for student progress.
Actions Required
— SBOE must act upon its authority to require that members of Boards of Education undergo training98
— Legislation is necessary to require annual goals based on student performance as part of superintendent evaluations