Learning Together for More
Effective Principal Training:
The Charge to the Provider PLC
Will Miller
President, The Wallace Foundation
Professional Learning Community
Principal Pipeline Initiative
April 18, 2013
Our discussion today
 Wallace’s approach to philanthropy
 Why your work is essential
 The charge to the PLC
 Meeting the challenge
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The Wallace Approach
(Our theory of change)
Understand the
Context
(Engage with the external
environment to identify
knowledge gaps, field
interest, and time lines)
Catalyze Broad
Impact
(Improve practice and
policy nationwide)
Generate
Improvements and
Insights
(Build promising new
approaches and new
evidence/knowledge)
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Our Theory of Leverage
(Tactics)
Probing Dialogue
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Listen to / seek to
understand key actors and
institutions
Identify both formal and
informal rules
Identify environmental
conditions, potential
leverage points, and time
needed for change
Initiative Design
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Think about the whole
system
Identify knowledge gaps
Design grants
Clear causal connections
to desired results
Selection of grantees
(RFP, other)
Metrics
Grant Management
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High engagement
Technical assistance
Market research
Business planning
Formative evaluations
Capacity building
Knowledge
Development
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Knowledge synthesis
Effects evaluations
Implementation
evaluations
Cost analysis
Other key research topics
Building Networks
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Engage leadership
Create synergies among grantees
Professional learning communities
Convenings
Collaboration with other funders,
communications partners and
organizations
Fund public/private partnerships; don’t
invest in isolated efforts
Principle: Wallace’s work combines the skills required by grant makers, industry
associations, technical assistance organizations, and think tanks.
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Wallace’s education leadership
initiative: 2000-2010
Our strategies:
 26 states; 15 main urban districts
 Commissioned research to fill
knowledge gaps and evaluate across
sites
 Professional learning communities
for states, districts, partners
The Wallace Approach
(Our theory of change)
Understand
the Context
Catalyze
Broad Impact
Generate
Improvements
and Insights
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Resulting in:
 Over 70 research reports
 140 sustained, high quality initiatives (including 24 pre-service
training programs)
 15 new non-profit organizations
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The Principal Pipeline
Leadership
standards
Highquality
aspiring
leader
training
programs
Selective
hiring
Evaluation
and onthe-job
support
 High quality
 District-wide scale
 Aligned
 In support of district
reform agenda
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Our discussion today
 Wallace’s approach to philanthropy
 Why your work is essential
 The charge to the PLC
 Meeting the challenge
7
Leadership key to student learning
“Leadership is second only to classroom
instruction among all school-related factors that
contribute to what students learn at school.”
-- How Leadership Influences Student Learning,
Kenneth Leithwood, et al,
University of Minnesota,
University of Toronto, 2004
“Six years later we are even more confident
about this claim.”
-- Learning from Leadership: Investigating
the Links to Improved Student Learning,
Louis, et al, 2010
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Principals key to teaching quality
“It is the leader who both recruits and retains
high quality staff. Indeed, the number one
reason for teachers’ decisions about whether to
stay in a school is the quality of administrative
support – and it is the leader who must develop
this organization.”
-- Preparing School Leaders for a Changing World,
Linda Darling-Hammond, et al, Stanford University, 2007
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What effective principals do
 Shape a transformational vision of
academic success for all students
 Create a hospitable climate
 Manage people, data and processes
 Improve instruction
 Lead the professional learning community
 Cultivate leadership in others
 Lead the leadership team
Source: The School Principal as Leader: Guiding Schools
to Better Teaching and Learning, January 2012
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But: A good leader is hard to find
 There is no shortage of certified principals – but
there is a shortage of qualified principals
-- Beyond the Pipeline, 2003
 50% of superintendents around the country
report difficulty finding qualified principals. 61%
of superintendents in urban areas can’t find the
leaders they need
-- Preparing School Leaders for a Changing World, 2007
 There needs to be a match between the
district’s needs and the leaders that the
programs produce
-- Districts Developing Leaders, 2010
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Training to meet
the need:
An example from
Columbus, IN
Photo credit: Valerie Everett
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Need for evolution – Columbus, IN
 Opportunity: Keeping 3,000,
well-paying, advanced
manufacturing jobs in
Indiana
 Challenge: Local colleges
were not preparing
graduates qualified to take
those jobs
Photo credit: Bisgovuk
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Successful evolution
 The evolution: Colleges and Community Education Coalition
developed shared vision, metrics and refined programs
 The result:
 From 2000 to 2010, the percentage of the county’s population
with a high school degree or higher increased from 83.8% to
89.2% a
 Percentage with a bachelor’s degree or higher from 22.0% to
26.7%.
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Where we are
 A decade of work has identified the key
components of effective training
programs
 You have used the QM tool to measure
your programs against these
components
 You have developed plans for
improvement
 The task at hand: Improve the programs
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Our discussion today
 Wallace’s approach to philanthropy
 Why your work is essential
 The charge to the PLC
 Meeting the challenge
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Defining a PLC
 A Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a strategy by
which lessons are jointly developed among members
 through an ongoing series of coordinated learning activities;
 for a defined set of members; and
 with specified purposes and outcomes that meet a strategic
objective.
 PLCs employ practices that ensure:
 a shared climate of trust and respect;
 immediate application of learning to solve common problems;
 learning that is responsive to emerging needs.
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Mutual learning, mutual benefit
Benefits for
training
programs
Benefits for
graduates
Benefits for
school districts
Benefits for
The Wallace
Foundation
and the nation
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Purpose of this PLC
 Serve as a resource to you to help you
continue to improve your programs through:
 Analysis of the Quality Measures™ work
 Data-informed discussions with other programs
 Ongoing feedback from your alumni
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Graduates are key
 20 principal graduates are members of this
national PLC
 Work with your own PLCs at home; engage
other graduates in the conversation
 Bring what you learn to this national forum
 We will provide the resources you need
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Membership of the PLC
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Membership of the PLC
Research and communication partners:
PLC managed by:
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Objectives and outcomes - I
1. Use Quality Measures™ self-assessment ratings
and other data to better understand each
program’s needs
 Each program develops concrete recommendations to
build on its strengths and improve identified areas of
need
2. Begin to develop strategies that address
identified needs across programs
 An overall project for the PLC is defined
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Objectives and outcomes - II
3. Provide guidance and resources for
establishing a local PLC for each PLC
member program
 Programs have everything they need to begin to plan
and implement their local PLCs
4. Develop a shared schedule of activities to
accomplish the objectives
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Our discussion today
 Wallace’s approach to philanthropy
 Why your work is essential
 The charge to the PLC
 Meeting the challenge
25
“The civil rights issue of our times”
“Our challenge is to make sure every child has a fair
chance to succeed in life. That is why education is
the great civil rights issue of our times.”
President George W. Bush
January 19, 2002
Photo credit: whitehouse.gov
“Too many of our kids are dropping out of schools.
That’s not a white, black or brown problem. That’s
everybody’s problem.”
President Barack Obama
April 5, 2011
Photo credit: whitehouse.gov
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A fundamental disadvantage
16.0
14.0
Unemployment (%)
12.0
10.0
Less than high school
High school
8.0
Some college/Associates degree
Bachelors degree or higher
6.0
4.0
2.0
0.0
1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
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A disadvantage you can address
“There’s no such thing as a highperforming school without a great
principal. It is impossible. … We’ve never
asked so much of them. There’s nothing
more important because the stakes have
never been higher for our country.”
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
2010
Photo credit: whitehouse.gov
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Ripples of hope
“It is from numberless diverse acts
of courage and belief that human
history is shaped. Each time a
person stands up for an ideal, or acts
to improve the lot of others, or
strikes out against injustice, he sends
forth a tiny ripple of hope.”
Robert F. Kennedy
June 6, 1966
Photo credit: Warren K. Leffler
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