The modern principal's job has expanded from administrative oversight to instructional leadership and staff collaboration¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r1 · q1
Currency · newest study 2019 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2024: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q1 i? The principal's job has evolved from administrative oversight to include creating collaborative staff environments, providing instructional leadership, making strategic decisions, and ensuring academic progress. → REL Mid-Atlantic 2019

Evidence¶

REL Mid-Atlantic 2019¶

REL Mid-Atlantic. (2019). What Are Effective School Leaders, and How Can States and Districts Develop Them? (Fact Sheet). Washington, DC: Mid-Atlantic Regional Educational Laboratory. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs

q1 · i? · review · r1

This is a descriptive statement in the fact sheet's introduction about how the principalship has changed, listing four expected responsibilities: "create collaborative environments for staff, provide effective instructional leadership, make strategic decisions, and ensure academic progress." No data are reported.

"Principals today are expected to create collaborative environments for staff, provide effective instructional leadership, make strategic decisions, and ensure academic progress."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Female principals empowered others through shared ownership, committee involvement, and staff development — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• The principals' personal ethic of care, rooted in motherhood, transferred to their professional leadership roles — related
• The ethic of care was found in all three female principals studied, expressed in teaching, learning, dedication to students, and child-centered schools — related
• Female principals enacted care through a 'listening then deciding' pattern of situational decision making — related
• Female principals maintained autonomy and connectedness despite hierarchical bureaucratic structures, and reported no isolation — related
• Schools enlisted all staff, including non-instructional staff, as communication resources, opening additional school-family channels — related
• Foxglove Elementary distributes leadership across staff roles but has few mechanisms to coordinate the work — related
• Ivy's principal identifies building culture and relationships as his foremost leadership responsibility for student learning — related
• At Ivy Elementary, teachers lead grade-level goal setting and participate in school-level decisions, with the principal empowering staff — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• High-performing CHSRI schools shared four practices for guiding and sustaining instructional improvement: defining leadership responsibilities, creatively distributing them, institutionalizing routines, and focusing team work on school-wide goals — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Principals' direct involvement with classroom instruction showed no benefits and some detriments for instructional quality in high schools — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Fund-supported principals plan fewer total years in the principalship but more years in education than other principals — related
• In one school, well-defined instructional priorities plus deliberate leadership facilitated sustained developmental practices — related
• Schools commonly require documented teacher performance goals, created collaboratively with a principal or set by the principal — related
• Deeper co-leadership emerges when staff support lets partners progressively take on responsibility, but recedes when staff carry the process — related
• Schools implementing MTSS demonstrate the framework's hallmarks, including stronger collaboration, data use, and aligned improvement initiatives — related
• Collaborative leadership and practice can create conditions for improving student learning, with social capital and teacher-peer learning explaining the link to achievement — related
• Schools with distinct educational models show positive achievement effects when they feature small size, personalization, positive relationships, and educator collaboration — related
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• Networks and professional learning communities of practicing principals support sharing best practices and problem solving on the job — related
• A threefold staff development plan of immersion, peer monitoring and review, and manual contribution supported instructors' implementation of cooperative learning structures — related
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• At Foxglove, the principal and coaches give teachers feedback on every assignment they share, alongside regular five-week progress reviews — related
• Instructionally relevant decisions influenced by state assessments are made by many actors beyond day-to-day teacher-student interactions — related
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• Over 85 years, the PIL knowledge base shifted from principals as chief school administrators, to the roles of principals and teachers, to more integrated investigations — related