The power of partnership for principal development

A Massachusetts school district and nonprofit came together to create a learning community for principals.

Principals are expected to be all things to all people — good managers and operational leaders, instructional gurus, family and student crisis counselors, and cheerleaders who celebrate their students’ achievements. Principals have evolved from being simply administrative leaders to being instructional and equity-centered leaders (Grissom, Egalite, & Lindsay, 2021). It is a Sisyphean job, and principal turnover in large districts is staggering (Levin & Bradley, 2019).

Building the leadership capabilities of principals is crucial, yet providing quality professional development in small districts is challenging, at best, and nearly impossible, at worst. A successful partnership between the Lynn Public Schools, a small district in Massachusetts, and the Center for Artistry and Scholarship (CAS), a nonprofit in Boston, shows how external partners can support schools and principals in their professional development.

The partners

Lynn, Massachusetts, is a gateway city of approximately 100,000 residents, located north of Boston. It is a small city with green spaces, ocean views, and public art. However, some people in the area perceive it as a place of deindustrialization, abandonment, and crime. There is a slow recognition that this city, once the embodiment of working-class whiteness, has been transformed into an enclave dominated by immigrants.

Lynn Public Schools serves more than 15,000 students. Of these, 86% are considered high needs, and 70% have a first language that is not English. Almost 90% of the students are people of color; however, the district leadership, teachers, and staff are 95% white. A large percentage of the teaching staff was born and raised in Lynn, and 90% of the school leaders have over 20 years of work experience in the district. When Evonne Alvarez became superintendent in 2023, she was only the second superintendent of color in the district’s history.

CAS is a small nonprofit organization working to help innovative and tenacious education leaders build more equitable, collaborative, and creative communities. CAS has worked with schools throughout Massachusetts and until recently administered the Perrone Sizer Institute for Creative Leadership, which helped emerging leaders — over 70% people of color — obtain their principal licensure.

The multicultural CAS program team includes individuals with decades of experience as teachers, teacher leaders, and school leaders in various urban public school systems across the country. This shared background allows the team to understand the educational challenges specific to a district like Lynn.

First steps to partnership

In 2022-23, Lynn’s scores on the state accountability test — the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) — were in the bottom 15% of the state, with several schools designated as “low performing.” Alvarez, who had just come to the district, believed that an investment in leading with an equity lens in instructional leadership would lead to better outcomes for students. She reached out to Linda Nathan, executive director of CAS. In 2023, Lynn Public Schools invited CAS to share a proposal for a clinical practice/instructional leadership professional development program for elementary, middle, and high school principals.

External organizations often inject new energy into a district by providing expertise and perspectives that give districts a fresh understanding of their challenges. However, it requires a level of vulnerability on the part of district leaders to be open to that kind of partnership. In her initial invitation to CAS, Alvarez made clear that she trusted CAS and wanted to assist with the design of the yearlong initiative.

The CAS-Lynn Clinical Practice Program became a yearlong professional development program with a cohort of 16 principals (both new and veteran). In this inaugural group, 12 of the 16 principals led schools categorized as requiring intervention based on their MCAS scores. Beyond this, however, there was little uniting this first group. Some were newly hired principals, others led schools with falling MCAS scores, and some were secondary school leaders. In short, they represented a broad cross section of leaders across grades and experiences. The district’s remaining principals, all of whom were leading elementary schools with passable MCAS scores, would engage in the program the following year.

Guiding principles and theory of change

In the initial meetings with CAS, Alvarez outlined her guiding principles:

• Equity should be at the forefront of all decision making within the learning community. Schools should assess and address systemic barriers that may impede access to high-quality education for specific student groups.
• Access is a critical component of building an inclusive learning community. Ensuring all students have access to a rigorous curriculum, high-quality instruction, and the necessary resources is essential for fostering student achievement.
• High expectations for all students are crucial to fostering a culture of achievement. Research shows that students perform better when held to high standards as long as they are supported in meeting those expectations (Papageorge et al., 2018). Teachers and school leaders should believe in every student’s potential and communicate that belief through high-quality and challenging academic content, consistent feedback, and personalized support.
• Data-driven decision making is essential for identifying areas of success and opportunities for growth. Schools must continually assess and adjust their strategies to meet students’ evolving needs.

In collaboration with the district leadership, CAS developed the following theory of change:

If, over a period of time, we create a collaborative trusting learning community and coaching relationship, then principals can support each other and, with their coach’s help, develop the skills and knowledge needed to achieve their instructional goals and improve student outcomes.

Under the initial guidance of the superintendent, and later the deputy superintendents, CAS designed a professional development program that included:

• Monthly teaching modules for knowledge and skill development.
• Individual coaching (up to four hours per month for personalized support).

Building a learning community that supports equity, access, high expectations, and increased student achievement requires all stakeholders to commit to creating an environment where every student, regardless of background, has the opportunity to succeed. Open dialogue and collaborative planning are essential for aligning the community around these goals. The district conveyed this vision through their initial strategic plan, but principals needed support to translate it into actionable steps. CAS’s role was to help them align their goals with the district’s vision through an equity-centered lens.

Building trust

As newcomers, we (CAS) entered without prior knowledge of the 16 principals or their schools, which allowed us to avoid biases or preconceived notions. School districts often struggle to look beyond established performance metrics when designing training programs. As outsiders, CAS could view the district and its principals with fresh perspectives and bring new energy to professional development.

CAS’s initial interactions were solely with district leadership. However, upon meeting the 16 principals, we realized that while the district might trust us, the principals felt uncertain about our role. Additionally, most district leaders were unfamiliar to the principals, and there had not been enough time to establish deep trust there either.

Initially, we designed the program based on the district leadership’s vision and challenges. However, after our first two sessions, we better understood the principals’ needs.

For our partnership to succeed, it was essential that the district trust the CAS leadership team and support the release time for principals to attend the monthly learning modules and coaching sessions. The district also needed to ensure that coaching would remain confidential. CAS coaches would not report individual principals’ performance challenges to district supervisors but would discuss issues in aggregate. It was critical that principals understood we were not there to evaluate them.

Initially, we designed the program based on the district leadership’s vision and challenges. However, after our first two sessions, we better understood the principals’ needs. They faced multiple simultaneous changes: pressure from state performance measures, new curriculum initiatives, a new superintendent, and the ongoing effects of the global pandemic.

From the principals’ perspective, our program felt like just one more obligation. Assigned rather than self-selected, the principals were skeptical that this would be more helpful than previous mandatory training programs. In addition, while the principals appreciated the content and facilitation of the sessions, they weren’t used to collaborating across grade levels and initially questioned its value. We recognized that change is impossible without buy-in from participants, so we sought to understand their needs.

One of the most challenging aspects of being a principal is the lack of time for self-reflection or peer discussions. CAS recognized early on that providing space for collaboration would be one of our greatest assets. Of the 16 principals in our first cohort, five identified as people of color. For them, sharing vulnerabilities and experiences freely could be uncomfortable in a predominantly white district. Even with a person of color as the superintendent, these leaders had few opportunities to express their frustrations openly. As a result of this feedback, after a few sessions held at the district headquarters, we moved our meetings to a neutral site — a local museum — where principals could feel free from scrutiny and begin to open up.

A structured learning program

Achieving culturally responsive education in schools with an all-white teaching staff requires the intentional development of cultural awareness, empathy, and inclusivity. With this in mind, in partnership with the district, CAS designed and delivered nine in-person teaching modules centered on equity-based leadership. Each of these nine modules was delivered during the daylong monthly sessions:

1. Learning and Leading for Equity. We taught a seven-step equity literacy framework (Gorski & Pothini, 2018) that enabled principals to assess their own growth with equity-based decision making.
2. Observation and Feedback. The session was rooted in the idea of building trust and in Gloria Ladson Billings’ (1995) ideas about culturally relevant pedagogy.
3. Equity Leadership. We used the Right Question Institute’s question formulation technique to create opportunities for principals to define adaptive challenges (Heifetz et al., 2009). We defined adaptive challenges as complex dilemmas that don’t have a ready-made or easy-to-find solution or where we don’t know if a proposed solution will work. Ultimately, solving these challenges requires a change in mindset.
4. Wellness and Well-Being. We helped principals recognize the need to create a space to pause and focus on their own well-being to effectively lead their communities.
5. Examining Instructional Practices through Data and Data Inquiry Cycles. Giving agency to principals, we enabled them to work with a coach and dive deep into a data question most relevant to them and their school.
6. Coaching Deep Dive. Coaches and collaborating principals were given time to tackle an adaptive challenge, visit another school for an observation, or learn from outside experts about topics important to them.
7. Cultivating Leadership and Facilitating Leadership Structures. We helped principals reflect on their wins while continuing to work in small groups on their current challenges.
8. Learning Walks. Strengthening the sense of a learning community among principals, we enabled cohort members to visit each other’s schools to share observations and insights.
9. Concluding and Celebrating. Reflecting on the year’s learning journey, we worked with the principals to think about how they could build on this community and bring similar experiences to their buildings.

How we started: Establishing a safe space

Our coaches were or had been public school principals. They understood the isolation of the role, the time constraints principals face, and the difficulty of keeping mission and vision central while putting out multiple small fires every day. The coaching team practiced authentic listening and empowered the principals to co-create their agendas and guide the coaching sessions. Coaches did not evaluate principals’ performance. Instead, they helped principals build confidence and agency to navigate their dilemmas by offering new perspectives and acting as a sounding board. Most of the principals came to strongly value and protect the time spent in coaching sessions.

Nothing is more valuable than professional development that learners can immediately apply to the workplace.

As principals responded to our listening approach in the coaching sessions, we adapted our teaching modules to foster a similar collaborative environment during our sessions. Nothing is more valuable than professional development that learners can immediately apply to the workplace. Our goal was to ensure that principals could transfer what they learned in every minute of our collective work into their school buildings.

 

Building community: The turning point

The turning point for us came in our fourth teaching module on wellness and well-being. Rather than being overly structured and content-heavy, the session allowed principals some breathing room and the opportunity to take ownership of the session’s flow. We invited coaches from our coaching team as guest facilitators. They modeled vulnerability by sharing their own experiences openly, which helped ease the tension in the room and encouraged principals to share more freely with one another.

Participants expressed their struggles with balancing so many competing demands. “I feel as though I am rarely successful — someone’s always unhappy with me,” one stated. Another added, “No matter what I do, it’s not enough.”

From this point forward, we explored various ways to create a collaborative learning community:

• Inviting coaching team members as co-facilitators: This enabled us to bring in leaders with specific areas of expertise for different sessions and expanded the trust between coaches and collaborating principals.
• Holding sessions outside the district office: This created physical distance from the district office, allowing principals to feel more ownership of the space.
• Providing structured and unstructured times for group work: This approach enabled principals to connect with their peers through the material and shared challenges.
• Developing a sense of partnership: Principals began to see each other as partners in this work, visiting each other’s schools to better understand each other’s strengths and areas for growth.

By consistently listening to principals’ voices and communicating transparently, we fostered in them a sense of ownership over their professional development. It began to feel like an initiative happening with them, not to them. District leadership played a critical role in the program’s success by trusting in our team and granting us the agency needed to support our work effectively.

Promoting continual improvement: The art of feedback

One of the most impactful sessions was the eighth session, on learning walks. Planning for this session began with conversations between each coach and collaborating principal focused on two questions:

1. What do you want to learn more about?
2. How might you imagine your colleagues helping you to answer your query?

We divided into three groups to observe and learn in three different schools. The learning walks received positive feedback from both the host principal and the participants. One principal shared, “I enjoyed discussing teaching and learning with my peers. It felt like a safe space to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly.” Another host principal appreciated the nuances their peers noticed and shared, “Loved the peer observations; insightful and thought-provoking. 10 out of 10, would recommend doing it again!”

The district recognized that successful school improvement requires leaders to develop skills in providing feedback. Coaches modeled effective feedback techniques, and principals practiced giving feedback in a safe environment with coaches and colleagues. This led to regular feedback exchanges between principals and teachers, fostering continuous improvement for everyone involved.

What we learned

Principals in the program reported a wealth of benefits. They gained new ideas and strategies for tackling school issues and developed a shared sense of purpose. The program encouraged them to reflect on their practices and facilitated open exchanges of ideas across different schools. Engaging with educators from outside their district and visiting schools facing similar challenges helped broaden their perspectives, offering new hope and motivation. Principals valued having a coach as a thought partner who is committed to their personal growth without any evaluative pressure. Overall, they experienced an increase in self-efficacy, realizing that “my colleagues, regardless of their experience, face many of the same challenges.” This shared struggle, along with insights gained from the program, empowered principals to return to their schools with renewed confidence and a focus on distributive leadership and data-driven decision making.

Engaging staff in these initiatives is difficult when they have no say. Incorporating flexibility and managing the pace of new initiatives are essential.

For our teaching team, co-creating the program with experts and participating principals was both refreshing and enlightening. Our role evolved from content creators to facilitators, ensuring a safe, collaborative, and productive environment. It was crucial to challenge biases, encourage reflection, and provide strategies for integrating culturally relevant materials into teacher training. We also enhanced our understanding of creating engaging content for principals, experimenting with various formats, including a podcast series (Nathan & Goyal, n.d.) addressing their pressing questions.

By the end of the first year, we recognized the ongoing challenge of principals feeling skeptical and frustrated about mandated professional development being added to their already full schedules. Engaging staff in these initiatives is difficult when they have no say. Incorporating flexibility and managing the pace of new initiatives are essential. Given the cognitive load on principals and educators, outside organizations must not exacerbate the pressure but rather provide space for them to absorb new skills and knowledge.

 

Principal-centered support

For professional development to be effective, it must align with participants’ needs and goals. Organizations providing training must be aware of the tension between keeping the district’s broader vision in mind and remaining adaptable to participants’ evolving needs. Initially, our program focused on themes defined by district leadership. However, it became evident that to truly benefit principals, we needed to partner with them as well. District leaders supported this shift. By listening to principals with humility and openness, we developed partnerships that helped us understand their challenges from their perspective. Moving forward, we aim to be more thoughtful in understanding our participants and their communities before launching our first teaching module, ensuring they have the time and opportunity to grasp our intentions.

Through this program, we aimed to shift principals’ mindsets about their roles within their districts. By exposing them to new experiences and encouraging authentic engagement with one another, we hoped to empower them to advocate collectively for the district and view themselves as partners in decision-making processes. Feedback from the end-of-program evaluation indicated success in “fostering personal growth, collaboration, and improved leadership practices.” We hope the principals will continue to develop this learning community and share their experiences with their school communities.

One of the most important insights gained from this work is the necessity of building trust between the external organization and the district, among participants, and between the organization and participants. Flexible design that invites participants to co-create the program fosters collaboration. Specifically, providing individual coaching in a non-evaluative setting can significantly enhance principals’ personal and professional growth.

Hope for the future

To ensure the effectiveness of these programs, we must focus on the overarching goal of developing enduring learning communities that can continue to support one another after the program concludes. External organizations can play a vital role in helping districts build capacity and address complex challenges, provided they invest in authentic partnerships with the district and school community.

Reflecting on our experiences a year into this partnership, we are pleased to report that three of our 16 schools showed significant progress on the MCAS for the 2023-24 school year and have moved out of the “needs improvement” category. Lynn is often perceived as an isolated community; however, bringing in a diverse group of outsiders means that many more individuals are now advocating for the success of Lynn’s children.

Through this collaboration, the teaching team, coaches, principals, and district leaders have come to view one another as genuine partners who respect each other. United by our shared commitment to student success, we have connected across various backgrounds, cultures, and experiences — both personal and professional. These individual diversities have enabled CAS team members to learn from the Lynn community and offer fresh perspectives to the educational landscape. Now in the second year of our program in Lynn, with a new cohort of principals, we look forward to applying our insights to further strengthen our support for this community.

 

References

Gorski, P.C. & Pothini, S.G. (2018). Case studies on diversity and social justice education (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Grissom, J.A., Egalite, A.J., & Lindsay, C.A. (2021). What great principals really do. Educational Leadership, 78 (7), 21-25.

Heifetz, R.A., Linsky, M., & Grashow, A. (2009). The practice of adaptive leadership: Tools and tactics for changing your organization and the world. Harvard Business Press.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). But that’s just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy. Theory into Practice, 34 (3), 159-165.

Levin, S. & Bradley, K. (2019). Understanding and addressing principal turnover. National Association of Secondary School Principals & Learning Policy Institute.

Nathan, L. & Goyal, T. (2023-present). Equity EdTalk: Stories from Education Leaders [Audio Podcast]. https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/taarini-goyal

Papageorge, N.W., Gershenson, S., & Kang, K.M. (2018). Teacher expectations matter (Working Paper 25255). National Bureau of Economic Research.

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This article appears in the Spring 2025 issue of Kappan, Vol. 106, No. 5-6, pp. 33-38.