Current training for aspiring principals often does not align with the demands of principals’ work. Focusing on how principals spend their time can improve training programs.
Despite knowledge and evidence about the daily activities and experiences of principals, current training for principals rarely aligns with the realities of leading a school. Instead, it too frequently relies on leadership fads, disproven concepts, anecdotes of instructors, and artificial experiences. Such training does not equip principals with the skills or knowledge to effectively lead schools. Aspiring principals need training that prepares them to manage daily school issues while implementing initiatives that improve educational outcomes.
The quality and type of training principals receive are critical because principals are critical. Extensive research has identified principals as one of the greatest drivers of successful schools. For instance, a meta-analysis found that principal behavior influenced numerous student and teacher outcomes (Liebowitz & Porter, 2019). From their extensive review of research, Jason Grissom and his colleagues (2021) argued that principals were the most important school-based contributor to educational outcomes.
Principals are important to school success for two reasons. First, they have the authority to identify, implement, and support effective school practices and policies. Well-trained principals can rely on research evidence to improve specific school operations, such as instruction (Stockard et al., 2018); homework (Cooper, Robinson, & Patall, 2006); grading (Brookhart et al., 2016); and discipline (Welsh & Little, 2018). Similarly, principals can apply more general or comprehensive research findings to help them lead effective or improving schools (Bryk, 2010; Stringfield, Reynolds, & Schaffer, 2012).
Second, as building leaders, principals are responsible for managing all the operations and logistics into an organized and efficient learning environment. Disorganized or misaligned school operations will dampen or even negate the effectiveness of evidence-based initiatives. Principals often lament the amount of time they spend managing school operations. However, a review of principal time use research found that principals’ managerial skills were positively correlated with educational outcomes (Hochbein, Mahone, & Vanderbeck, 2021).
The overwhelming reality
Leading a school is no easy task. Every day, principals face a host of unexpected issues that challenge efforts to provide a safe, organized, and nurturing environment for teaching and learning. Tardy buses, bathroom leaks, ill students, upset caregivers, and central office requests are just a few examples of the dozens of daily matters that demand principals’ attention. Addressing these problems so they don’t disrupt instructional activities can derail principals’ best-laid plans for the day.
In addition to leading and managing the activities that specifically support instruction, principals face expectations about extracurricular activities that extend principals’ workdays. Family members and community members expect that their principal will attend school sporting events, arts performances, and community information sessions. They also want their principal to be active on social media. Researchers have found that supporting, hosting, and attending after-school and weekend events have intensified principals’ work (Wang, 2022).
On top of instructional and extracurricular expectations, societal challenges add another layer to principals’ work. Housing instability, food insecurity, health care access, and other such issues impact school communities and create daily and long-term obstacles for students that require principals’ time and attention.
The impacts of these demands have been quantified and described in studies of principal time use. Decades of studies have consistently reported that principals have a packed schedule, requiring them to quickly transition from one urgent task to the next (Hochbein, Mahone, & Vanderback, 2021). More specifically, principals can engage in more than 100 tasks per day, during work weeks that exceed 50 hours. Among these hours, principals report spending most of their time on activities they do not consider instructional.
The quality and type of training principals receive are critical because principals are critical. Extensive research has identified principals as one of the greatest drivers of successful schools.
Without proper training, principals can be overwhelmed with the realities of school leadership. The amount and variety of daily demands can consume principals’ attention and challenge their time management skills. In addition, the many problems that threaten effective teaching and learning will test principals’ knowledge of evidence-based solutions. When principals have not been prepared to act as instructional leaders while also managing daily operations, their schools risk becoming disorganized, inefficient, and ineffective.
Misaligned preparation
Many principal training programs help aspiring principals learn about school leadership without preparing them for the work they’ll do each day. Aspiring principals enroll in leadership training to learn the fundamentals. They devote their attention to class readings, discussions, and assignments that address a focused set of critical ideas, concepts, and values. Such learning can help aspiring leaders master the intricacies necessary for leading an effective or improving school.
This format helps aspiring principals learn about specific topics like school law, resource management, and supervision of personnel. However, they receive insufficient opportunities to apply their learning to actual school operations or to practice using evidence to identify needs, support decisions, or improve policies and practices.
For example, many training programs do a great job of preparing principals to understand and value the concept of equity. Yet they do not require them to consider the role of equity in real-life operations like assigning students to elementary teachers, seating in the lunchroom, classroom supply requests, student absences, or a secondary school schedule. Programs do not routinely ask students to consider how evidence on topics like teacher looping (Wedenoja, Papay, & Kraft, 2022); classroom grouping (MacIntyre & Ireson, 2002); gifted and talented identification (Grissom & Redding, 2016); and transportation to school (Gottfried, Ozuna, & Kirksey, 2021) connect to their equity efforts.
Aspiring principals need to practice applying concepts like equity to real-life decisions, practices, and policies. If aspiring principals do not regularly practice and receive feedback on realistic and isolated course assignments, how can they be expected to successfully manage and complete the dozens of interconnected tasks they will confront every day as a principal?
The limits of internships
Internships seem like an obvious answer to providing real-life experience. Many training programs expect internships to provide exposure to and practice with managing actual principal work. Unfortunately, maybe the greatest misalignment between aspiring principal training and principal workdays occurs during internships.
Most aspiring principals have full-time jobs, so they must work around their schedules to find time for their internship activities. When completing their requirements, aspiring principals might plan professional development for a faculty meeting, oversee bus arrival, participate in a student discipline decision, and engage in other common principal duties. But because of their schedules, aspiring principals frequently engage in a single task at a time, which lasts for 30 minutes or more at a time.
Such experiences might introduce aspiring principals to the types of work principals must complete, but they do not prepare them for the pace or demands of the actual job. For instance, while overseeing student arrival, a working principal will learn of an absent substitute, receive multiple urgent emails, and need to be thinking about how to implement initiatives to improve reading performance.
Although many aspiring principals gain a fundamental understanding of school leadership from their preparation programs, they have had little exposure to the actual working conditions of principals. As a result, aspiring principals complete their programs ill-prepared to meet the challenges of working as a principal. Unfortunately, a host of reasons limit the likelihood of systematic and systemic improvement of principal training. However, the three parties involved in principal training — consumers (aspiring principals); employers (school districts); and providers (training programs) — can improve their experiences by focusing on principal work.
Activities for aspiring principals
Numerous factors influence the selection of a principal preparation program. In my conversations with aspiring principals, factors such as cost, schedule, and convenience inform their choices. Given the time, resources, and effort needed to complete principal training, many ask me, “How likely am I to earn a leadership position after I complete your program?”
Although this is a fair and important inquiry, it misidentifies the purpose of principal training. Instead, they should ask, “How will the program prepare me to lead an effective school?” When asking this question of training program personnel, aspiring principals should listen for answers about opportunities that will ready them to lead the daily operations and educational initiatives of a school.
To increase the likelihood of learning how to implement effective educational initiatives while also managing school operations, aspiring principals should ask potential training programs for course syllabi and information on potential instructors. Look for a balance between scholarship and practice. A training program with both educational researchers and school leaders as instructors will increase the chances of learning about actual school operations and evidence-based practices.
Unfortunately, aspiring leaders are not always able to select or attend a balanced training program. In such cases, they will need to rely on their own initiative to round out their training. However, aspiring principals may not even recognize what’s missing from their training.
To overcome this issue, I encourage all aspiring principals to engage in three activities:
- First, consistently read at least one national education publication. While many aspiring principals follow their local, regional, or state education news, they often do not read national publications. Consistently reading these outlets will inform aspiring principals how leaders in different contexts address common issues. In addition, these publications regularly include information about new and applicable research findings.
- Second, participate in state and national leadership organizations. Becoming involved in these organizations will increase aspiring leaders’ exposure to perspectives and information related to school leadership. Although conferences or workshops will not necessarily provide robust training, they will help aspiring leaders identify areas of their leadership that require more development.
- Third, use experiences working in schools to practice leadership skills. Inevitably, aspiring leaders will encounter an issue at their current school. Rather than criticizing how leadership handled an issue, consider how to address it. Aspiring principals can seize these opportunities to identify the specific actions they would undertake. For instance, consider how they would structure a faculty meeting agenda, communicate news to the school community, discipline a student, or alter a teacher policy.
Full-time internships
Even though aspiring principals have some control over their individual training, they still rely on school districts to provide on-the-job principal training opportunities. The experiences that enable aspiring principals to do the work require time in a school setting. To contribute to improving principal training, school district administrators can establish full-time principal internships.
A full-time internship would provide aspiring principals with time in a school to practice working in their chosen profession. While the ideal full-time internship would extend an entire year, shorter periods can also provide effective training. The shorter internships probably won’t offer exposure to annual principal duties, such as the start of school, change of semesters, or administering state testing. However, working full-time across consecutive days or weeks is far superior to engagement in isolated tasks.
Although the development of full-time internship experiences will fill a gaping hole in typical principal training, it also will require additional school district resources. Depending on the duration, frequency, or number of opportunities, providing full-time internships for aspiring leaders can involve considerable costs. The primary cost would be replacing the current workload of the aspiring principal if that person already works in the district.
As most aspiring principals are teachers, full-time internships most likely would rely on the use of substitute teachers. In the ideal annual internship, a district could employ a long-term substitute. Although this would be the costliest option, students would have consistent instructional experience and aspiring principals would receive on-the-job training. With advance planning, districts might establish a teacher sabbatical program and allow teachers to use that time for full-time leadership work.
Principal training programs need to develop greater connections between course content and the actual work of principals.
A less expensive alternative could be to have a shorter internship and rely on daily or short-term substitute teachers. These internships might include a single dedicated period, like a month or marking period, or multiple periods throughout the school year. The time frame should be long enough to allow interns to engage in multiple tasks simultaneously, instead of completing single tasks in isolation, as is the norm in current internships. Although these shorter internships would incur less costs than full-time internships, they would be more disruptive to student learning. Also, finding additional short-term substitute teachers could prove more difficult and require more administrative planning and coordination.
Although full-time principal internships cost school districts both time and money, such training also returns several tangible benefits. The meaningful and sustained engagement by the aspiring principals improves their experiences. In addition, the implementation of full-time internships reduces districts’ costs associated with recruiting, selecting, and developing principals. For example, a full-time internship program could provide a cadre of trained leaders ready to assume multiple positions, such as assistant principal, dean of students, and even interim principal. Ultimately, the employment of better-trained principals improves the efficiency and effectiveness of schools.
Principal training programs can fall short
Aspiring and current principals often characterize their training experiences as “too theoretical.” After years of studying principals and training aspiring principals, I have come to understand this common critique to mean “too superficial.” Principal training often falls short of demonstrating how leadership concepts, scholarly theories, research evidence, and even individual experiences apply to aspiring principals’ future work.
Principal training programs need to develop greater connections between course content and the actual work of principals. Studies of principal time use reveal two key areas for training programs to focus on management of daily school operations and using evidence-based policies and practices to improve student learning.
Aspiring principals are often not asked to consider how they will go about fulfilling their daily routines and operations. I ask students seemingly simple questions: When will you check your email? When will you eat lunch? With whom will you eat lunch? How will you address members of the school community? While these might seem like mundane decisions, insufficient consideration of them can lead to unintentional actions that further increase the complexity of principals’ daily work.
Similarly, aspiring principals need more practice using evidence to justify or change school policy. For example, many schools use a variety of ways to identify students for honors programs, extracurricular activities, and other special programming. Aspiring principals could use local school data to examine student representation in these programs. In addition, they might consider how evidence related to student identification and program selection could inform changes to school practice.
Ideally, principal training integrates these two areas of application. For instance, I ask my students to write a communication that informs school families about a decision on a specific school practice or policy. Writing the letter gives them practice with the common task of sending communications and using evidence to support their leadership. As aspiring principals complete more activities like this, they will increase their readiness to tackle the challenges of leading an effective school.
Principals are critical to the success of students and schools. To lead effective or improving schools, principals need robust training. Unfortunately, the training of aspiring principals often does not align with the demands of principals’ work. Giving aspiring principals opportunities to engage in the same work as current principals will make them more likely to be ready for their new roles.
References
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This article appears in the December 2023/January 2024 issue of Kappan, Vol. 105, No. 4, p. 14-19.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Craig Hochbein
CRAIG HOCHBEIN is an associate professor of educational leadership at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA.
