Developing Effective School Leaders

This report examines how five California CORE member districts built principal pipelines to develop effective school leaders. The study, a collaborative effort between CORE-PACE and university researchers, aims to describe the policies, procedures, and practices that make up participating districts’ efforts to establish and maintain principal pipelines and understand the role of principal pipelines in attaining key objectives, including diversifying school leadership, retaining excellent school leaders, and improving student outcomes.

The data for the study were drawn from district-provided internal staffing and professional development records (2015–22) and interviews with district administrators during the 2022–23 school year.

Key findings include:

• Principal pipelines have grown substantially Over the past decade, principal pipeline programs for aspiring leaders have become central to districts’ talent-management strategies.
• The formal teacher-leader role is an increasingly critical stepping stone New school leaders are increasingly likely to have served in a formalized teacher leadership role, such as Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA).
• Principal pipelines have increased racial and gender diversity in school leadership However, this growth does not yet fully represent the districts’ diversifying student populations.
• Aspiring leader programs support promotion and retention of school leaders School leaders who went through a district-sponsored aspiring leader program were promoted more quickly and were far more likely to still be employed in the district after 3 years.
• Persistent challenges threaten the sustainability of principal pipelines Districts faced common challenges with expanding and sustaining their principal pipelines, including funding uncertainties and competing priorities.

Districts can further strengthen their principal pipelines by ensuring they are aligned across the full educator career span, recruiting strategically into TOSA and assistant principal positions, treating pipelines as a retention tool as well as a preparation tool, and reassessing equity goals once pipelines have had more time to mature.