Article by Mel Ulle
High-performing leaders typically lead high-performing schools. Look around, and you’ll see this truth in action everywhere and (unfortunately) the inverse. Your kid’s patchworked elementary school with chronic teacher turnover and messy classrooms is usually not run by an exceptional director. This principle applies to any sandwich shop, church, boutique, airline and even to the infamous Fyre Festival.
Sadly, schools and districts, much like nonprofits, tend to reward excellence with more work and little to no additional pay. That’s the misguided story we tell ourselves in the social sector: service for service’s sake. The truth is when we push leaders too hard, without proper compensation, support, and space for planning, they inevitably break. What that means for us as parents and community members is that we see school principals who are doing bang-up work with outstanding outcomes leaving their jobs
Highly effective principals receive little professional development, recognition, or peer networking. As a result, our MVPs often lose their passion, burn out and depart. Research shows that effective principals who remain in their schools deliver exceedingly better student outcomes, so it’s requisite that schools retain quality principals and build a pipeline of exceptional future leaders.
Read the remainder of the article at Urban Life Wash Park.
