School Leadership
When Learning Counts: Rethinking Licenses for School Leaders-
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As achievement gaps persist, academic results lag behind expectations and sanctions loom ever larger, the public looks to principals to lead school improvement. States use licenses to control who becomes a principal and to influence the training of aspiring principals, but do these licenses encompass the knowledge and skills those principals need to promote student learning? If not, what kind of policy framework would help decisionmakers, educators and others rethink principal licenses and the school leadership they support?
When Learning Counts answers these questions by examining the licensure content for principals in all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia. Here is what they found:
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Licensing requirements are typically misaligned with today’s ambitions for school leaders and vary widely state to state. These findings highlight a missed opportunity. Licensing can play a valuable role in developing school leaders and securing the principals that schools need, but today’s licenses fall short.
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Only six states primarily focus their licenses on learning. Two-thirds of the states include some learning content in their licensing requirements, but inclusion of that content seldom amounts to a coherent policy focus or plan. Even when states include learning-focused content, it is narrow in scope.
The report’s policy framework, entitled “Licensing-Plus,” offers policymakers a guide to restructuring principal licenses to promote student learning. Departing from traditional licenses, Licensing-Plus recommends restructuring the license to better link licensure to learning, provide for specialized professional learning that develops technical expertise and promote leadership development. This new structure ensures that policymakers can better align licenses with the duties and demands of today’s principalship.
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