Students do better when they have teachers and principals who look like them. As the student population becomes more and more diverse, the educator population has not been able to keep up. While states have invested in strategies to increase the diversity of the educator workforce, there is still a significant gap between the racial and ethnic makeup of students and staff. However, there are ways to enhance principal pipelines to not only increase the diversity of school leaders but also help all principals best serve all students.
To that end, researchers have established a Culturally Responsive School Leadership (CRSL) framework to develop culturally responsive educators. Culturally responsive educators address the unique learning needs of minority students by ensuring their identities and experiences are reflected in coursework and they feel valued as a part of the school community.
The CRSL framework identifies the following key behaviors:
- Developing critical consciousness.
- Ensuring inclusive school environments.
- Providing culturally responsive instructional leadership.
- Enacting culturally responsive leadership engagement in community contexts.
Capitalizing on the work supported by The Wallace Foundation on principal pipelines, researchers recently applied the CRSL framework to the seven domains of the principal pipeline. Although the full report highlights how to apply the four behaviors to each of the seven domains, the sections below highlight the connections most relevant to the work of state legislatures.
Leader Standards
Leader standards define the professional knowledge, skills and competencies that are needed to be considered an effective principal in the state. In the context of the CRSL framework, leader standards can be designed to require competencies around the four key behaviors.
Critical Consciousness—Ensure that leadership standards engage principals in understanding different racial and cultural identities to better support students and staff.
Inclusive School Environments—Ensure leadership standards specify that principals create school cultures that respect differences across the experiences and identities of students and their families.
Culturally Responsive Instructional Leadership—Ensure that leadership standards require principals to understand how to support teachers in instructional practices that value and reflect the cultures and identities of students.
Culturally Responsive Community Engagement—Ensure leadership standards include requirements to involve the larger school community and embrace the unique heritages and knowledge base they bring to the school.
High-Quality Preparation
To become a fully licensed principal, states require candidates to complete a principal preparation program. Aligned with the leadership standards, states can set specific requirements candidates must complete to qualify for a principal license.
Culturally Responsive Instructional Leadership—Require preparation programs to prepare candidates to provide instructional support that helps teachers reflect and value the cultural background of all students.
Culturally Responsive Community Engagement—Require practice engaging with communities to better understand the school context as a part of mandatory clinical experiences.
Selective Hiring and Placement
Selective hiring and placement refer to the process for identifying and employing principals in schools. Although this happens at the district level, states can provide best practices to promote hiring of candidates who are well suited to address the diverse needs of all students.
Critical Consciousness—Provide for the creation of sample interview questions to ask about candidates’ understanding of how to value and reflect the experiences and cultures of all students as well as how to promote such practices among teachers and other staff.
Culturally Responsive Community Engagement—Provide strategies for including the community in the hiring and placement process.
Evaluation and Support
Induction, mentoring, professional development and evaluation all help principals improve their practice once they have entered the workforce. States can ensure that principals are provided with induction, mentoring and professional development opportunities and provide guidelines for the implementation of such supports and of evaluation systems.
Critical Consciousness—Provide that professional development requirements support principals in understanding the community and historical context of their students.
Inclusive School Environments—Ensure evaluation system requirements, aligned with leader standards, include evaluation of principals’ efforts to build relationships with teachers and students and to address the needs of students from diverse racial and ethnic groups.
Supervisors
Principal supervisors play a pivotal role in developing school leaders, making it essential that they are well prepared to support principals’ practices. At the state level, requirements for principal supervisors can ensure they understand how to best support principals.
Inclusive School Environments—Ensure supervisors have professional learning opportunities on school climate surveys and how to regularly reference them as a part of principal supervision.
Culturally Responsive Instructional Leadership—Ensure supervisors are prepared to provide feedback to improve principals’ support of classroom instruction.
Culturally Responsive Community Engagement—Ensure supervisors are prepared and supported in assessing the degree to which principals engage with the community.
Tracking System
Leader tracking systems provide critical information on the principal workforce for state and district leaders to make data-informed decisions. Tracking systems generally have three key components: a database to track the recruitment, preparation, hiring, support and evaluation of school leaders; positions or offices dedicated to school leadership issues; and professional development and support for aspiring principals. These systems can help states and districts identify areas of need in recruitment and retention of school leaders. In supporting the development of such tracking systems, states can help all districts establish the systems and use the data effectively.
Critical Consciousness—Provide training and support on the appropriate use of data in the tracking system to ensure it captures the full potential of all candidates.
Inclusive School Environments—Provide for professional learning opportunities on how to examine data from the leader tracking systems to support principals in establishing school cultures that recognize, respect and value the experiences and identities of all students.
Systems of Support
Systems of support are needed to provide infrastructure to sustain principal pipelines. Ongoing supports include communicating support, establishing systems to continuously gather community input, and establishing monitoring efforts. By voicing official support for the development of principal pipelines that align with the CRSL framework, states can inspire sustained action at the district level.
Critical Consciousness—Commit to valuing the identities and experiences of the diverse communities in the state to best serve all students.
Culturally Responsive Instructional Leadership—Provide for an audit of curriculum, instructional materials and assessments to ensure they reflect and value the identities and experiences of all students.