1. Selection & Deployment - Principals
Capturing Our Learning

2. Overview
Purpose: To source and match the best candidates to a specific school’s vacancy, which requires HR to know the schools and communities well enough to determine which candidates would be the best fit and to provide a robust selection process with clear roles and responsibilities for all involved
Key Elements of Selection & Deployment
Developing an Early and Aggressive Hiring Timeline
Clarifying Roles and Responsibilities in the Hiring and Selection Process
Establishing a Clear and Transparent Selection Process
Developing an Advertisement Based on a School's Leadership Profile
Collaborating with Principal Supervisors to Match Assistant Principal Candidates to School Needs
Supporting Principal Supervisors on Leadership at High-Needs Schools
See the Principal ABC Tool and Executive Summary of the Principal Puzzle Pieces for additional information
Urban Schools Human Capital Academy

3. Key Research
High-needs schools are more likely than other schools to have principals who are in their first year at the school and are the least likely to be led by principals with more than five years of experience Rice. (2010)
Deliberate selection and support could ameliorate this churn; however most districts lack a consistent process to assess a candidate’s fit for a particular school position Doyle & Locke. (2014)
Urban Schools Human Capital Academy

4. Metrics
Key metrics to understand performance in this function include:
% of principals with effective or higher ratings at end of years 1-3 by pathway
Applicants per vacancy
% of vacancies filled by April 1 (March 1 for high-need schools)
Principal supervisor satisfaction with the pool
Distribution of principal effectiveness ratings across high- and low- need schools
Urban Schools Human Capital Academy

5. Key Content
Selection & Deployment

6. HR’s Role in Principal Quality
Betsy
On the principal side, we know that effective principals are:
Good instructional leaders, that is – they can facilitate teachers’ learning about how to improve instruction
Good HC managers – they know how to get and keep the best people in their schools
Have a strong vision and can build a strong culture of academic excellence
Align and manage their resources for student achievement – budget, people, processe
Potential questions to ask the group after reviewing this slide:
Do you feel like these are comprehensive, or do you feel like anything is missing?
Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014

7. The Principalship is Challenging
Demanding and increasing workload and expectations
Limited autonomy over key decisions coupled with strong accountability
Isolation and lack of support
Pay can overlap with differentiated teacher pay
Betsy
Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014

8. What We Know: Get the Best
Many districts:
Have had limited success hiring external candidates with proven results
Hire internal staff, leading to a lack of diversity
Have inconsistent process to identify and build high potential leaders
Shuffle 12% of low-performing principals between schools each year
Source: Doyle & Locke, 2014
Betsy
Districts are too passive in recruitment; missing out on whole segments of the potential pipeline
Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014

9. What We Know: Deploy Deliberately
More challenges in high-needs schools:
More likely to have a principal in their first year
Less likely to have a principal with more than 5 years experience
50% less likely to be led by the same principal over six year period
28% of high-needs principals leave each year
Impact is felt in schools:
Schools that lost principals more likely to see drop in performance in next year
It can take up to five years to build up trust and culture to improve academic performance
Betsy
Source: Bierly & Shy, 2013; School Leaders Network.
Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014

10. District Conditions & the Paradox of the Principalship
Effective Instructional Leadership
Most Commonly lacking condition:
ability to target resources where they are needed
hire the best available teachers
provide teachers with the opportunities they need to improve
keep the school running smoothly
Grissom & Loeb, 2009, p. 32
create appropriate staffing models
ability to hire, promote, and dismiss teachers.
Ikemoto, et al., 2014, p. 11
Betsy IF we get great principals – it becomes impossible to keep them because of the conditions in the district. The dysfunctional district will win every time. Even High Quality Principals cannot be great HC Managers or even effective managers in this kind of environment
Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014

11. Creating Great Principals at Scale
Strand 1: Aligned goals, strategies, and resources Strand 2: Culture of collective responsibility, balanced autonomy, and continuous learning, and improvement Strand 3: Effective Management and Support for Principals Strand 4: Systems and policies to effectively manage talent at school-level
Betsy IF we get great principals – it becomes impossible to keep them because of the conditions in the district. The dysfunctional district will win every time. Even High Quality Principals cannot be great HC Managers or even effective managers in this kind of environment
Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014

12. What Can HR Do to Contribute?
Bring Data & Information to the Table
Share Power Metrics and ABC Tool strategies
Identify effective teachers and APs
Provide Ideas, such as:
Create teacher leadership and “stepping stone” positions
Seek top performers’ input about what keeps them in your district
Lead/support efforts to make the role more manageable (Admin Managers)
Facilitate Dialogue
How can the district remove/limit barriers and set enabling conditions?
How can we share and facilitate promising practices between principals?
Betsy This is a service. Widen your organizational influence
Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014

13. Tools and Activities

14. Tools Principal Power Metrics – Actions of Impact
Offers HR/HC teams actions that have an impact in each bucket of the Principal Power Metrics. It also includes:
Snippets from the Research
Power Metrics Recap
Actions of Impact – High-impact, often low-cost ideas
Top USHCA Tools and Materials
Sample Principal Supervisor Survey
Suggests sample survey questions to gauge Principal Supervisor satisfaction with key HR policies, tools and systems in order to provide best possible service
Urban Schools Human Capital Academy

15. Activity: Rate Your District
Does your district:
Get the best principals consistently?
Deploy principals deliberately?
Retain principals strategically?
Deliver services to principal supervisors effectively?
Rate your district on a scale from 1 (worst) to 10 (best)
Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014

16. Activity: Principal Power Metrics Analysis
Directions:
What do our Principal Power Metrics show?
In what “bucket” area will we focus to improve principal quality
Review the Actions of Impact tool for this area. Any promising ideas?
What is our vision for working with Principal Managers on this?
What are 2-3 concrete steps we will take to contribute to improved principal quality?
Urban Schools Human Capital Academy October 2014