While the importance of effective teachers to students’ learning has received a great deal of attention in recent years, the role principals play in ensuring that students have access to excellent teaching has received much less consideration. Principals play a critical role in developing a strong teaching workforce within a school by hiring teachers, assigning them to specific positions, evaluating them, and providing growth opportunities for them.
In addition, as states and districts reform teacher-related policies and programs, principals will be crucial actors in ensuring their success. For example, principals play a vital role in implementing more rigorous evaluation systems and providing teachers with feedback to improve their performance.
Join us for a conversation with experts in research, policy, and practice to discuss how principals fulfill their critical role as a manager of educator talent and the opportunities and constraints that they face in their work. We will launch the conversation with a paper by Morgaen Donaldson that provides findings from a study of 30 principals in two northeastern states about how they perceive their roles.
Featured speakers:
Morgaen Donaldson, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, University of Connecticut
Benjamin Fenton, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder, New Leaders for New Schools
Stacey McCann, Principal, Henry C. Dwight Elementary School, Hartford, CT
Lori Nazareno, Co-Lead Teacher, Mathematics and Science Leadership Academy, Denver, CO
Moderated by:
Robin Chait, Associate Director for Teacher Quality, Center for American Progress