A new guide from The Wallace Foundation addresses the pressing need to better prepare and support new principals as turnover rates remain high. Assistant Principal Advancement: A Guide for School Districts gives district teams the tools (e.g., reflection tables and a work plan template) to identify, train, place, and support assistant principals for the principalship. Developed by Policy Studies Associates, it combines emerging research with input from leaders across diverse school districts.
The report suggests that districts form a team to focus on three areas of evidence-based practices that are likely to lead to finding more assistant principals ready to advance and preparing them to serve as principals.
1. Forecasting principal vacancies: Drawing on data systems research to improve school leadership, this section offers guidance on collecting and analyzing data to determine how many assistant principals are needed to fill vacancies and how quickly APs must be prepared.
2. Identifying assistant principals for the principalship: To better help districts assess which APs would make for promising principals, this section synthesizes research on the assistant principal role and principal effectiveness, identifying specific attributes to seek when determining AP potential.
3. Establishing and implementing a professional learning pathway: District leaders can find tools in this section for developing professional learning experiences—from high-quality mentoring to targeted trainings—that bridge any gaps between APs' current knowledge base and what they'll need as principals.
Through the deliberate preparation of assistant principals for principal positions, districts can both help ensure that new principals stay in the role longer and guide assistant principals with the needed skills to go further in leadership.
