Chapter 4: The Critical Role of Principals
Chapter Summary
Principals play a crucial role in recruiting, developing, and retaining a diverse and high-quality staff, including establishing a positive school climate. In surveys, teachers consistently rate the quality of principal support as more important than salaries or workload in their decision to leave or continue teaching in a particular school. School districts, in turn, are instrumental in providing principals with the professional learning and supports needed to be effective and empowering leaders who create safe and inclusive schools for students, staff, and families. This chapter highlights key elements of effective principal development programs and highlights examples.
Effective principals play a crucial role in creating schools in which students and teachers thrive. In their role as school site leaders, principals are responsible for nurturing a positive school culture and supportive conditions for teaching and learning—both of which are essential to student and teacher well-being and success.
A comprehensive review of the research on principal leadership released by the Wallace Foundation in 2021, How Principals Affect Students and Schools: A Systematic Synthesis of Two Decades of Research, underscored the significant impact that principal quality has on student achievement. The study found that replacing a below-average principal with an above-average principal would result in nearly 3 months of additional learning in reading and math for students in that school.[111] As the authors note, “It is difficult to envision an investment with a higher ceiling on its potential return than a successful effort to improve principal leadership.”[112]
High-quality and supportive principals are also key to teacher retention. Teachers consistently rate the quality of administrative support as more important than salaries in their decisions to leave or continue teaching in a particular school.[113] Their administrative leadership includes providing instructional support for staff, both through the working conditions they foster and through one-on-one support. Among the key elements of positive working conditions frequently cited by teachers are collegial relationships, time for collaboration, and opportunities for shared leadership and input into decision-making.[114] Studies have found that a teacher’s perceptions of their leader’s support, such as setting clear expectations, providing support and encouragement, and recognizing good performance, plays an even greater role in high-need schools. For the most effective principals, perceived support can even close the teacher turnover gap between students from advantaged and disadvantaged schools.[115]
A principal’s racial diversity is associated with the hiring, job satisfaction, and retention of teachers of color. Principals of color are more likely to hire more teachers of color.[116] Although there has been a slight increase in the number of principals of color over the years, the numbers remain low.[117] Teachers are also more likely to report higher job satisfaction with principals of the same race [118], as well as greater feelings of support, encouragement, job recognition,[119] and trust.[120] All teachers, including teachers of color, are less likely to leave their schools when the principal shares the same race or ethnicity.[121] In the Jefferson County Public Schools District in Kentucky, for example (described in greater detail in Chapter 1), the share of Black teachers rose as more Black principals were hired, and the attrition rate for Black teachers dropped from 14% to 7% in 2019.
Districts play an essential role in building their principals’ capacity to lead by creating ongoing professional development opportunities and establishing an infrastructure that supports effective school leadership. Districts can partner with local universities or nonprofits to leverage research, expertise, and capacity to design learning opportunities for principals that support them in leading diverse schools.[122] As described in more detail in Chapter 1, for example, Seattle Public Schools has created the structures and professional learning for school leaders, teachers, and support staff to collaborate in shared culturally responsive decision-making.
Although it is beyond the scope of this Playbook to address the preparation of high-quality and diverse principals, in the pages that follow, we discuss characteristics of effective principals and the role of coaching and professional learning in developing the school site leaders that our students and teachers need and deserve.
Practices of Effective Principals
Principals play a crucial role in hiring, recruiting, and retaining teachers and supporting teachers in creating learning environments in which students thrive. Four practices, or leadership behaviors, are identified in How Principals Affect Students and Schools: A Systematic Synthesis of Two Decades of Research as essential to effective leadership.[123]
Engaging in instructionally focused interactions with teachers. Effective principals support teachers in improving their instruction by observing teachers in the classroom, evaluating and providing high-quality feedback, coaching teachers in instructional practices, and helping teachers use data to monitor and address students’ needs.
Building a productive climate. Effective principals create a school climate in which there is a sense of trust among the teachers, students, parents, and wider community and a shared commitment to working together toward school improvement. Principals empower teacher leadership through mentorship, professional development, collaboration, and data-driven instruction and provide teachers and students with social-emotional support.
Facilitating collaboration and professional learning communities. Effective principals facilitate the structures to establish and maintain professional learning communities in which teachers collaborate and use data to achieve student learning goals.
Managing personnel and resources strategically. Effective principals use staff and resources effectively to support teaching and learning by focusing their time on supporting teachers’ instruction and collaboration and by making strategic decisions about hiring, placing, and retaining teachers.
Effective Principal Development
Effective principal development programs include those in which content is aligned with core responsibilities, program structures facilitate collaboration and real-time problem-solving among participants, and organizational structures leverage partnerships to support principal learning. Three features of effective programs are described here in further detail.
Program content that teaches principals essential skills needed for their job. These skills include developing a vision for equity,[124] creating collaborative working environments for teachers, and analyzing and using data to inform improvement.[125]
As the instructional leader in their schools, principals need to learn and develop the skills and practices essential to supporting teachers and advancing equitable, rigorous, and culturally responsive student learning and achievement.[126] These skills include building relational trust with teachers[127] that allows principals to provide meaningful, ongoing feedback and support on teachers’ classroom instruction; supporting teachers’ curriculum design; and assessing student learning.[128] For example, the McREL Balanced Leadership Development Program (described in detail later in this chapter) engages principals in establishing a vision of academic success for all students. That vision includes creating a healthy school climate; cultivating leadership in others; improving instruction; and managing people, data, and processes. Principals’ participation in these efforts is associated with reductions in principal and teacher turnover.[129]
Program structures that include cohort collaboration, provide principals with hands-on opportunities to address real-time challenges at their schools, and are supported by on-the-job coaching.[130]
Principal cohorts can often take the form of professional development communities that provide practicing principals with needed resources and supports.[131] These learning communities promote collaboration by meeting regularly, promoting a culture of reflection and shared decision-making, and by using student data to collectively analyze students’ instructional needs. Principals can further share best practices and develop a shared vision for high-quality instruction and plans to address students’ needs, such as through differentiated instruction.[132] San Diego Unified School District’s Principal In-Service Program (discussed later in this chapter), for example, includes learning opportunities for principals and teachers to meet in “cluster teams” to engage in targeted professional development and share resources.[133]
Complementary to professional learning communities, job-embedded coaching that is focused on instruction and provided by coaches who are highly skilled in instructional leadership is a highly effective strategy for supporting and developing principals.[134] To ensure that coaches have the experience and background necessary to support principals, several high-quality programs recruit retired principals to serve in this supportive role.
Leadership Connection Rubric
The University of California, Berkeley Principal Leadership Institute Leadership Connection Rubric guides effective leadership preparation, induction, and coaching. Based on field testing with several cohorts, the rubric identifies seven elements of effective leadership: (1) Presence and Attitude; (2) Identity and Relationships; (3) Equity and Advocacy; (4) Curriculum and Instruction; (5) Organization and Systems; (6) Change and Coherence; and (7) Assessment and Accountability. Effective leadership relies on the interrelationship and continuous improvement of all seven elements.
The three levels in the Rubric include (1) emerging or novice, which typically signals preparation in a credentialing program, including fieldwork and internships; (2) developing, which encompasses an induction period—typically approximately 3–5 years but could be longer depending on the leadership position of the individual; and (3) practicing, which is ongoing effectiveness as the veteran leader continues to demonstrate growing expertise.
Coaches serve as guides for principals, asking questions that allow their mentees to reflect on their leadership practice.[135] For example, in the San Diego Unified School District, coaches model for principals a routine for visiting and taking note of the teaching and learning happening in classrooms. They then have principals synthesize and reflect on their observations and develop an instructional plan with their staffs.[136] Having tools that help principals collect and share evidence with teachers during observation cycles can facilitate more productive conversations in which teachers can better digest feedback and make informed changes to their instructional practice.[137]
Principal supervisors—district-level staff who oversee school site administrators—are also increasingly providing on-the-job coaching for principals.[138] Principal supervisors tend to conduct classroom observations, walk-throughs, and evaluations, while coaches are more responsive, flexible, and available for more specific and tailored conversations.[139] New research also supports principal supervisors taking on a teaching and learning approach, modeling and coaching principals in best instructional practices.[140]
Organizational partnerships between programs that help develop principals and districts in which principals will be working.[141]
Many school districts turn to outside partners, such as local schools of education, to lead their principal development programs. When developed and managed collaboratively with participating districts and aligned to their goals and priorities, these partnerships can support a mutually beneficial blend of research and practice.
One example of such collaboration involves mathematics educators at the University of Washington’s College of Education in Seattle working with district and school leadership from a network of five schools in a research-practice partnership (RPP). The RPP first began in 2011 to improve elementary mathematics teaching and learning at one school, guided by principles of equitable learning experiences. It expanded over time to include more schools and other disciplinary content areas, such as literacy, science, and social and emotional learning.
School and district leaders, teacher educators, and university faculty are part of a design team that meets regularly to think together and share expertise in designing and facilitating the professional learning experiences provided within and across the network of schools for principals, instructional coaches, and teachers. The RPP attends carefully to how principals and school-based instructional coaches work together within each school to create coherent and meaningful learning experiences for teachers.
Federal Funds to Support Principal Development
While federal funding accounted for 32.4% of revenue for state budgets during the 2019–20 fiscal year,[142] there are opportunities for states to leverage federal funds to support principal development. Such opportunities include funding from the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Title II, Part A funds; Title I, Part A School Improvement funds; and competitive federal grants. Under Title II, Part A, states may allocate up to 5% of these funds to teacher and leader development and an additional 3% exclusively for leadership development investments. These funds can be used to prepare and develop school leaders and fund principal mentors. In 2020, the U.S. Department of Education awarded over $2.1 billion in Title II, Part A awards to states, with awards ranging from approximately $10.3 million for Delaware to just over $238 million for California.
Through Title I, Part A School Improvement funds, states can set aside 7% to improve low-performing schools’ outcomes through evidence-based strategies, which includes principal development. Lastly, competitive federal grants could be available to states, districts, and nonprofit organizations to strengthen leadership capacity through the Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) program.[143]
Several states have made use of ESSA funding to support leadership development. For example, Tennessee is leveraging Title II, Part A funds to support the Tennessee Academy for School Leaders (TASL). This program provides professional development aligned with the Tennessee Instructional Leadership Standards for principals and assistant principals who have fewer than 3 years of experience. TASL supports include induction academies for new principals, ongoing professional development opportunities through a network of principals that meet 8 times over 2 years, and a university partnership supporting principals through their licensure process.[144] The state is revamping the program to include both in-person and online learning components.
The Idaho State Department of Education (Idaho SDE) is also leveraging about $170,000 in ESSA Title I, Part A School Improvement funds—and a small number of state funds—to invest in its school leadership through The Idaho Principals Network (IPN), founded in 2008. The IPN is a professional learning community focused on improving students’ quality of instruction through high-quality teaching and instructional leadership, specifically targeting low-performing schools. Principals engage in professional development focused on instructional leadership and managing change, such as improving classroom observations, developing school improvement leadership skills, and improving leaders’ instructional rounds. The Idaho SDE provides the necessary resources, experts, and planning to bring principals together from across the state to engage in the program. Data from 2017 indicated that over 95% of participants would either recommend or strongly recommend the program and that program training was useful and directly impacted their work.[145]
The following state and local programs represent evidence-based and effective efforts to support school site leaders.
State Principal Development Programs
Arkansas Leadership Academy’s Master Principal Program
The Arkansas Leadership Academy Master Principal Program (MPP) was created in 2003 by the Arkansas General Assembly to develop school site leadership capacity in five areas: (1) setting a clear and compelling direction, (2) shaping the school culture for learning, (3) leading and managing change, (4) improving teaching and learning, (5) and managing accountability systems, all of which are built throughout the 3-year program.
This highly selective program includes three 1-year phases, each of which includes three to four residential sessions. Between the sessions, participants engage in readings, activities, and action research projects designed to build their capacity in the five focus areas. Although there is no cost to participants, interested principals must apply to each of the three phases, providing a narrative that demonstrates their improvements in school culture, staff development, and student outcomes.
In Phase 1, principals engage in making changes to school conditions that lead to equity and deeper learning by developing a shared school mission, creating professional learning communities focused on quality instruction, and empowering teachers to take on leadership roles. In Phase 2, principals focus on exercising their leadership skills to collaborate with school and district personnel in creating systemic change that leads to improved student achievement, enables teacher leadership, and uses data to inform decision-making. In Phase 3, principals build on skills from Phases 1 and 2 to deepen their distributive leadership capacity and conduct an action research project focused on a problem of practice. When principals complete Phase 3, they may apply for Master School Principal designation, which includes a $9,000 annual bonus for each of 5 years for full-time principals, and a $25,000 annual bonus for principals who work in high-need schools, as defined by the Arkansas Department of Education.
Every year, the MPP serves about 80–90 principals across the three phases, and 4–6 principals attain their Master School Principal designations. In a survey of Phase 1 and Phase 3 principals, 98% of participants reported that the MPP had prepared them well or very well as principals. Furthermore, more than 90% of principals surveyed reported that, due to their participation in the MPP program, they were very well prepared or well prepared to implement a range of responsibilities, including redesigning the school’s organization and structures to support deeper learning for teachers and students, using student and school data to inform ongoing school improvement, and creating collegial and collaborative work environments.[146]
Funding for the administration of this program comes from a $500,000 annual state allocation.
RISE: Resilience, Instruction, Support, Excellence
RISE: Resilience, Instruction, Support, Excellence, formally known as the Principals Pursuing Excellence program, is a multiyear program committed to empowering New Mexico leaders to redesign systems and facilitate school change, leveraging research-based practices to strengthen leadership capacity and change the behaviors of adults to improve outcomes for students with the greatest need. Participating districts and leaders serve New Mexico’s most vulnerable students, including bilingual and multicultural education program students, Native American students, and special education students.
Working with their core teams, participating principals receive support from their school district and work with a performance coach to analyze school data and assess student needs. Together, they develop a 90-day plan and an annual plan that include effective turnaround practices, such as fostering a school’s culture of learning, observation and feedback, and data-driven instruction. To assist in their effective implementation of the 90-day plan, principals are provided with ongoing mentoring and coaching through monthly visits and check-ins at the school. All leaders also participate in professional learning that continues to develop their competencies for school and district transformation.
Since the program’s inception in 2015, 435 principals from 45 districts have participated in RISE, impacting more than 100,000 students over the last 6 years. Based on 2015–18 data from the New Mexico Public Education Department, schools whose principals participated in cohorts 1 through 4 of the program (nearly half of New Mexico’s school districts) have closed 85% of the achievement gap in reading outcomes compared with non-RISE schools and have closed 81% of the achievement gap in math proficiency compared with non-RISE schools.[147] These schools accomplished this while serving disproportionately more English learners, Native American students, students with disabilities, and students from low-income communities.[148] In 2020–21, RISE provided services to 150 school leaders, 36 district support partners, 89 performance coaches, and 65,531 students. The New Mexico legislature appropriates funds to RISE as part of its principal development supports.
Local Principal Development Programs
Gwinnett County Public Schools Leadership Development
Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) in Georgia leverages its professional development for principals to strengthen school and district capacity to engage in a cycle of continuous improvement. Supports for principals include a combination of online and in-person training and one-on-one mentoring and collaboration through cluster network teams. All new leaders take an online course grounded in Edward Deming’s philosophy of continuous quality improvement, which sets the foundation for their role as quality leaders at their school sites. This curriculum includes an overview of quality control, the standardization of processes, and the school and community teams that work together to achieve student success. The in-person training for principals includes a 3-day summer leadership conference. Principals learn from one another and national experts, sharing best practices that were designed and previously successfully implemented in GCPS classrooms.
First- and second-year principals receive ongoing one-on-one support and coaching from a mentor, who serves as a thought partner, providing support in five leadership areas: (1) creating a shared school vision; (2) fostering a welcoming school climate for teachers and students; (3) establishing a culture of shared leadership; (4) providing classroom instruction with embedded reflective practice for teachers; (5) and instituting efficient management of processes, people, and data. Mentors play an important role in supporting assistant principals as they transition to principals. Just-in-Time Training is mentorship provided to all principals upon request. To better support principals, all mentors are former principals themselves. Mentors also participate in all professional development available to principals and use an online tracking data system to match principals’ specific needs with resources.
As participating principal Tamara Perkins, former Principal of Parsons Elementary School and current Principal at Simonton Elementary School, noted:
When you have someone who has literally sat in the seat, and has done the same work that you are now working on, it’s just very reassuring, even though they are not directing your work; it’s just someone you can think aloud with in a very objective nonjudgmental [way]. [149]
Principals in GCPS continue building on their leadership practice through cluster teams that provide participants with ongoing opportunities for collaboration and support. Cluster teams consist of three to four elementary schools, two middle schools, and a high school within the same feeder pattern. The high school principal is the leader of the cluster and collaborates with the other school leaders and mentors through monthly meetings and through ongoing efforts to customize professional development to their specific local needs.
GCPS specifically implements a Results-Based Evaluation System that monitors and ensures that all professional development is leading to the primary goal of student achievement. GCPS benchmarks its schools to the top 25 similar districts in the nation, based on comparable size and student demographics—weighting heavily on student achievement (70%) to measure “gap closures” and student progress.[150] This evaluation system is used in combination with the GCPS leadership dashboard, which tracks the trajectory of individual principals and principal feedback to design professional learning opportunities for principals.
GCPS is one of the many sites financially supported by the Wallace Foundation to facilitate principal development.
San Diego Unified Principal Development
San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) is one of seven California districts identified in a 2019 study as exemplars in advancing African American, Latinx, and White students’ academic achievement. SDUSD offers a menu approach to principal professional development that is planned and facilitated by principals and grounded in equity, with a particular emphasis on supporting English learners (ELs) and special education students. Though professional development includes a mixture of required and voluntary trainings, required training ensures coherent leader professional development throughout the district.
SDUSD’s training for principals includes 6 days of required participation in the district’s Principal Leadership Institute, as well as voluntary summer institutes. The training’s overarching focus is on developing high-reliability schools (based on Marzano’s High-Reliability Schools Framework)[151] in which all students, including EL and special education students, learn the content and skills they need to succeed in college and life. The institutes are held during the school year and in the summer at a local university. Sessions focus on three areas: (1) building high-quality student and staff alliances, (2) engaging in critical self-awareness and implicit biases, and (3) cultivating empowered learners who are actively engaged in their learning experiences. Summer institutes provide principals with tools to continue supporting EL and special education students and other students that need additional support.
Principal development structures have focused the attention of leaders and teachers on meeting the needs of special education students and ELs.[152] They have also prompted changes in the classroom instructional practices and mindsets regarding what all students can achieve. For example, professional development has been a catalyst for discussions about what master schedules look like, how to avoid tracking students, and how to serve students in heterogeneous classrooms.
An area superintendent described the attention to equity in professional learning as the central focus for supporting student success: “Our focus on equity, I think, is what’s shifting it [learning outcomes]. It’s no longer the status quo, or trust that you’re going to do what you need to do, but we’re going to be intentional about it and call it out.’[153]
The majority of funding for San Diego’s Principal Leadership Institute comes from Title II funding.
Long Beach Unified School District Principal Development
In Southern California, Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) provides professional development to its principals through a collaborative approach that allows principals, teachers, and staff to develop and informally evaluate their school improvement efforts.[154] Supports and trainings are focused on the district’s Six Understandings, including instruction, professional development, and accountability, in alignment with the Common Core Standards. The first four Understandings focus on the district’s vision for instructional practice, the fifth focuses on staff collaboration, and the sixth focuses on classroom climate and teacher–student relationships.
To support whole-school implementation of the Six Understandings, site teams consisting of the principal and two to three teachers participate in all-day professional learning sessions with other site teams to share best practices, learn from curriculum specialists, and spend time in common planning. Curriculum specialists meet and support principals in implementing the Common Core Standards. For example, the district’s math curriculum team has explained the content, construction, and math teaching practices that allow principals to supervise better and inform instructional practices in the classroom. Team time provides staff the opportunity to think through how learnings will be shared broadly with school staff.
In addition to the joint professional development sessions, cohorts of school site teams and district leaders participate in collaborative inquiry visits (CIVs) twice a year, providing school and district staff with an opportunity to learn from and with each other by visiting selected schools. While the focus of the visits is customized to reflect the work of the specific school, all CIVs follow a similar structure that includes an initial whole-group briefing that contextualizes the school community and theory of action, classroom observations to see and analyze the school’s improvement efforts in practice, and a whole-group debrief to reflect on the visit. Principals and/or principal supervisors also debrief separately and share recommendations for both the school observed and their schools.[155]
According to a case study of exemplary California districts, LBUSD’s implementation of the Six Understandings, in conjunction with extensive professional development, has led to a districtwide focus on deeper learning instructional practices. District professional development has also contributed to teacher and principal retention. According to district data between 2012 and 2017, 92% of teachers that have been newly hired are still working in the district after 5 years. One of the major reasons principals and teachers shared for staying in the district is the support they receive to continue growing professionally.[156]
LBUSD leverages local and federal (Title II and Title III) funding to support principal development. The district is also investing in principal development by funding principal supervisors at a ratio of 1 supervisor per 15 principals. A Wallace Foundation grant previously funded these positions.
Independent Principal Development Programs
McREL Balanced Leadership Development Program
While many districts, such as those described earlier, have developed district-based leadership development programs, others have turned to external experts for assistance with leadership development. The McREL Balanced Leadership Professional Development (BLDP) program is operated by McREL International, an education research, development, and service nonprofit organization supporting schools, districts, and education agencies to improve student achievement. The McREL BLDP program has been found to reduce both teacher and principal turnover.[157] A study of the program found a 23-percentage-point reduction in turnover for McREL BLDP principals and a 7-percentage-point decrease in turnover for teachers who worked with them, compared to principals in the control group who received whatever professional development their districts normally offered.[158] The program has also been shown to significantly impact principals’ perceptions of their sense of efficacy for establishing instructional leadership and teacher collaboration.[159]
McREL has trained more than 20,000 principals and district leaders from schools and districts across the United States, the Pacific Region, and Australia. The program is designed to support principals by customizing its training to meet the specific local school and district needs. Program costs vary depending on the local district’s needs, context, and goals. Over the course of four to six sessions, each one to two days in duration and held throughout the school year, McREL BLDP supports participants’ learning of specific strategies and tools for establishing a vision of academic success for all students, creating a climate hospitable to education; cultivating leadership in others; improving instruction; and managing people, data, and processes to foster school improvement.
One district that McREL has partnered with to strengthen its principal development and increase student academic outcomes is Sioux City Community School District in Iowa. In 2016, Sioux City Superintendent Paul Gausman contracted with McREL to help build school principals’ leadership capacity. McREL’s expert coaches visited the district’s 20 schools and met with principals and school leadership teams to help them develop shared leadership structures and practices. Associate Superintendent Kim Buryanek and three other district administrators were trained to deliver McREL’s BLDP training and coaching to build district capacity to support ongoing improvements.[160]
Student academic achievement has gone up in Sioux City with the integration of McREL’s principal development supports. In the 2017–18 school year, an additional 10% of k–3 students passed the state literacy test compared to a 0.8% increase in the statewide pass rate.[161] The district also reports that teachers have increasingly taken on the leadership role of delivering staff professional development since principals began working with McREL. As Superintendent Gausman notes, “I think our principals are enjoying their work more because we’ve pushed them to become instructional leaders, and it’s far more rewarding to succeed.” McREL BLDP is currently working with Iowa’s Area Education Agencies to provide BLDP sessions across the state.[162]
The National Institute for School Leadership Executive Development Program
The National Institute for School Leadership (NISL) Executive Development Program (EDP) provides leadership development programs to schools, districts, and state departments of education across the country to improve the education system to meet all students’ needs. It is a program of the National Center on Education and the Economy, which researches best practices on high-performing education systems.
Source: NCEE Press Release, 2021
The EDP provides school leaders with a research-based professional learning program that helps them improve their effectiveness as school site leaders. NISL is active in 25 states, working on principal development efforts with individual districts and the state.
The EDP places participants in cohorts of 25 principals who participate in monthly 2-day sessions for 1 year with a certified NISL facilitator. In these sessions, participants review research, analyze cases, apply key concepts, and engage in action learning. The program’s curriculum is sequenced to build a school leader’s capacity to think strategically, be an effective instructional leader, and establish a high-performance learning organization that creates a supportive culture for students and teachers. The peer-to-peer interactions among the principals in the NISL network create a professional learning community in which principals can share and analyze data, collaborate on best practices, and more. This collaboration among program participants often continues even after principals complete the course.
Since its inception in 2004, more than 15,000 educators (school leaders, district administrators, and teacher leaders) have participated in NISL’s offerings. Multiple studies have found that schools led by EDP principals outperform comparable schools led by non-EDP principals in student achievement after controlling for student characteristics and prior school achievement.[163]
NISL has previously received two federal grants, an Investing in Innovation grant in 2014 and a Supporting Effective Educator Development grant in 2013, to study the EDP’s large-scale implementation. Districts typically use Title I funds, Title II funds, Teacher Incentive Funds, grant funding, or professional development funding to participate in the NISL program.