How Principals Affect Students and Schools with Jason Grissom

In the Lead with UCEA

Oct 29 2024 • 23 mins

In this episode of In the Lead with UCEA, Executive Director Dr. Mónica Byrne-Jiménez talks with Dr. Jason Grissom, Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Public Policy and Education at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College and Faculty Director of the Tennessee Education Research Alliance, about the report he was lead author on, ‘How Principals Affect Students and Schools,’ a comprehensive synthesis of two decades of research commissioned by the Wallace Foundation.


Jason discusses how his research underscores the significant impact of principals on student learning outcomes and educational equity. Their discussion also delves into the importance of an equity lens in school leadership, essential skills for principals, and the future directions for research in this field.


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In the Lead with UCEA is produced by University FM.


Episode Quotes:


Four key behaviors of effective principals according to the research


[05:09] We spent months and months culling through these studies and trying to come up with what were the studies that we could really lean on in terms of making that connection and what could we learn from them about. Those domains of behavior that seemed to be linked most clearly to better outcomes for kids. And so we identified four of those. And so we call those engaging and instructionally focused interactions with teachers, building a productive climate, facilitating collaboration and professional learning community, and managing personnel and resources strategically.


The equity lens opens an opportunity for self-reflection


[11:37] The equity lens idea is the idea that principals should be driving their schools towards more equitable outcomes for marginalized and non-marginalized students in their schools, which means that their work in these 4 domains of practice have to reflect that priority. And we liked the metaphor of the lens because it emphasizes a perspective on the broader work. So, as a principal, I'm working to build a productive climate for my building. But that means a productive climate for all kids, right? Regardless of background. So, how am I ensuring that students, regardless of who they are and what they come to school with and what their identity characteristics are and so forth, how are all of those kids experiencing those levels of trust and care and self efficacy, you know, those goals that I have for a productive climate? And so that's the lens idea. So I'm all kids in mind, climate is not just the typical kid or the average kid or the kid who I see the most often. It's a productive climate for kids regardless of their background.


Leadership expectations are often set beyond realistic human capabilities.


[16:20] I think a challenge we have in the field of educational leadership is that the standards that we set for what we expect of school leaders is very high. Sometimes I think we're expecting superhumans, not real humans. And if standards are aspirational, right? And some part of what you do when you write down a standard is you're giving a person something to aspire to. And I think that's important. I do think, though, that when you're having to train and prepare on so many different dimensions at once, that it can lead that preparation for the candidate even to feel unfocused. Like, there's so much I have to learn and I don't understand on what timeline I need each one of these things. And so, what I hope our results can do bring a little bit of focus to where we can start as we're trying to provide people with a set of skills and capacities that they need to enter leadership. And be as successful as they can be right at the beginning of the career.


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