Research Alert

DoubleTake Barriers to School Improvement: Whats Real?

Principals may have more freedom than they indicated that lack of time to work directly with
think. In a report from the Center on Reinventing teachers was a substantial constraint, the authors
Public Education, researchers interviewed school showed how some districts have found a way
principals from three U.S. states, asking them around this issue, such as by implementing late-
about the barriers that stood in the way of school start Wednesdays as a way of providing profes-
improvement for them. The principals noted sional development.
128 barriers, which the authors of the
report compared with actual state and
federal laws and collective bargaining
agreements.
The researchers found that only
one-third of the barriers were real
that is, were statutes, policies, or
directives that had real consequences
if not adhered to. Two-thirds of the
barriers were imagined, meaning
that the principals simply were
unaware there were ways to work
around them.
Perceived barriers fell into three
categories: those that prevented
instructional innovation, those that
restricted resource allocation, and
those that impeded efforts to improve
teacher quality. Interestingly, the most
Principals may
often cited barriers were those asso-
ciated with instructional innovation. have more
However, according to the researchers, freedom than
this was the area in which the fewest
real barriers existed. For example,
they think.

LEO ACADIA/theispot
many of the principals wanted to
move to a competency-based learning
system but felt constrained by state
and district policies. The researchers
pointed out that several new policies
allow students to earn credit through work and Principals across the United States are finding
internships, and many updated policies reflect an ways to work around the barriers, whether real
increasing interest in mastery-based progression. or imagined. The authors suggest that principals
In terms of resource allocation, real barriers can become more savvy if districts
included those tied to grants, class sizes, salary n Encourage networking among principals so

cost averaging, and central office spending on they can share experiences.
behalf of schools. Although principals cited n Help principals understand teacher contracts

several barriers relating to the budgeting process, inside and out.

the researchers noted how several districts have n Train principals in the budgeting process.

creatively resolved such issues, such as by re- n Use budgeting simulations to get better

allocating funds from one activity to another results from current resources.
when the need arose. Written by Lawrence J. Miller and Jane S. Lee,
In the area of improving teacher quality, nearly Policy Barriers to School Improvement: Whats
one-half of the constraints that principals ran up Real and Whats Imagined? is available at www
against were real, such as prohibitions against .crpe.org/publications/policy-barriers-school-
hiring outside the district. Although principals improvement-whats-real-and-whats-imagined.

8 Educational Leadership / February 2015

DoubleTake.indd 8 12/30/14 8:37 PM

 Relevant Reads

Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek

(Portfolio/Penguin, 2014)
Numbers of Note
In the days of the cavemen, humans U.S. Urban Districts
may have been threatened by Improving in Reading
saber-tooth tigers. For modern
organizations, the threats to survival On the National Assessment of Educational
come from new competitors, the Progress (NAEP) reading assessment...
ups and downs of the stock market,

47 57
and innovative technologies that
render the current business model
obsolete. According to Simon
Sinek, the best leaders know they The percentage of The percentage of
cant control these threats, but they 4th graders in urban 4th graders in urban
can create a Circle of Safety that districts that scored at or districts that scored at or
separates the security inside the above basic in 2003. above basic in 2013.
organization from the challenges
without. Leaders of high-performing

58 68
organizations eat lasttheyre
willing to sacrifice their own comfort
for the good of those they lead.
In such organizations, information The percentage of The percentage of
is shared, not hoarded, and even 8th graders in urban 8th graders in urban
employees at the bottom become districts that scored at or districts that scored at or
decision makers. Using examples above basic in 2003. above basic in 2013.
from various fields, Sinek shows
how organizations can enhance
performance by creating feelings Source: Institute of Education Sciences. (2014). A first look: 2014 Mathematics and
Reading Trial Urban District Assessment. Washington, DC: Author. NAEPs Trial
of belonging, mutual empathy, and Urban District Assessment measures and monitors educational progress in 21 U.S.
shared values. urban school districts, administrating the same assessments as in the national NAEP.

ScreenGrabs
Check out the following Ted Talks on school improvement:
n In Our Failing Schools: Enough is Enough, education advocate
Geoffrey Canada dares schools to make systematic shifts to help greater
numbers of students excel: www.ted.com/talks/geoffrey_canada_our_
failing_schools_enough_is_enough
n In Use Data to Build Better Schools, education expert Andreas
Schleicher discusses how the strategies of high-performing schools can
be used to help other schools improve: www.ted.com/talks/andreas_
schleicher_use_data_to_build_better_schools

PageTurner

High-impact instructional leaders believe that success and failure in student

learning is about what they, as teachers or leaders, did or didnt do. John Hattie, p. 36

ASCD / w w w . ascd . o r g

DoubleTake.indd 9 12/30/14 8:37 PM

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