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Bush Institute's Eva Myrick Chiang Participates in the SCORE Institute on School Leadership

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Learn more about Sarah Gibbons.
Sarah Gibbons
Deputy Director, Communications
George W. Bush Institute

Panel discussion focuses on effective principal training, recruitment, and selection.

Last week, Bush Institute’s Director of Research and Evaluation Eva Myrick Chiang participated in a panel discussion on school leadership hosted by State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) in Nashville, TN. 

“Even when you give a talented principal the most effective training, we still need school districts to improve the way they recruit, selection, and support those principals so that we can retain them in their schools for as long as possible,” said Chiang during the discussion.

Based on the conversation, a few important themes emerged:

  • Researchers have found that effective principal preparation programs have some common characteristics including rigorous admission requirements, partnerships with districts, and meaningful residency experiences. High-quality programs also collect and use data constantly to find opportunities to improve.
  • Principals are not always placed in schools where they will have the greatest impact. Districts can use data about schools and principal candidates to make more strategic hiring decisions, matching strong principal candidates with high-need schools.

Following the conversation, SCORE released their latest brief, Why Principals Matter: Exploring The Research On School Leadership, which cited references from the work of the Bush Institute’s School Leadership Initiative

About the School Leadership Initiative

Rooted in President and Mrs. Bush’s belief that “excellent schools must first have excellent leaders,” the Bush Institute developed the School Leadership Initiative to dramatically improve the way our Nation’s principals are prepared and supported.

The School Leadership Initiative is equipping four school districts to find, support, and retain effective principals through a three year district cohort project to help them implement best practices on principal talent management strategies that have been identified in research by our experts. By working with central office teams that include finance, human resources, academics, professional development, principals, and principal supervisors, the Bush Institute will help districts make system level changes.  Those changes will support and improve highly effective school leadership in the district, and, in turn, will improve student achievement. For more information visit www.bushcenter.org/schoolleadership.