4 Qualities of Principals Who Get High Achievement in High-Poverty Schools
Laurie King
Name 4 qualities of principals who get high achievement in high-poverty schools. Do you show these qualities?
During eight years of studying high-achieving and rapidly improving schools with at least 73% students of color and students of poverty, it was the building leaders that were driving factors in school success. As they studied 33 school leaders in 19 states, Karin Chenoweth and Christina Theokas found 4 qualities these leaders share:
1. Their beliefs about student potential drive their work
2. They put instruction at the center of their managerial duties
3. They focus on building the capacity of all the adults in the building
4. They monitor and evaluate what leads to success and what can be learned from failure.
(Chenoweth & Theokas, 2013, 57-59)
Reflect on your words and behaviors from the past week. How did you demonstrate these qualities in your actions? Could any of your words or behaviors give others the impression that you do not possess one of these qualities? Think about how you might be more intentional this next week in ensuring that you are modeling these 4 qualities of successful building leaders.
Over the next months, we will dig into each of these qualities in more detail. Stay tuned.
Chenoweth, K. & Theokas, C. (2013) How High-Poverty Schools are Getting it Done. Educational Leadership: The Principalship. (70)7, 56-59.