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This report in brief shares findings from the RAND Corporation's five-year study of The Wallace Foundation's University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI). The job of the school principal has become much more complex and demanding over the past several decades. Many university-based principal preparation programs (PPPs)--which prepare the majority of school principals--have struggled with how to make the fundamental changes needed to prepare principals for today's schools. To test a path forward, The Wallace Foundation provided grants to seven universities and their partners to redesign their PPPs in line with research-supported practices. Key findings, which suggest that significant change around research-based practices is possible, are presented in this report. This report illustrates that it is feasible for universities -- in partnership with high-need districts, state agencies, and with the support of mentor programs that have engaged in successful redesign -- to improve principal preparation programs to reflect the best available evidence. [For the full report, see ED620465.]

The job of the school principal has become much more complex and demanding over the past several decades. Many university-based principal preparation programs -- which prepare the majority of school principals -- have struggled with how to make the fundamental changes needed to prepare principals for today's schools. This report shares lessons learned from redesigning university principal preparation programs. From 2016 to 2021, seven university principal preparation programs, with their district and state partners, fundamentally reshaped their principal preparation programs under The Wallace Foundation's University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI). This report describes the methods of and findings from the RAND Corporation's five-year study of UPPI. It is primarily intended as a secondary resource for readers who would like more detail about the study's findings and methods. Key findings are highlighted in the report in brief and three upcoming targeted reports: one for principal preparation programs, one for school districts, and one for state education organizations. [For the report in brief, see ED620468. For Volume 2, see ED609667.]

The job of the school principal has become much more complex and demanding over the past several decades. Many university-based principal preparation programs--which prepare the majority of school principals--have struggled with how to make the fundamental changes needed to prepare principals for today's schools. To test a path forward, The Wallace Foundation provided grants to seven universities and their partners to redesign their principal preparation programs in line with research-supported practices. This targeted report shares findings from the RAND Corporation's five-year study of The Wallace Foundation's University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI), with an emphasis on findings for school district leaders. [For "Collaborating on University Principal Preparation Program Redesign: A Summary of Findings for University Principal Preparation Program Providers. RAND Principal Preparation Series. Volume 3, Part 3. Research Report. RR-A413-5," see ED621347.]

Research across the decades has confirmed that effective school leadership is associated with better outcomes for students and schools. A high-quality school leader affects dozens of teachers and hundreds or thousands of students. It is a pivotal role. From 2011 to 2016, The Wallace Foundation, through its Principal Pipeline Initiative (PPI), provided funding and technical assistance to support six large school districts in their efforts to put in place systematic processes for the strategic management of school leaders. The purpose was to examine whether a comprehensive principal pipeline would be more effective than business-as-usual approaches to the preparation and management of school leaders. The term principal pipeline is shorthand for the range of talent management activities that fall within a school district's scope of responsibility when it comes to school leaders, including leader standards, preservice preparation opportunities for assistant principals and principals, selective hiring and placement, and on-the-job induction, evaluation, and support. This report documents what the PPI districts were able to accomplish, describing the implementation of the PPI and its effects on student achievement, other school outcomes, and principal retention. The authors found that all six PPI districts were able to implement comprehensive pipelines, and they did so in different ways. The PPI had positive effects on a wide range of outcomes that school districts care about, and evidence of these positive effects was widespread. The authors also found that the work is affordable: It cost a PPI district about $42 per pupil per year, or less than 0.5 percent of the district's budget in each school year, to operate and enhance its principal pipeline. The authors conclude that districts looking for ways to enhance school outcomes and improve the retention of newly placed principals should be encouraged by the experiences of PPI districts. The findings of this study suggest that when districts focused attention on activities related to principal pipelines, then principals, schools, and students benefited. Key findings include: (1) The work is feasible: (a) PPI districts were able to implement all components of a principal pipeline at scale; (b) PPI districts approached pipeline enhancement in different ways depending on their starting point, needs, and opportunities; (2) The work is effective: (a) After three or more years, schools with newly placed principals in PPI districts outperformed comparison schools with newly placed principals by 6.22 percentile points in reading and 2.87 percentile points in math; (b) Newly placed principals in PPI districts were 5.8 percentage points more likely to remain in their school for at least two years and 7.8 percentage points more likely to remain in their school for at least three years than newly placed principals in comparison schools; (c) The PPI had statistically significant, positive effects on achievement in elementary and middle schools and some evidence of positive effects for high schools; (d) PPI effects on achievement were positive and statistically significant for schools in the lowest quartile of the achievement distribution; and (e) PPI effects were positive and statistically significant in reading for five PPI districts and in mathematics for three districts. The PPI effect was negative and statistically significant in mathematics in one district; (3) The work is affordable: PPI districts spent about $42 per student per year on pipeline activities during the initiative. The lowest-cost components were the development of leader standards and selective hiring and placement; and (4) What drove these effects: The entire package of PPI components appears to have worked as a cohesive whole, much as it was designed to do. There was little evidence that individual components were uniquely correlated with larger or smaller effect sizes.

A growing body of research points to the ways in which principals influence teachers, classrooms, and, ultimately, student achievement. New Leaders aims to prepare transformational school leaders by partnering with districts and charter schools to offer rigorous, research-based training for aspiring principals. The Aspiring Principals program is New Leaders' signature program and has three core features: selective recruitment and admission, training and endorsement, and support for principals early in their tenure. This report is a follow-up to the 2014 evaluation of New Leaders' Aspiring Principals program. Focusing on the revised program, which was first implemented in 2012, the authors present evidence of the effectiveness of the revised Aspiring Principals program and share lessons that can inform principal-preparation policy and practice. To assess the effect of New Leaders' Aspiring Principals program, researchers analyzed whether schools and students led by graduates of the program outperformed comparison schools and students in the same district, focusing on student achievement and principal retention. They also examined program graduate placement and satisfaction with the Aspiring Principals program. [For the appendixes, see ED605724.]

These appendixes provide supplemental detail about the analyses and findings presented in Preparing School Leaders for Success: Evaluation of New Leaders' Aspiring Principals Program, 20120-2017 (Gates et al., 2019). This material will be of interest to technically oriented readers who seek more information about the information presented in the main report. Appendix A provides profiles of New Leaders partner districts. Appendix B contains detailed information on our analysis of school-level outcomes. Appendix C presents technical details about our analysis of student achievement outcomes using student fixed-effects models. Appendix D describes our analysis of principal retention. Appendix E provides details about our analysis of correlations between Aspiring Principals program competency metrics and outcomes. [For the full report, see ED605722.]

School principals are charged with complex responsibilities that can include developing a school vision and culture, supporting teacher effectiveness, managing challenges and crises, communicating with the greater community, and more. However, recent research and surveys of school administrators indicate that principal preparation programs do not adequately prepare graduates to cope with school realities. In response to concerns about the state of initial principal preparation, The Wallace Foundation established the University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI), a four-year effort to redesign seven universities' principal preparation programs according to evidence-based principles and practices. Each university collaborates on the redesign with high-need school districts and a state partner, and is supported by a mentor program. The report summarized in this document focuses on the implementation of UPPI in its first year, from fall 2016 to fall 2017. The authors report on UPPI progress and identify cross-cutting themes in the UPPI implementation effort that can help other university principal preparation programs and their partners undertake their own principal preparation system improvement efforts. Key Findings: (1) UPPI programs began with some evidence-based features and contexts already in place; (2) UPPI partnerships used the first year to develop a vision for the new program and the redesign process. The teams at each site engaged in three primary re-envisioning activities: standards development, program assessment, and logic model development; (3) Each UPPI team focused on redesigning its curriculum and instruction; (4) UPPI leadership teams explored changes to clinical experiences and candidate recruitment and selection; (5) University-based leads--the individuals from each university leading the overall initiative at that site--and actively engaged partners drove the initiative in the first year; (6) UPPI prompted partner states and districts to consider issues and/or undertake activities they may not have otherwise; and (7) UPPI leadership teams developed strategies to mitigate the most pressing challenges, such as turnover and capacity limitations. [For the full report "Launching a Redesign of University Principal Preparation Programs: Partners Collaborate for Change. RAND Principal Preparation Series. Volume 1," see ED590580.]

School principals are charged with complex responsibilities that can include developing a school vision and culture, supporting teacher effectiveness, managing challenges and crises, communicating with the greater community, and more. However, recent research and surveys of school administrators indicate that principal preparation programs do not adequately prepare graduates to cope with school realities. In response to concerns about the state of initial principal preparation, The Wallace Foundation established the University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI), a four-year effort to redesign seven universities' principal preparation programs according to evidence-based principles and practices. Each university collaborates on the redesign with high-need school districts and a state partner, and is supported by a mentor program. This report focuses on the implementation of UPPI in its first year, from fall 2016 to fall 2017. The authors report on UPPI progress and identify cross-cutting themes in the UPPI implementation effort that can help other university principal preparation programs and their partners undertake their own principal preparation system improvement efforts. Key Findings: (1) UPPI programs began with some evidence-based features and contexts already in place; (2) UPPI partnerships used the first year to develop a vision for the new program and the redesign process. The teams at each site engaged in three primary re-envisioning activities: standards development, program assessment, and logic model development; (3) Each UPPI team focused on redesigning its curriculum and instruction; (4) UPPI leadership teams explored changes to clinical experiences and candidate recruitment and selection; (5) University-based leads--the individuals from each university leading the overall initiative at that site--and actively engaged partners drove the initiative in the first year; (6) UPPI prompted partner states and districts to consider issues and/or undertake activities they may not have otherwise; and (7) UPPI leadership teams developed strategies to mitigate the most pressing challenges, such as turnover and capacity limitations. [For the executive summary to this report "Launching a Redesign of University Principal Preparation Programs: Partners Collaborate for Change. RAND Principal Preparation Series. Volume 1. Executive Summary," see ED590581.]

States and districts are embarking on efforts to improve school leadership as a lever to promote school improvement. Such efforts have a solid base of research attesting to their effectiveness, and some view them as particularly cost-effective because principals "can be powerful multipliers of effective teaching and leadership practices in schools." Although the logic of this perspective is sound, in truth, very little is known about the resources required to improve school leadership. This report fills an important gap in the literature on school leadership by presenting an approach for understanding the resources and expenditures associated with efforts to prepare, hire, evaluate, develop, and support school leaders and by presenting estimates of those resources and expenditures. All districts that employ more than a few school leaders devote at least some resources to these activities and might find some value to our approach. RAND Corporation analysts applied an approach to develop estimates of the resources required to put in place and operate "principal pipelines"--pipelines for preparing, hiring, supporting, and managing school leaders--based on data they collected from six urban districts that participated in The Wallace Foundation's Principal Pipeline Initiative. Technical details on data collection and analysis are qppended. [For the related report from The Wallace Foundation, see ED574748.]

New Leaders is dedicated to promoting student achievement by developing outstanding school leaders to serve in urban schools. RAND Corporation researchers conducted a formative and summative external evaluation of the New Leaders program, its theory of action, and its implementation from 2006 through 2013. This document presents technical appendixes to supplement our main evaluation report (Gates et al., 2014). The intended audience for these appendixes is individuals who seek additional information on the methods used in our analysis or additional district-specific detail. The intended audience includes other researchers and officials in school districts. This research has been conducted in RAND Education, a unit of the RAND Corporation, under a contract with New Leaders. [For the full report, see ED561152. For the research brief, "Principal Preparation Matters: How Leadership Development Affects Student Achievement. Research Brief," see ED561155.]

New Leaders is a nonprofit organization with a mission to ensure high academic achievement for all students by developing outstanding school leaders to serve in urban schools. Its premise is that a combination of preparation and improved working conditions for principals, especially greater autonomy, would lead to improved student outcomes. Its approach involves both preparing principals and partnering with school districts and charter management organizations (CMOs) to improve the conditions in which its highly trained principals work. As part of the partnerships, New Leaders agrees to provide carefully selected and trained principals who can be placed in schools that need principals and to provide coaching and other support after those principals are placed. The districts and CMOs agree to establish working conditions that support, rather than hinder, the principals' efforts to improve student outcomes. This report describes how the New Leaders program was implemented in partner districts, and it provides evidence of the effect that New Leaders has on student achievement. [The research in this report was produced within RAND Education. For the appendices that accompany this report, see ED561154. For the research brief, "Principal Preparation Matters: How Leadership Development Affects Student Achievement. Research Brief," see ED561155.]

In 2006, New Leaders contracted with RAND to conduct an independent evaluation of its principal-preparation program. The analysis included all principals who have been prepared by New Leaders since the inception of the program, comparing outcomes of their students and outcomes of similar students in other, comparable schools in the same districts. The centerpiece of the evaluation is a rigorous analysis of the effect that New Leaders principals have on student outcomes. This brief describes work done for RAND Education documented in "Preparing Principals to Raise Student Achievement: Implementation and Effects of the New Leaders Program in Ten Districts." [For the full report, see ED561152. For the appendices that accompany the report, see ED561154.]