The Three Essentials

This report finds that school districts and states are failing to provide principals with what they need to turn around America's most challenged middle and high schools.

Existing policy has focused on the need for strong school leadership but it's overlooked the role districts can play in either supporting or undermining schools. There has also been little attention paid to what state departments of education can do to help districts create a strong vision and plan for their schools' success. 

Based on an analysis of practices in seven school districts in three states, the researchers find that struggling schools are most likely to improve when districts have a clear vision of what a good school looks like, organize a set of research-based practices for achieving that vision, and then provide principals with sufficient autonomy and support to carry out those practices. 

The report identifies seven strategies successful districts have used to support school improvement. It also provides specific examples of the supports or freedoms principals need, such as the authority to hire their own teachers. 

The seven strategies are: 

1. Establish a clear focus and a strategic framework of core beliefs, effective practices, and goals for improving student achievement. Highly supportive districts provide principals with a focused mission and vision of key beliefs and practices to guide school improvement.  
2. Organize and engage the school board and district office in support of each school. In highly supportive districts, the school board continuously focuses on improving student achievement, and central office personnel spend the majority of their time in the schools. 
3. Provide instructional coherence and support. Highly supportive district leaders understand the challenging work principals must do and, in many cases, have been successful principals themselves. 
4. Invest heavily in instruction-related professional learning for principals, teacher-leaders, and district staff. Highly supportive districts give principals tools to be effective instructional leaders and continuous learners.
5. Provide high-quality data that link student achievement to school and classroom practices. Highly supportive districts have adopted strategies to help principals use this data quickly to discern student deficits and identify weaknesses in school and classroom practices. 
6. Optimize the use of resources to improve student learning. Highly supportive districts provide principals with resources and the flexibility to use those resources to address their unique needs.
7. Use open, credible processes to involve key school and community leaders in shaping a vision for improving schools. Highly supportive districts engage the whole community in setting a common vision for student learning. 

The report also identifies actions districts, states, and schools can take to carry out each of the seven strategies.