Wallace’s work in K-12 education: Evidence on school leadership, summer learning, and afterschool
Overview
- The briefing began with an introduction to Wallace's work as an independent, non-partisan private foundation, as well as addressing the foundation's strategic approach by understanding environmental context, building promising new approaches and evidence bases, and catalyzing broad social impact.
- The speakers then addressed the pivotal role effective principals play in overall school improvement (including student achievement, attendance rates, and teacher retention) before introducing the Equity-Centered Principal Pipeline Initiative (2021-2027), a six-year plan meant to prepare and support principals in select districts.
- Missouri and Wisconsin were pinpointed as two successful examples of the crucial collaboration of states and districts to better address principal development, such as setting aside ESSA Title II-A funds for school leadership improvement training and forming collaborative principal improvement initiatives.
- The briefing further discussed the importance of high-quality afterschool and summer programs, as programs of sufficient duration and attendance were shown to foster academic achievement, life skills, and career readiness.
- Research from a RAND Institute study of summer learning programs in five different school districts identified several key characteristics of high-quality programming, including a program duration of five to six weeks, attendance for at least 20 days, early planning, and continuous improvement.
- The briefing concluded with a list of forthcoming reports from partner institutions nationwide, whose work was expected to expand upon Wallace's previous research findings.