Improving Instructional Leadership Capacity of Elementary School Assistant Principals in a Small, Suburban District

Abstract

While instructional leadership has been studied by education scholars for decades, this body of work has traditionally been focused solely on the role of the principal. In recent years, a growing contingent of researchers have begun to study the potential impact that assistant principals can make on instructional leadership. This capstone presents a case study of what happens when intentional group development sessions and individually tailored coaching are offered to a group of assistant principals in a small, suburban district. As the Director of Leadership Development for Reading Public Schools (MA), my primary role was to support principals, assistant principals, instructional coaches and curriculum coordinators in strategically moving the needle on instruction for the district. The district hired assistant principals for each elementary school for the first time in 2023. Senior leadership wanted to respond directly to requests for support from this group of leaders – the majority of whom were first-time assistant principals. This capstone documents the design and execution of a plan for intervention to improve the instructional leadership capacity of the district’s five elementary assistant principals. The basis for the intervention, in the form of professional development for assistant principals, is anchored in previous scholarship and frameworks from Elizabeth City, Linda Darling-Hammond, Philip Hallinger, Kenneth Leithwood, as well as many others. I also draw heavily on the Wallace Foundation’s seminal series on assistant principals. This work argues that assistant principals can and should be a crucial part of any school’s instructional leadership team. They must not be left to deal exclusively with student behaviors or administrative tasks, as has historically been the case. With some intentional shifting of school and district priorities, a focus on efficient time management (to ensure the aforementioned other duties are completed nonetheless), and the opportunity to receive targeted training and development, assistant principals should be able to effectively contribute to a school/district’s vision of improving instruction for all students. In turn, districts that undertake this important work will also create an organic internal pipeline of future principals who are ready to lead. The contribution of this capstone to the field of educational leadership is twofold. First, this capstone adds assistant principal voices to the literature in the form of pre- and post-intervention surveys and interviews. Secondly, it offers a low-lift, simple, and efficient roadmap for senior administrators to improve assistant principals’ leadership capacity in both small district and suburban district settings.