According to a recent report by Civic Enterprises, Everyone Graduates Center at John Hopkins University, America’s Promise, and the Alliance for Excellent Education, 580,000 fewer students attended “dropout factories” – schools that graduate less than 4 out of 10 students entering as freshman – in 2009 than they did 10 years ago. This rate:
- is due to there being 6.4 less “dropout factories” to attend and
- three times larger than the rate deduction in the 2007-08 school year.
It’s estimated that the US has a 75% on-time graduation rate. By 2020, these organizations have a goal of a 90% graduation rate; a number that would put the US among the top leaders in high school graduates. It’s clear that turning around drop-out factories causes significant gains in the number of graduating high schoolers, but it’s still unclear what the most effective way to turn around these schools is. The Center for Public Education found that more and more research, alongside teacher feedback, shows better principals lead to more effective schools.
Researchers only recently began studying leaders and the trickle-down effect caused by their leadership role. A study by Hechinger Report shows leadership starts at the very top with superintendents who are consistent and layout groundwork for principals. These principals then need to be in an environment that benefits from their unique leadership type, whether it be a leader who transforms a school or divides the role among many people.
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I’m very glad that someone’s looking deeply at educational leaders – I think it’s a huge piece that’s been missing in the discussion of educational change and reform.