Chapter 13: Best Practices For Supporting Beginning Principals as Instructional Leaders: The Consultant Coaching Model

The principal in a school is the leader who is responsible for ensuring that effective teaching is occurring in every classroom (Seashore-Louis, Leithwood, Wahlstrom, & Anderson, 2010). These researchers have concluded that “to date we have not found a single case of a school improving its student achievement record in the absence of talented leadership” (Seashore-Louis et al., 2010, p. 11). However, hiring and retaining the leaders needed for our schools in this age of high accountability is a challenge. Under the demands of the overwhelming responsibility for improving test scores, many principals do not survive their first few years. Troubling statistics on principal retention indicate that approximately 50% of newly hired principals will stay at a school only three to four years, and less than 30% stay for five years, with even greater turnover in high-need schools (Bettielle, Kalogrides, & Loeb, 2011; Young & Fuller, 2009; Seashore-Louis et al., 2010). New principals are also more likely to leave when test scores decline (Miller, 2009; Young & Fuller, 2009). As one principal lamented: