Harvard Education PR Supervising Principals for Instructional Leadership: A Teaching and Learning Approach

Supervising Principals for Instructional Leadership specifies the conditions that district leaders can implement to help principal supervisors take a teaching and learning approach to their work. In particular, Meredith I. Honig and Lydia R. Rainey explore how these supervisors can most effectively support principals in becoming instructional leaders and developing the capacity to lead their own learning. The authors argue for a shift in supervisors' focus from a compliance and evaluation orientation to one in which they serve as learning partners for these principals. The professional development the supervisors offer principals must advance from group meetings focused on the delivery of information to intensive coaching differentiated to meet principals' needs. Using extended cases and detailed examples, the authors illustrate how supervisors associated with positive results teach rather than tell. These successful supervisors guide principals' learning with specific teaching moves such as modeling how to think and act like an instructional leader. Based on extensive research of district central offices, Supervising Principals for Instructional Leadership advocates for a transformation to the role of principal supervisors. Review "Every principal needs to learn how to become a better instructional leader and the book outlines research from Honig and Rainey, which shows how supervisors can support principals to become instructional leaders and develop the capacity to lead their own learning." --School Administrator"Supervising Principals for Instructional Leadership: A Teaching and Learning Approach by Meredith I. Honig and Lydia R. Rainey is a must-read for current principal supervisors, principal coaches, and researchers who desire to transition from the traditional and incomplete focus on operational and compliance-based management of principals." --Teachers College Record From the Back Cover Supervising Principals for Instructional Leadership specifies the conditions that district leaders can create to help principal supervisors take a teaching and learning approach to their work. Based on their extensive research in district central offices, Meredith I. Honig and Lydia R. Rainey show how supervisors can most effectively support principals in becoming instructional leaders and developing the capacity to lead their own learning. "Supervising Principals for Instructional Leadership is a brilliant, inspiring, clear book that nails what it means to supervise school leaders for growth and helps the reader reimagine the role of the central office. Read this book, and use it immediately!" --Michael Fullan, professor emeritus, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto "What does it look and sound like to support principals to lead learning? Honig and Rainey share their research-and-practice-tested wisdom, which combines the imagination to break free of conventional supervision with clear examples of what to do and what not to do, and a bundle of tools to make it happen." --Elizabeth A. City, senior lecturer on education, Harvard Graduate School of Education "For too long the work of principal supervision has been a black box; Honig and Rainey open up that box and provide practical steps for system leaders to take to support principals so that instruction improves for every child in every school. Their systemic approach is a must-read for any public education leader." --Joshua P. Starr, chief executive officer, PDK International "This finely crafted book about a critical school improvement problem is guided by a strong theory, builds on an impressively rich body of evidence, and includes many practical illustrations of the guiding theory in action. District leaders aiming to improve instruction in their schools will find much of value to their efforts in this text." --Kenneth Leithwood, emeritus professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Universit