The highest-performing education systems on international tests each take a systemic approach to recruiting, training, and deploying school leaders, finds a report by the National Center on Education and the Economy.
Researchers from the Australian research group Learning First analyzed principal training and development in Ontario, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. They found that the systems, which routinely score in the top 10 in math, science, and literacy on an international test, had similar approaches to training principals. For example, principals are explicitly trained to manage professional learning organizations, including grooming teachers below them for leadership.
