A Framework for Principal Talent Management
Author: George W. Bush Presidential Center, George W. Bush Institute
Date: 2020-02-00
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Principals,Talent Development,Work Environment,Recruitment,Personnel Selection,Professional Development,Supervision,Administrator Evaluation,Compensation (Remuneration),Salaries,Incentives,Administrator Education,Management Systems,School Districts,Public Schools,Charter Schools

Talented leaders are essential to building and sustaining successful organizations. This is especially true for schools, where principal leadership plays a major role in fostering student success. Research shows that principals are a significant school-level factor affecting student achievement, second only to classroom teachers. Like other types of leaders, great principals recruit and retain the best talent (teachers), set ambitious visions for their buildings, and create a culture of collaboration and constant improvement. Because of this, it is critical that school districts implement policies and practices aligned with a coherent system of principal talent management, enabling them to attract and retain the most effective principals. This Principal Talent Management (PTM) Framework is a guide to help school district leaders and policymakers understand the fundamental components and the interconnectivity of effective PTM systems. As such, the Framework is intended to support efforts to strengthen the policies and practices districts use in a holistic effort to attract, support, and retain the best principals. Specifically, this guide: (1) Summarizes the available evidence and expert thinking on each major factor and component of a PTM system; (2) Provides a list of promising practices for each PTM component, along with the evidence that supports each practice; (3) Highlights examples of these promising practices in select districts based on document review and interviews with district leaders involved in the systematic improvement of PTM in their schools. Although the individual PTM components are discussed separately, PTM is, at its core, a systems-building approach to improving the quality of principal leadership. Districts that are beginning to address their own PTM needs may choose, initially, to focus on one or two of the components that are most urgent. Ultimately, however, they should broaden to address each component within a coherent system. To this end, the guide also provides a set of recommendations to support a holistic approach to developing and implementing PTM systems. These recommendations offer guidance to school district leaders, legislators, researchers, and others as they work toward implementing and improving such efforts. This guide was first developed and released in the 2016. Since that time, the Bush Institute has been working with a cohort of four school districts as part of the School Leadership Initiative to learn more about these practices and policies. This guide has now been updated to reflect the latest research from the field as well as some of our own learnings. [For the 2016 version, see ED588478. Additional support was provided by the BNSF Railway Foundation, Carstens Family Funds, and Sammons Enterprises, Inc.]