Moving Beyond Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don’t: Readiness for Change

Abstract

We know little about the supports principals need to lead change. This lack of knowledge is unfortunate, because principal leadership is understood to be critical for successful school reform. Using a randomized control trial, we tested whether the opportunity to participate in a year-long, content-focused professional development intervention would help principals feel prepared to provide instructional leadership for the transition to new standards. Results suggest professional development was impactful for principals’ self-reported attitudes toward facilitating the implementation of new standards. Study findings offer support for use of professional development as a means of building principals’ ability to lead change efforts.