The role of principal supervisors has changed significantly, moving away from a focus on compliance and towards a greater emphasis on nurturing principals' instructional leadership skills. As a result of this evolution, there is now an increased presence of supervisors in schools, but there are no clear guidelines for their activities. This study…

Across the United States, school districts are reshaping the role of principal supervisors to include supervision practices intended to enhance the instructional and leadership skills of the principals they supervise. The purpose of this research study is to add to the existing body of research involving the predominant practices that principal…

This cross-case synthesis gives voice to evaluators in EC-12 and higher education settings who are enacting a state-mandated system of teacher evaluation and support by examining their perceptions of the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T-TESS). Questions addressed included: How do differently situated school administrators and…

How do principal learning opportunities need to change, and who should be leading this change effort? The school district central office plays a vital role in principal learning by providing supervision and support for principals. Just as teachers need ongoing learning opportunities and support from their principals to provide high-quality…

Background and Purpose: District school improvement efforts have increasingly focused on improving the quality of support principals receive from the central office. This study uses the theoretical lens of recoupling to examines efforts by one urban district in the midst of change to revise the role of principal supervisors. Analysis focuses on…

The role of school leader is increasingly complex, and the impact of the pandemic made these jobs almost impossible at times. Principal burnout is often high, and morale is often low. Retaining and supporting strong principals, who have a measurable impact on the success of their students, is a priority for the field. This case study describes how…

"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…

A principal's supervision competency affects the improvement in the teaching and learning process; therefore, it needs to be improved. This study aimed to describe the principal working group (PWG) activities and the principal's supervision competencies after being assisted by school supervisor in the PWG at Sangkuang Island, East Kutai Regency.…

While most principal supervisors are former principals themselves, few come to the role with specific training in how to do the job effectively. For this reason, both the Washington, D.C., and Tulsa, Oklahoma, principal supervisor programs include a strong professional development component. In this article, the author takes a look inside these…

Principal supervisors often find themselves drawn into managing logistical and operational matters, instead of helping principals become more effective instructional leaders. Yet Meredith Honig and Lydia Rainey contend that principal supervisors need to make principals' instructional leadership their primary focus. Drawing on their work with…

In large school districts, principal supervisors oversee groups of principals. Principal supervisors commonly have titles such as Area or Regional Superintendents, Leadership Directors or Network Leaders. They are situated in the organizational hierarchy between top district leaders (Chief-level positions) and principals, and serve as the link…

The role of principal supervisor has been shifting from a focus on management to one that emphasizes support for principals. External partners can sometimes help with redesigning the role and other aspects of district organization. However, most research focuses on large urban districts with role conceptions and organizational structures that are…

This article scrutinises the gaps in supervision practices in primary schools in Ethiopia. It examines the support being provided to teachers by supervisors, in three areas, teaching principles, teaching methods, and professional development. A mixed-methods design was used with questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Questionnaires were…

Despite a growing research base on the need for and value of instructionally-focused principal supervisors, few states have addressed principal supervisors in their plans to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). In those plans that include strategies pertaining to principal supervisors, there is limited detail. This resource highlights…

In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on professional learning structures for teaching and finding ways to embed this learning into the daily work of teachers. This is premised on the understanding that one-shot professional development yields little transfer or change of practice to ultimately impact student learning. But how has…