At The Learning Accelerator, we’ve spent the past year deeply networking with more than 100 school leaders across eight regions nationally. This work is founded on the belief that great principals are absolutely critical for creating and sustaining schools that foster deeper and personalized learning.

Looking at patterns across each region, our biggest finding was this: ecosystems matter. Leaders can only be as effective as the resources and communities around them.  Great leaders hindered by roadblocks and a dearth of support are simply driving with the brakes on.

What does a great ecosystem look like? The factors leaders cited fell into four categories:

  • Legitimacy and support: These include the organizations, people, and policies that reinforce changes or improvements, as well as the access to resources leaders, need to accomplish them (time, dollars, people, political coverage).
  • Personal development supports: These are the resources leaders lean on to bolster their own learning and development in order to design, lead, and sustain change.
  • Existing school capacity: These are levers, resources, and conditions that exist within a leader’s own institution, including the people, processes, tools, and structures a leader calls on or builds to promote and sustain change.
  • External supports: These include the partners and resources outside the formal institution (the school or managing network/system) that a leader turns to for help and additional capacity.

Read the full article about what makes great leaders by Beth Rabbitt at The 74.