Principals Support Early Education Programs in Schools, But Need Support to Lead Them Effectively

Over the past year, our research team has been studying how elementary school principals in the state of North Carolina think about and support early education programs in their schools. Across the United States, nearly 60 percent of public elementary schools have at least one pre-K classroom—a figure that is similar in North Carolina. Our team was interested in capturing, first, whether and to what extent principals support having pre-K programs in their schools. Second, we wondered about the practices principals engage in to integrate those programs. Together, we refer to these factors—principal support and practices—as principal orientations to early education leadership. We were drawn to study this topic given the profound impact principals can have in shaping the nature of pre-K programs located in schools and their relationship and alignment with the broader school environment. To answer these questions, we fielded a survey of all lead and assistant principals in the state of North Carolina. Here’s what we found:

Principals Strongly Support Pre-K Programs in Schools, But They Need Support to Boost Their Knowledge and Increase Practices that Support Early Learning

The survey results showed that an overwhelming majority of principals in North Carolina support pre-K programs in schools. For example, we found that 94 percent of principals thought having pre-K programs in their school building was a good idea. However, when we moved beyond questions about support for early education to practices, a different pattern emerged. Only 11 percent of principals were “very familiar” with the NC Foundations for Early Learning and Development—the standards that guide NC Pre-K classroom instruction on which principals are required to evaluate pre-K teachers. Twenty-one percent of principals reported regularly including pre-K teachers in vertical professional learning communities with early grades teachers. Only 17 percent of principals reported visiting the pre-K classroom(s) in their building every day.

Principals Who Have Backgrounds in Early Education—through Training or Teaching Experience—Have Higher Orientations to Early Education Leadership

We developed a measure of principals' orientations to early education leadership by combining measures of principal support and practices related to early education leadership. We used this composite measure to examine what factors led principals to have higher or lower orientations to early education leadership.

Two findings stood out from this analysis. First, we found that when principals had early childhood leadership coursework in their principal preparation programs, their predicted orientations to early education leadership were significantly higher. Second, we found that when principals had teaching experience in the early grades (preK-to-3rd grade), their predicted orientations to early education leadership were also significantly higher. Together, these findings provide evidence that preparation and background experiences in early education are key predictors of engaged early education leaders.

Yet, our data also show that early education-focused coursework and professional experiences in early education are rare, so work is needed to help spread these supports to more school leaders. In our sample, only one-quarter of principals reported receiving any early education-focused instruction in their principal preparation programs and only eight percent had teaching experiences in early childhood education.

Principal Preparation, Certification, and In-Service Training Policies and Practices Need Reform

Our finding that principal training and experience in early education are related to principal orientations to early education leadership implicates a number of areas ripe for reform, including principal preparation, certification, and in-service training.

In our other research, we find that formal inclusion of early education leadership content is rarely covered in principal preparation programs. This is largely due to the fact that national standards do not include it and programs often directly mirror these standards. These national standards should be revised and more principal preparation programs should think about ways to embed early education leadership content into their programs.

To date, Illinois remains the only state to formally expand its principal license to PK-12 and include early education content in its principal licensure exam. Research has previously spotlighted opportunities to advance state efforts to improve principal quality through a range of policy levers, especially by promoting improvements to principal preparation. In the immediate term, states, operating through their state departments of education and professional educator standards boards, could study the value and costs of adding and implementing new early education standards to principal certification requirements.

Change will be too slow if we do not also work to build capacity for early education leadership among practicing principals. A number of in-service training programs exist ranging from intensive certificates to brief online training modules. The National Association for Elementary School Principals and the National P-3 Center have also developed a useful booklet that outlines detailed information about six core competencies they deem critical for early education leadership.

What’s Next?

In order to best enact these potential reforms, further evidence is needed on this topic and our P-3 Education Workgroup is actively working on building that evidence. To learn more about our ongoing work to support early education leadership, please visit our website.

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