Principal development key to improving school workforce, report by CUEL and EdD faculty shows

Principal development is a critical and cost-effective way to increase student achievement, CUEL Director Steve Tozer and UIC's EdD faculty said in a new report on improving the Illinois school work force.

Excellent schools require excellent leaders -- who in turn require excellent teaching staffs. With the right strategies, the state of  Illinois can create lasting change by investing in its workforce from the top down, the authors wrote in Promising Strategies for Improving K-12 Education in Illinois: Improving the Educator Work Force.

"Indeed,educator work force development policies crafted by Illinois policymakers would likely prove most effective and efficient if teacher and leadership development policies are aligned with each other, despite the unique challenges that each of these policies faces," the authors wrote. "But the goal of enacting and developing such policies to ultimately improve schools, even in the face of limited resources, can be accomplished with sufficient political will.

"In the end, it is this will that can fulfill one of the most important purposes of the Illinois government – improving the learning opportunities for all of its children."