Accelerating School Success - Transforming K-12 Schools by Investing in Leadership Development

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Margaret

A white paper arguing that investing in high-quality K-12 leadership development directly strengthens student success in and beyond the classroom. It frames leadership as the most important element of school systems, showing how effective leadership cascades into collaboration, trust, and more effective instruction. The paper evaluates why leadership training yields lasting returns compared with solely funding technical resources, and details approaches to improve leader performance, build trust, and expand student engagement through leadership capacity-building.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction: Why Invest in K-12 Leadership Development?

Improving Performance of School Leaders

Creating a Culture of Trust Within School Communities

Building Student Engagement in School and Beyond

Conclusion: Leadership Development: An Investment That Delivers Impact

Learn More

Endnotes

About the Authors

WHITE PAPER Accelerating School Success Transforming K-12 Schools by Investing in Leadership Development By: Michael DePass, Valerie Ehrlich, and Micela Leis CONTENTS 1 Introduction: Why Invest in K-12 Leadership Development? 3 Improving Performance of School Leaders 5 Creating a Culture of Trust Within School Communities 9 Building Student Engagement in School and Beyond 11 Conclusion: Leadership Development: An Investment That Delivers Impact 11 Learn More 12 Endnotes 13 About the Authors INTRODUCTION Why Invest in K-12 Leadership Development? In-depth studies in the field of K-12 education confirm that investments in high-quality, researchbased leadership development for school systems can directly impact student success—in the classroom and beyond. And now more than ever, meeting the complex challenges of a rapidly changing world requires schools to equip young people with the skills they need to become productive workers, engaged citizens, entrepreneurs, and lifelong learners. “The goal of our nation’s education system should be to prepare every young person to become an engaged and thriving participant in society,”notes the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.1 This results in the need to learn beyond content mastery and develop deeper learning skills. Students need to be able to adapt quickly, be continuous learners, and able to collaborate across many social boundaries. Success in the 21st Century depends on critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. Building students’ capacity for this new era requires investments in teacher and administrator professional development to create the educational ecosystems that foster students’mastery of these skills. These days decision makers in K-12 education face myriad choices when deciding how to spend their limited capacity-building dollars. Many invest in technical resources such as literacy training, new curriculum, or the latest student assessment tools. But does this approach yield the lasting improvements that schools want—and need—to achieve? Can these dollars be used in ways that leverage all the other investments instead of adding one more discrete investment that divides attention and overwhelms leaders rather than builds capacity. A growing body of work by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®), a global nonprofit with a 50-year track record of innovation in developing leaders, shows that investments in leadership development for principals, teachers, staff, and students play an essential role in creating the transformational change needed in education today. That’s because leadership development focuses on the single most important part of any school system, public or private—its people. ©2019 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved. 1 Lynn Fick-Cooper, managing director of CCL’s Societal Advancement Group, which encompasses K-12 education as an area of focus, explains it this way: “All of the critical work happening in schools is happening between people. Certainly, you need to invest in technical resources, but your investment will be fully realized when you pair it with how people can work more effectively together and give them the tools to build that capacity. If you want a valuable return on technical investments, you need leadership development, too.” Not only does it accelerate impact in the short term. Like compounding interest on a savings account, an initial investment in leadership development can also be the catalyst for a significant payoff over time. CCL’s findings and other cutting-edge research show that investments in such training can: • Improve Performance of School Leaders • Create a Culture of Trust within School Communities • Build Student Engagement in School and Beyond 2 ©2019 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved. Improving Performance of School Leaders Research shows that effective leadership cascades through a school, instilling a culture o

FAQs

Why should schools invest in K-12 leadership development?

Research cited in the paper links high-quality leadership development to student success. It emphasizes that learning beyond content mastery requires leadership-enabled educational ecosystems for collaboration and critical skills.

How does leadership development improve school leaders and instruction?

The paper explains that effective leadership cascades through a school by building collaboration and trust. This supports more effective instruction and is associated with stronger student learning outcomes.

What outcomes does the paper associate with investing in leadership training?

The paper lists three outcomes: improved performance of school leaders, creation of a culture of trust within school communities, and increased student engagement in school and beyond.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Margaret