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1. 15 Ways for Principals to Increase
Student Achievement
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2. Principals have always had the most direct responsibility for the process of increasing
student achievement in their buildings, best accomplished by empowering teachers
and encouraging innovation. With the recent passage of new federal legislation that
promises an increase in local autonomy, an opportunity exists for schools to engage in
personalization of learning guided by educators and not politicians.
The conscious decisions school leaders make as ESSA implementation unfolds to
increase student achievement must include the reallocation of finite resources. While
that prospect is nothing new to any school principal, an examination of what has
worked in a variety of settings will maximize the effectiveness of any efforts to increase
the return on investment in people, programs, and products.
Admittedly, principals often must defer to central office administrators when investing in
new programs or initiatives. Making a case for those practices best positioned to
enhance student outcomes is a seminal responsibility of school leaders, and such
recommendations usually coalesce around either increasing revenue or reallocating
existing resources.
This series will examine the efforts principals can make in the most practical terms
possible to increase student achievement in their schools, beginning with three
reallocation ideas and the details behind them. Advocating for any or all of these
concepts will enable any school leader to deliver on the promise of continuous
improvement.
1. Class Size and Instructional Coaching
A considerable body of conflicting research exists on the impact of class size on
student achievement, a concept resistant to easy answers or any formulas for
success. While it may seem counterintuitive to advocate for larger class sizes, a
modest increase in class size for the specific purpose of gaining an instructional
coach trained and empowered to assist teachers with innovative practices is
one way to increase student achievement.
Most seasoned educators would posit that the quality of instruction is the single
biggest factor in prompting student achievement gains, trumping class size and
making the case for improving instruction as efficiently and economically as
possible as a critical first step in any improvement efforts. Non-evaluative, job-
embedded help for teachers to improve their innovative instructional techniques
is the most cost-effective way to accomplish that worthy goal.
2. Incentivizing Teachers to Embrace Innovation
Everyone can become more skilled at their jobs, and most professionals are
constantly improving or at the very least desirous to become more effective in
their work. Unquestionably, the prospect of using technology to improve the
delivery of instruction has been at the forefront of professional learning activities
for the past decade or more in education.

3. Some teachers embrace the opportunity to learn new techniques and use
technology as the tool it can be in that effort, while others inevitably lag behind
more eager colleagues. Principals who succeed in increasing the former and
decreasing the latter typically tap into the magic of allowing teacher-leaders to
drive the process, rather than relying on administrative fiat or “brute sanity” to
lead the way.
Another way to incentivize teachers to embrace technology is to remove the
fear that accompanies trying something new, fear often bred by the presence
or direct oversight of supervisors or administrators rather than colleague faculty.
During the predictable implementation dip in productivity as anything new is
attempted, teachers must know that they’re welcome to try, measure, fall short
of expectations, and repeat the process.
3. Giving Students a Voice
Experienced principals who have not forgotten the value of monitoring and
adjusting practice based on reliable feedback and the data it generates
welcome and seek input from students themselves. Whether in the more
formalized setting of scheduled meetings between school leaders and students,
or by less formal and more frequent classroom visits, gaining the perspective of
students as they are learning new things in new ways is invaluable in the process
of enhancing student outcomes.
The successes and frustrations of students, ideally measured by design to
generate regular and reliable data, is the best way to monitor effectiveness and
modify practice accordingly. Ideally, even the modification process should
include input by students, rather that solely relying on an adult prospective for
enhancing the delivery of instruction to adolescent learners, especially so at the
middle and high school levels.
The next item of this series will deliver three ways to increase revenue as a means of
enhancing student achievement, typically something driven more by the central office
than by building-level administrators. Nonetheless, the perspective of a principal is
invaluable in deciding how to spend finite resources. Just as student input should be
regularly solicited and examined, so too should the thoughts of principals be
considered when tough decisions can bring desired improvement in the operation of a
school.
As principals search for ways to increase academic achievement, consideration is
typically given to reallocating existing resources in new ways. Few things in any business
happen without an appropriate level of resource support, and public education is
certainly not immune from the need to identify funding sources when any new initiative
is undertaken.
Another facet of resource support targeted to increasing student achievement, in
addition to reallocating current funds, is the possibility of generating new sources of
income. The active pursuit of untapped financial resources can make a finite budget

4. less so, provided the process is carefully designed to include active support from the
central office, ideally from the very outset of the effort.
Presented herein are three ideas for principals to consider in their attempts to use
creative instinct as a means to providing more funds for advancing student
achievement. When principals, sometimes alone and often with colleagues within a
district, work with the central office for the specific purpose of causing measurable
gains in academic achievement by increasing funding, the results can more than justify
the effort.
4. Outsourcing/Privatizing
This topic is sometimes viewed as the third rail in any consideration of school
funding sources. The emotions surrounding any suggestion that existing
employees may be replaced can be fierce, pervasive, and debilitating to a
district. If such an approach is considered, full transparency of the reasons for the
endeavor must be presented every time the topic is discussed in public.
Long before any public discussion, however, principals and their central office
counterparts should have a clear conception of how any additional funds will be
spent, along with how the results of the initiative will be measured and reported.
Making the case for outsourcing positions in a district is never for the faint of
heart, and consideration of this step is sometimes best undertaken during a
particularly difficult budget cycle, for obvious reasons of economy and
efficiency.
Many things in a school district are subject to privatization efforts, and any school
or district leader who has taken on this task is likely to have encountered the
inherent difficulty of trying to save money by eliminating personnel, a task made
less unsavory when the approach is tied directly to the educational benefits
anticipated. Cultivating majority board support, privately and early in the
process, is also critically important if the effort is ultimately to succeed.
5. Economizing Transportation
In districts that own and operate their own fleet of buses, the savings to be
derived from abandoning that model and hiring a private company can be
considerable. Bus purchases, maintaining the fleet, and replacing buses
according to stringent federal guidelines are just some of the many things that
disappear when a transportation system is privatized.
If support does not exist and cannot be secured to privatize the entire operation,
an incremental approach can sometimes represent an acceptable compromise
position. Privatizing only athletic bus runs, for example, eliminates concerns about
having strangers responsible for the children on a bus. Coaches always
accompany their teams on athletic runs, leaving the operation of the bus to be
handled in the most cost-effect manner possible.

5. 6. Economizing Custodial Services
Parents often equate school safety with having district employees serve as
custodial staff, in most cases resulting from a long tradition of employing familiar
faces while children are present each day. Most of us can still recall the friendly
custodial staff of our own school experience, likely making this a contentious
prospect.
There is a compromise position, however, that can save substantial sums of
operating capital each year that can then be used for increasing student
achievement. The companion to privatizing only the athletic runs of a district is to
privatize only the evening custodial services in a building. This approach, while
saving less money than a more comprehensive approach, nonetheless
eliminates concerns about student safety.
Principals who suggest ways to save operating funds for the purpose of using those
savings to increase student achievement must work with the central office and,
tangentially, with the board of education. They must also be armed with a clear
conception of and concrete explanation for how the savings will be used, including a
plan for generating data and using it to guide future decisions on any initiative.
Part 3 of this series will revisit the prospect of reallocating existing human and capital
resources to increase student achievement. Principals who are always thinking of ways
to improve their own practice, especially in the area of spending funds targeted
directly toward increasing student achievement, can make a substantial difference in
the lives of their teachers and the success of their students.
Principals make decisions every day that are intended to improve student outcomes
and enhance academic achievement, often involving the reallocation of existing
human or financial resources as part of the process. The human resources of a school
building represent the best that public education has to offer to students, the caring
adults who regularly change the lives of children and help them to succeed in school
and in life.
Spending finite discretionary resources in ways likeliest to increase academic
achievement of students is the natural companion to making wise personnel decisions.
Even the best programs and products will fail without great teachers to implement
them, a fact that provides the best argument possible for recruiting outstanding
teachers and for the commitment to provide continuous professional learning for them
in a climate of innovation.
Teachers who are eager to continue their own professional learning are those most apt
to increase student achievement, ideally supported by principals who encourage them
to take risks and who model that philosophy in their own professional practice. What
follows are three specific ideas principals can adopt and adapt in their buildings to
ensure that innovation and personalization characterize professional practice in their
schools every day.

6. 7. Leadership Training for Teachers
Principals who have not forgotten what it was like to teach every day are also
those most likely to invest in developing the leadership qualities of their teachers.
Few principals began their administrative careers without the active interest of a
former principal in their own advancement, and are often eager to pay forward
that interest by helping others to reach their professional goals.
For those teachers who are interested in making the transition to administration,
leadership opportunities provided while they are still in the classroom are
invaluable in helping them along. Successful principals understand the obligation
to cultivate the leadership abilities of their teachers, whether by sharing
scheduling tasks, budgeting procedures, or any other responsibilities that
comprise an administrative role.
8. Creative Scheduling Practices
Principals at every level have some connection to scheduling. Although creating
a master schedule at the high school level may technically be a function of the
guidance department, oversight is critical to ensure that the educational
priorities of the principal are embedded within the final product. At the
elementary and middle school levels, the process tends to involve the more
direct participation of principals at all stages.
Principals who are sensitive to what teachers prefer in a final schedule are
careful to ask for those preferences long before the scheduling process begins,
and in so doing they evidence a level of concern that teachers universally
appreciate. While it is certainly true that not every preference can be
accommodated, the mere fact that teachers were asked for input and that
input was considered during the scheduling process can predictably result in
better morale among teachers.
Organizing an elementary schedule to include common planning time among
grade level colleagues is an excellent way for best practices to be shared
organically. The same can be said for middle schools that engage in creating
teams of teachers and a schedule that supports regular, daily meetings of team
member colleagues.
High schools represent a larger challenge in scheduling common planning time,
given the mixed grade level nature of many high school classes. Every
opportunity for scheduling efficiencies at the high school level, however, should
be embraced for the same reasons of collaboration that exist elsewhere in a
district.
9. Reinvent the Faculty Meeting
Few things encourage the simmering resentment of teachers more than faculty
meetings that feature too much administrator-talk and too little colleague-
interaction. Regular faculty meetings may either be an embedded expectation,
a contractual obligation, or more typically both. Having a meeting, and having

7. a meeting not dreaded by teachers, are two very different realities often
occurring within the same district but at different buildings.
For principals who have not yet adopted an “Ed Camp” model for faculty
meetings, an investigation of this approach in any number of online sources is
one sure way to make faculty meetings more meaningful for teachers. While a
true Ed Camp happens during otherwise free time and is completely voluntary
for attendance purposes, the aspect that includes teacher-experts presenting to
colleagues is a part of the Ed Camp philosophy that is readily adaptable for any
purposely redefined faculty meeting.
Principals who memo staff with what they would otherwise say at a faculty
meeting, and instead of talking create a sign-up sheet for teachers who
volunteer to present on a topic of professional interest to them, are taking the
wise and productive step to reinventing the faculty meeting in ways that will
assuredly enhance innovation more than the old and tired meetings of days long
past.
Using technology to meet virtually is another innovative practice that
demonstrates for teachers the kind of risk-taking in which principals often wish
their teachers would engage. At any level, department or grade level meetings
can also be accomplished using available technology, again demonstrating a
commitment to the future rather than an adherence to the past.
Part 4 of this series will present an additional set of revenue generating ideas that
principals can either champion or implement themselves, in the continued interest of
increasing student achievement. The opportunities to innovate for the purpose of that
noble goal are limitless, especially for principals who understand their obligation to lead
by example.
Gains in student achievement as the result of targeted administrative action are
typically the result of the efforts of many people, including instructional staff, parents,
and students themselves. Rarely do gains happen without the concerted activity of all
three groups, and even more rarely without the resource support they require.
Human and financial resources, marshaled by design to include measurement of
outcomes and analysis of data, can cause specific gains in student achievement.
Principal leadership is a critical component for success, and effective principals either
reallocate existing resources or develop new streams of resource support when they
tackle new projects or implement new programs.
Any revenue generating idea implemented at the building level needs the early and
active support of those in the central office. With that proviso in mind, presented herein
are three more ideas for principals to either champion or implement themselves in the
pursuit of gains in student achievement.

8. 10. Fees
During difficult budget cycles, districts often institute a fee structure for aspects of
the total school program that in times of financial abundance are absorbed in
the operating budget. Technology fees, sports participation fees, and
club/activities fess are three common sources of additional financial support for
the daily operation of a district.
Rather than implementing such fees to weather a difficult budget, some districts
choose to implement fees and target the resulting income for a specific
purpose, none more noble than increasing student achievement. The ability to
show tangible increases in specific student outcomes can often ameliorate the
initial ill will that fees can generate, especially if those gains represent a persistent
area of concern within a given district or school.
11. Technology Device Procurement
Districts have been grappling with the need to provide access to technology in
a cost effective manner for many years, and the methodology of putting
devices in the hands of students typically varies between one-to-one device
initiatives and a version often described as a “bring your own device” approach.
In less affluent districts, the need to provide devices for students is often
unmistakable. No student should be denied the daily use of current technology
by an accident of birth circumstances, and the purchase of devices in such
districts can occupy a significant portion of a finite budget. The proliferation of
Smartphone technology, however, has begun to change the landscape even in
the poorest districts.
Students who arrive to school each day with a Smartphone in their pockets carry
with them a device that can help them learn, and progressive schools and
districts are constantly developing new ways to manage student use of their own
devices for legitimate educational purposes. School should never have been the
only place where students don’t have the right to use their Smartphones to learn
new things.
Affluent districts that continue to buy devices for their students, many or most of
whom would if given the option prefer to use their own, are squandering an
opportunity to use device money for the purpose of increasing student
achievement. Such districts continue to implement a 20th century model of
technology use in a new century, often citing absurd reasons of standardization
or control in defense of this outdated practice.
Courageous school leaders, if they tread lightly and arm themselves with facts
devoid of hyperbole or emotion, can and should lead their buildings steadily into
the direction of a BYOD approach. Every dollar not spent on buying or replacing
outdated devices is a dollar that can instead be spent on increasing student
achievement. This is a fight with taking on, especially when armed with a specific
plan for how to spend money saved by not purchasing devices less powerful

9. and sophisticated than the ones students often have sitting in their pockets while
at school.
12. Textbooks
Textbooks are expensive. Anyone who has gone to college or pays for someone
currently enrolled can testify to the outrageous costs associated with the
purchase of printed books that have changed little in the last several decades,
books that began the path toward their own obsolescence the day they arrived
at school.
Digital textbooks are often less expensive and carry with them several
advantages over their antiquated printed counterparts, not least of which is the
ability to include regular updates to content as events warrant. Digital sources of
academic content, initially something textbook publishers often “included” with
the purchase of printed texts, are overtaking old methods of providing content
to students.
School leaders who are comfortable negotiating the best possible financing
options for digital texts, and who are adept at encouraging teachers to see
them as the rightful future of content delivery, can use savings derived from
buying fewer consumable textbooks for targeted efforts to increase academic
achievement. Part of the transition from printed to digital texts must include
efforts to bring all stakeholders along for the ride. Highlighting anticipated gains
in student achievement is an excellent way to frame the debate.
The last item in this series will capture three additional ways to either reallocate existing
human and financial resources or create new sources of revenue for the purpose of
increasing student achievement. Targeting as many district resources as possible
specifically on advancing student achievement is one sure way to gain the active
support of teachers, board members, parents, and students themselves in this worthy
endeavor.
Principals are routinely responsible for virtually everything that happens in their schools,
part of the comprehensive nature of the position that is both a joy and a challenge.
Especially at the elementary level that typically lacks layers of guidance services or a
full time vice principal, a principal can be found on any given day supervising student
lunches or intervening with a troubled student or staff member.
No responsibility is more critical to the mission of a school, however, than increasing
student achievement. Though principals must often create the time needed for this
worthy cause by compromising other aspects of the job, guiding the process of
improving student outcomes is why many principals sought the role and left the
classroom.
Improving student achievement is linked to the resources necessary to make it happen,
and principals either reallocate existing human and financial resources or participate in
the process of identifying and cultivating new sources of funding. Presented herein are

10. three more ways principals may use their authority as instructional leaders to enhance
the learning experience of their students, each by re-evaluating one facet of the
overall operation of their schools.
13. Transportation
In the vast majority of districts that transport students by bus each day,
opportunities often exist to economize routes, supervision, or the movement of
students from buses to classes in a more efficient manner. Most principals inherit
the procedures for transporting students from their predecessors, and the
inclination to leave things as they have always been is often and understandably
the first approach taken by principals new to their role.
Any operation that uses fewer staff members for supervision but nonetheless
keeps students safe at every stage of a process is worth considering and
implementing. Keeping close tabs on what these procedures cost before and
after economization efforts is the best way to conserve actual dollars and
redirect them for instructional improvement efforts. The collection of data is as
critical in this realm as it is in the process of determining gains in student
achievement.
14. Supervision
Prudent supervision of students at all times by certificated staff is a cornerstone of
school and district administration, an expensive and necessary fact of life in
schools made more so by the occasionally tragic events that sometimes occur
at school. Caring for many hundreds of students for seven or more hours,
knowing their whereabouts at all times, and getting them safely to and from
school and home every day is a huge logistical undertaking.
Again a product of past practice, principals tend to perpetuate procedures that
have been in place more automatically than perhaps they could or should,
especially if reducing personnel costs of supervision can be accomplished
without compromising the safety of students or staff. A detailed study of
supervision, especially during non-instructional portions of every school day,
usually leads to the ability to trim costs associated with this aspect of school
operations and reallocate savings derived to bolster student achievement
efforts.
15. Before and After School Care
Most schools have some provisions in place for the care and supervisor of
students before school begins each day and after classes end, providing
working parents with a much-needed and typically inexpensive option for child
care each day. Many programs exist in partnership with other local organizations
and are often overseen by personnel not directly associated with the district.
Whether before and after care is a direct function of district operations or
overseen by a partner organization, the existence of this service to parents and
students almost universally presents an opportunity for study and revision for the

11. express purpose of economizing the delivery services and developing new
funding sources for increasing student achievement.
The work required to study current practices of transportation services,
supervision of students during the school day, and before and after care of those
students is considerable, as are the resources that often result from undertaking
that work. The best way to manage the task is to create a team of interested
parties, perhaps including parent representation especially for any examination
of before and after care practices, to discuss and discover what works well and
what can be done more efficiently or profitably.
As in all other aspects of school administration, gathering and analyzing data can be
the hinge point between success and failure in the effort to increase student
achievement. Principals who make the time to reallocate existing resources or exhibit
the creativity to identify and cultivate new sources of funding are those who position
themselves and their students for success.