NEPC Review: “So Hard, but So Rewarding:” How School System Leaders are Scaling up Strategic

The report analyzes findings from interviews of 42 school leaders across six systems it identifies as implementing strategic school staffing models, including how such models could be scaled, what challenges and supports leaders encountered, how the work can be supported, and the role of the school leader in strategic systems change. [...] Interviewees answered several questions examining their thoughts about the role of school leaders in scaling models, the key challenges involved in bringing the models to scale, and the nature of necessary supports. [...] The Report’s Rationale for Its Findings and Conclusions The underlying rationale of this report is that strategic staffing models are promising but re- main “fragile” due to the influence of policy that hinders the scaling up of different models, antiquated ideologies about the teaching profession, and lack of support from states, policy- makers, foundations, and researchers. [...] The report does not indicate how many of each identified role were included in the sample, nor does it define the number of participants in each of the six school systems. [...] The report’s conclusions and recommendations lead to a circular argument in which the participant roles (principals, school leaders, superintendents, technical assistance providers) are later identified as the groups that should support school leaders and share the work of scaling strategic staffing models.