Guest Blogger:  John Draper, Ed.D., Educational Research Service 

As the US economic roller coaster experiences a series of drops and turns every school and district is going to grapple with the budget and funding.  I know that some boards of education look hard at the salaries paid to school administrators and the number of support staff employed.  There is a general misconception held by some that we have too many school administrators, central office employees and support staff.  Further, some mistakenly consider them to be overpaid.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  The Educational Research Service has worked to get the facts—and the facts say that we are not overstaffed, we are not overpaid and we are not taking money away from instruction.  In fact, school leadership is second only to teacher quality in its impact on student achievement.  For me, the most powerful fact uncovered by ERS is that effective school leadership matters most in the schools that are doing the worst!  That means that, given the choice between putting an additional teacher in a school or an assistant principal, the assistant principal would probably be the choice that most impacted student achievement, especially in a poorly performing school!

Session participants will get an executive summary of the research refuting these common misconceptions:

1.  Administration is an unnecessary burden on schools and should be curtailed.
2.  There are too many administrators.
3.  The number of school administrators is growing rapidly and at the expense of instruction.
4.  School administrators are paid too much.
5.  Increasing amounts of school budgets are going to administration.
6.  A lot of money is going to administration that could be better spent for other purposes.

As a principal, I would have used this information to justify my need for an additional assistant, an extra counselor and other support staff.  It wouldn’t have hurt in my salary discussions either!

The session “Answering the Critics of School Administration: What Are the Facts” will be held on Friday, February 27 from 2:30–4:00 p.m.