Effective Practices in the Face of Principal Turnover

Abstract

the faculty at Pecan Creek Elementary that it was transferring the school’s principal, Ms. Davies, to a lowerperforming school within the district. Ms. Davies was a well-known proponent of a multitiered schoolwide positive behavior intervention and support (PBIS) approach, and educators considered her to be a “champion” for providing evidence-based interventions for students with behavior disorders. Under the active leadership of Ms. Davies, the school’s PBIS team met every other week to discuss schoolwide data, track individual student progress, and adjust plans for students who required individualized behavior support. Ms. Davies worked hard to help the team ensure high levels of implementation fidelity and for 3 years successfully managed to use site-based funds to allow release time for team members to meet during regular school hours and to attend relevant professional development training. In the fall, Mr. Thibault will become the new principal at Pecan Creek. Mr. Thibault’s primary focus has been on improving overall achievement. He says that he supports the PBIS initiative, but he did not make it a priority at his previous school. The team fears that he will not focus on PBIS at Pecan Creek and that problem behavior will increase, staff members will lose faith in system effectiveness, and some educators will search for alternative approaches. T A C H IN G Ex ce pt io n al C hi ld re n , Vo l. 46 , N o. 3, pp . 19 -2 5. C op yr ig ht 20 14 C EC . Effective Practices in the Face of Principal Turnover