New America Blog

Over the last several years our team has been exploring the integral role of early learning leaders, both elementary school principals and center directors. In this guest post, Anisha Ford discusses new research on how these leaders impact their program climate. In 2019 we’ll continue digging into this important topic, including exploring how to best prepare center directors.

Organizational conditions are key levers in improving the quality of early education classrooms. They can impact many aspects of a program, including but not limited to: the ability to effectively implement policies aimed at classroom improvement, staff turnover and attrition, and family engagement. Research has shown that a positive organizational climate is linked to higher quality in pre-K classrooms. However, there are few tools that allow early education programs to assess their organizational conditions and provide actionable steps for improvement...