Grow and Retain Great Leaders: The Key to Thriving Schools

As a school system leader, your most valuable resource is your people. But is school leader burnout impacting your students’ success? The challenges facing K-12 education are more pressing than ever—and building the right team is critical to overcoming them.

Take this 5-minute quiz to discover how cultivating talent can help build a resilient and high-performing school.

The Problem: A Widening Achievement Gap

The U.S. public education system is in crisis. On average, Black, Latinx, and low-income students lag two years behind their wealthier peers in reading and math by fourth grade. By 12th grade, that gap grows to four years. Many schools are failing to provide the inclusive environments needed to support every child, regardless of background, in reaching their full potential.

At the root of this issue is a common but overlooked problem: dysfunction within the school itself. In many lower-performing schools, a culture of distrust, low expectations, and weak communication hinders even the best-intended reform efforts. Transforming these schools requires strong, talented leaders—but most principals haven’t been trained to disrupt the status quo.

Added to this, educators face overwhelming demands. A recent Gallup poll revealed that K-12 educators have the highest burnout rate of any profession in the U.S. Principal turnover leads to higher teacher turnover, creating instability that directly harms student achievement. But it’s not just about principals—rising leaders, like assistant principals and teacher leaders, often lack the support and resources needed to feel successful. In fact, 40% of assistant principals report feeling neutral or disagree when asked if they feel successful in their current role. These rising leaders are crucial to a school’s future success, yet many feel underprepared and unsupported. Schools need strong leadership to thrive, yet the very leaders expected to bring change are underprepared and burning out at alarming rates.

The Solution: Invest in Leadership Development

To fix this, we must build, develop, and retain effective school leaders at all levels, not just principals. Research shows that principals and teachers are the two most important factors in a student’s academic success. Rising leaders, such as assistant principals, are also essential factors because schools with comprehensive leadership pipelines consistently outperform those without them. Sustainability for all leaders improves when the team is cohesive, aligned, focused, and collaborative.

However, despite leaders being recognized as one of the two most important factors in student success, very few school and district budgets allocate specific dollars to support ongoing leadership development and coaching. This gap has a direct impact on both leader retention and overall school performance. Our own discovery process has shown that without dedicated support, many schools struggle to maintain stability in leadership, which ultimately affects teacher retention and student outcomes.

At Accelerate Institute, we’re disrupting the status quo by partnering with schools and districts to build the talent pipelines they need to create long-term success—not only for current principals but also for rising leaders. This approach isn’t just about filling vacancies, but about equipping rising leaders with the tools and confidence they need to be great in their current roles and to transition smoothly into even more impactful roles.

The result of high burnout rates and staff turnover is unstable school leadership across K-12 schools in the U.S., and a lack of leadership pipelines in many of these schools ultimately results in decreased student achievement. Research shows that comprehensive leadership pipelines—whether for principals or rising leaders—significantly improve student outcomes and leader retention.

Our approach is designed to address the core issues of burnout, turnover, and leadership development, leading to stronger, more resilient school systems. For example, a groundbreaking report by RAND found that districts with principal pipelines saw their schools outperform others, with student achievement rising by six percentile points in reading and three percentile points in math. Leadership development isn’t just a perk—it’s a necessity for sustainable school improvement.

Starting the Work: Building a Leadership Pipeline

We know that creating a leadership pipeline takes time and intentionality. It starts with clarity—understanding the unique needs of your school and the attributes and skills your ideal leaders should possess.

At Accelerate Institute, we’ve developed four key tools in the Accelerate Model for Cultivating Talent (AMCT) to help districts and schools begin this important work. The first tool, the School and Ideal Leader Profile, supports schools in gaining clarity in two key areas:

The school profile: What are the specific needs, culture, and community context of your school?
The ideal leader profile: What skills and attributes should leaders possess to meet those needs?

The purpose of the School and Ideal Leader Profile tool is to provide clarity on the strengths and growth areas for the school community and to identify the ideal qualifications and characteristics for the school’s leadership. We can’t know who a good leader would be until we define what type of leader is needed for our unique school context. Each school has its own unique ecosystem, and what makes a strong leader at one school may not be a strong leader at another school.

ACTION:

Take a moment to read our School and Ideal Leader Profile Deep Dive, to learn about how Principal Gina found the solution to moving staff into new roles through the AMCT tools. As you are reading, see if you can think through the following questions:

What was the impact on Gina’s staff of acting urgently to fill positions?
How could the AMCT tools help principals be proactive in their hiring and retention practices?

Once you have clarity on the School and Ideal Leader Profile, you can begin supporting internal talent development to create a strong leadership pipeline aligned with your school’s vision.

Without clear expectations or role clarity, employees may become tense, causing friction in their performance. Research shows that 84% of employees with high role clarity have intentions to continue with the organization and the overall performance of an employee with high role clarity increases by 25%. Therefore, when leaders take up the responsibility to curb role ambiguity, they improve employee experience and retention.

Ascend Membership: Join a Community of Impact

The solution starts with a proactive, aligned, and collaborative approach to talent cultivation, and we’re inviting school leaders like you to be part of it. Accelerate Institute’s Ascend Membership offers a unique blueprint for developing talent at all levels—executives, principals, and rising leaders— tailored to the needs of your school system. Whether you’re just starting or building on existing efforts, we provide the resources, expertise, and support you need to thrive.

Limited cohort spots are available—don’t wait to join this exceptional group of schools already seeing the benefits of investing in leadership at special pilot pricing. School communities like yours have the potential to become thriving ecosystems, where every child has the chance to succeed.

“This PD is winning in the coherence of training from Executive to Principal to Rising Leader.”

— Matt Cowan ED, Believe Memphis Academy

You can find Ascend members schools across the United States

Secure your spot in our Ascend Membership today or schedule a call to learn more.

Catherine Burns

President & Chief Academic Officer, Accelerate Institute