How elementary school principals spend their workweek

A new snapshot finds that elementary school principals in the study spend about 16 hours (more than one-third of their typical 41-hour workweek) providing instructional support to teachers, either directly or indirectly by arranging resources for teachers to use. Key findings include: Principals spent less time providing instructional support to teachers than on other tasks. Although principals spent more than a third of their typical workweek providing instructional support, on average they spent just over 60 percent of their time (about 25 hours) on other tasks, including student affairs and administration. Principals with elementary school teaching experience reported providing more extensive direct instructional support; and, according to teachers, it was more helpful and actionable in some cases. Compared with principals who had not taught at an elementary school, principals with elementary school teaching experience provided an average of two more hours of direct instructional support to their teachers per week. Most of that difference was due to principals spending more time providing feedback to teachers—nearly 40 additional hours over the course of the school year. In addition, thirty-six percent of teachers whose principal had elementary teaching experience reported that their principal helped them “to a great extent” identify areas of instructional practices that needed improvement compared to 26 percent of teachers whose principal did not have that experience. Similarly, 33 percent versus 24 percent of teachers, respectively, reported that their principal provided them with actionable steps to improve their instruction. Principals spent similar amounts of time providing instructional support to teachers, regardless of their own, teachers’ or principals’ characteristics. Time principals spent providing instructional support did not differ based on principals’ experience level or the extent to which they delegated provision of direct instructional support to others.  In addition, the time principals spent providing direct or indirect instructional support did not differ based on the percentage of novice or new teachers at their school.