PLI Impact Report: Collective and Team Leadership

In the last two years, UC Berkeley’s Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) has published two impact reports: one focused on the breadth of regional impact and strength of program model, the second focused on alumni and district partner feedback. This third report* focuses on the impact of a preparation program on leadership practice by examining concentrations of PLI alumni in administrative teams. In its fourteenth year, the PLI now has 491 graduates, 88% of whom work in the Bay Area; 50% work in PLI’s four partner districts. This staffing impact (described in the first impact report) has led to the phenomenon of administrative teams composed entirely of PLI alumni. Using data from interviews of 26 alumni on 10 all-PLI administrative teams, this report indicates that PLI teams enact strong equity-centered distributed leadership models that originate from their PLI preparation. Specifically, the alumni on these teams highlight the ways in which trust, common language and practices, and shared philosophies and values enable them to work more efficiently and effectively as school leaders. The conclusions focus on how leadership preparation programs and employers can use these findings to better support practicing school leaders.