Third-party study finds Kennett principals spend more time on managerial tasks than instruction; recommends supervisory shift

Consultants from the Delaware Academy for School Leadership (DASL) told the Kennett Consolidated School District board that a recent time/task management snapshot found district and school leaders spending more time on managerial tasks than on instructional activities.

Connie Fisher, a DASL leadership specialist, said the study combined four datasets: a participant survey, on-site shadowing of six principals and six district leaders, five-day self-tracking, and eight focus groups. Fisher emphasized the study’s limitations, calling the shadowing a "snapshot" and noting that some entries were self-reported for confidentiality. ‘‘We were confident in what was provided to us,’’ she said.

DASL reported that, across district and school settings, the majority of recorded entries were managerial. For the five-day self-tracking and the on-site shadowing, management tasks occupied four of the top five time categories; instructional activities ranked lower. The firm pointed out that elementary schools spent significantly more time on instructional activities than secondary schools and that student supervision and student support were high-frequency managerial tasks.

Focus-group findings showed inconsistent feedback systems at building level: teachers and building staff described walk-through feedback as "hit or miss" and uncertain about its instructional impact, while district supervisors reported more consistent feedback and recommended adding instructional coaches at the building level and increasing supports for ELD populations.

DASL’s four district-level implications were: (1) cultivate culture and professional relationships that enable instructional leadership; (2) ensure building leaders spend more time on instructional actions; (3) position district leaders explicitly as instructional supports; (4) create systems and protocols that operate effectively to sustain instructional leadership. Recommended next steps included leadership coaching, increasing administrative support at large elementary schools and rethinking principal supervision to emphasize in-school coaching rather than compliance-focused, district-office tasks.

During board Q&A, members asked whether differences between two-day shadowing and five-day self-tracking reflected timing or coding inconsistency. DASL responded that the same coding team processed both datasets, so discrepancies likely reflected the sampling window and school cycles rather than inconsistent classification. DASL recommended that a principal supervisor spend most time in schools "working side by side" with principals as a coach to develop instructional leadership capacity.

The DASL team’s findings and recommendations were delivered to the board for consideration of next steps; board members noted the need to operationalize core values and build supports if the district pursues the recommended supervision and coaching changes.