The Principal Renewal Project
The Principal Renewal Project
About
Brian Vance
Brian Vance is a respected leader in education with a strong track record of shaping school leadership at the local, state, and national levels. Through his work with the Association of Washington School Principals (AWSP), including serving as President of the High School component and as a board member, and the Principals Association of Seattle Schools (PASS), where he served as President, Brian has been a leading advocate for principals and the importance of sustained professional growth.
Program Lead
He has also worked closely with OSPI, the Washington State Board of Education, and state legislators to elevate the voice of school leaders and advance policies that strengthen public education.
At the core of Brian’s work is a deep commitment to developing both emerging and experienced leaders. He has supported mentorship, coaching, and leadership development initiatives that build stronger school systems and more sustainable leadership pipelines, an approach that directly informs the Principal Renewal Project.
Brian brings over 20 years of experience as a high school principal, including leading multiple schools and guiding teams to improve student outcomes, school culture, and organizational performance. His combined experience as both a practitioner and a systems-level leader positions him to design and deliver a program that is both impactful and grounded in the realities of school leadership.
Why Principal Renewal Matters
School leadership is one of the most influential factors in the success of a school. Research consistently shows that principals are second only to classroom teachers in their impact on student learning and school culture. Effective principals shape instructional quality, support teacher development, and create the conditions that allow schools to thrive. Yet despite their importance, the profession is experiencing significant turnover.
National studies indicate that approximately 18–20% of principals leave their schools each year, with the highest rates of attrition occurring within the first five years of the role (Levin & Bradley, 2019; RAND Corporation, 2021). This pattern of turnover disrupts school improvement efforts and undermines stability for teachers and students. Schools with frequent leadership changes often struggle to sustain initiatives, maintain staff morale, and build long-term strategic direction.
Principal turnover also carries substantial financial costs. Research from the Learning Policy Institute estimates that replacing a principal can cost a district between $20,000 and $75,000 when accounting for recruitment, hiring, onboarding, and lost organizational knowledge. In addition to these direct costs, leadership turnover often triggers additional teacher turnover, multiplying the financial and instructional impact on a school system.
Beyond financial implications, leadership instability can have measurable effects on school performance. Studies from the Wallace Foundation have found that schools with consistent leadership over time are more likely to sustain improvements in instruction and student outcomes. Conversely, frequent principal turnover interrupts reform efforts and slows progress toward school improvement goals.
Despite these challenges, opportunities for meaningful professional renewal for school leaders are limited. The daily demands of leading a school leave little time for sustained reflection, learning, or exploration of new practices. As noted in this proposal, the period between years three and five of a principal’s tenure is often when leaders face the greatest professional pressure and are most likely to consider leaving the role. Providing structured opportunities for renewal and professional growth during this critical period can help sustain leaders in their positions and strengthen the schools they serve.
The Principal Renewal Project was designed to address this challenge by creating structured fellowships that allow school leaders to step away temporarily from day-to-day operational demands and engage in focused professional learning, reflection, and exploration of innovative practices. By investing in the renewal of experienced leaders while simultaneously mentoring future principals through impactful internships, school districts and principal prep programs strengthen current and future leaders.
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Key Takeaways:
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School improvement strategies are often fragmented and neglect the one role at the center of everything on campus: the principal.
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Principals affect student, teacher, and staff outcomes in three key ways: 1) supporting effective instruction, 2) retaining teachers, and 3) creating a positive school climate.
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Strengthening and investing in school leadership is also an equity strategy, given that effective principals have even larger effects in schools serving historically underserved communities.
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Successfully preparing and supporting principals is one of the best investments state and district-level policymakers can make to improve schools.
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Principal effectiveness and stability are products not just of individual skill, but of systemic support and strong policy designs, and there are several evidence-based strategies policymakers can use to create these conditions.
The Wallace Foundation, May 2026
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Steady school leadership can support student achievement and equity-related outcomes, but the principalship is becoming more stressful with increasing demands, duties, and expectations. Burnout is one of several factors that contribute to principal turnover which often destabilizes a school community. Individual and organizational factors contribute to principal burnout, but remain relatively unexamined. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to analyze the factors that contribute to burnout among novice principals in one large urban school district in the Southwestern U.S. Findings highlight the impact of secondary trauma, working conditions, and coping strategies on principal burnout.
The University of Texas at Austin, February 2021
"Even principals who described using healthy coping behaviors (exercising, spending time with friends and family) reported struggling to manage their stress. One principal noted, “It is difficult for me to fully decompress sometimes, as the work is always still on my mind.”
“Principals really matter.” That’s the key finding in this report analyzing research since 2000 about school principals. The report affirms that effective principals have a pronounced, positive effect on the schools they lead. They contribute to important outcomes like student achievement, reduced absenteeism, and teacher retention.
This report examines the current landscape of professional learning for principals, including what they learn, how they learn it, and how well it meets their needs. April 2026.
What happens to the education ecosystem when effective principals leave? One quarter of the country's principals leave their schools each year, adversely affecting millions of children's lives. Fifty percent of new principals quit during their third year in the role... These retention and persistence realities can severely limit the ability of schools, particularly high-poverty schools, to initiate and sustasin school improvement efforts necessary to achieve real gains for students.
"Principals said they most highly value those learning opportunities that allow them to meet, exchange ideas with, and build relationships with other principals, reducing the sense of professional isolation that many experience on the job."
"The average amount of experience a principal has had being a principal has declined. That's especially so in the highest-need schools. In 1988, principals had an average of about 10 years of experience as a principal. By 2016, that figure had dropped to about seven years. In the schools with the largest poverty rate, the experience level was less than six years."
The Wallace Foundation, April 2026
"To achieve the leadership effect described above requires persistent efforts by the same leader, over multiple years. It is not enough for leaders to stay in the role or persist passively at the same school. Rather, it takes tenacious instructional leaders, who build trust with a new faculty, set the vision for improvement, and engage whole staffs in change efforts that are held over time."
New Teacher Center, 2018
Efforts to improve public schools today tend to focus on particular challenges such as student achievement, chronic absenteeism, or teacher retention. But this fragmented approach often neglects a central, high-leverage factor: the school principal.
An effective principal can influence the experiences of teachers, staff, students, and everyone on campus. Moreover, research shows that investing in strong school leaders is one of the most effective ways to improve student outcomes, strengthen the educator workforce, and advance equity.
This report draws on decades of research to explain how principals play a key role in improving schools and how policymakers can invest in developing and supporting strong leaders. It particularly references the 2021 synthesis report How Principals Affect Students and Schools, which affirmed that principals have a pronounced positive effect on the schools they lead.
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... research has focused on the preparation of new principals. Less is known about the ways in which principals continue to develop their knowledge and skills throughout their careers.
The present study addresses that gap by asking veteran school principals to share information about their in-service learning opportunities, including the frequency of those opportunities, their subject matter, and their usefulness. As in previous studies, principals reported what they learned from the formal professional development programs provided by their districts and states, as well as the many kinds of informal learning opportunities principals said they choose to seek out on their own.
The Wallace Foundation, April 2026
Key Takeaways:
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Principals tended to describe informal learning opportunities as more relevant and responsive to their immediate learning needs.
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District and state officials expressed concerns about the quality of the informal learning that principals choose to pursue on their own.
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Principals said they most highly value those learning opportunities that allow them to meet, exchange ideas with, and build relationships with other principals, reducing the sense of professional isolation that many experience on the job.
Supporting Articles and Research
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The Wallace Foundation, February 2021