Ulead presents reports on principal job satisfaction and certified teacher librarian practices

Megan Everett, director for ULEAD, presented a quarterly update to the meeting on two research reports: a principal job-satisfaction study based on a statewide principal survey and a study of certified teacher librarian practices in districts that require them.

The reports matter because principals’ job satisfaction affects turnover and school climate, and certified teacher librarians are tied to literacy outcomes, the presenter said. Everett described methods, main findings and outreach plans for getting the research into schools.

The principal report, produced with a researcher at Utah Valley University, began with a broadly distributed survey that yielded about a 20% response rate and roughly 180 principal respondents. Everett said the analysis used one of the widely used burnout/job-satisfaction instruments and found that, overall, “Utah principals tend to be more satisfied than not.” The report frames six areas of work life that most affect satisfaction—workload, control, reward, community, fairness and values—and identifies practices that principals who report higher satisfaction say help, including clearer role definitions between principals and assistant principals, opportunities to prioritize time in classrooms, deliberate delegation, and stronger supervisor conversations.

Everett summarized recommended approaches that schools and districts could adopt to reduce burnout: simplifying paperwork and workloads where possible, reducing redundant meetings, sharing professional development resources through supervisors, and encouraging small community-building practices within schools. Everett said ULEAD plans a webinar on the topic but noted a date has not been set.

The second report, led by a researcher at Utah State University, examined certified teacher librarian practices in districts that require a certified teacher librarian: Salt Lake City, Park City and South Summit. Everett said the study identified outlier schools by selecting the top 15% of schools on Acadience reading for K–3 across two years that also employed a full-time certified teacher librarian and then asked principals, teachers and librarians about practices linked to effective library programs. The report emphasizes librarians’ instructional roles—co-planning with teachers and aligning library instruction to classroom goals—plus collection management and leadership within the school. Everett noted the report is accompanied by a 17-minute podcast.

Board members pressed Everett on dissemination. “Does it go somewhere? Do you make very aggressive efforts to get this to educators?” asked Member Laird, a board member. Everett said ULEAD uses agency listservs targeted to appropriate audiences (for example, curriculum directors versus principals), presents at statewide conferences such as UCTM, and works with partners to route material to the right practitioner groups. She and others on the panel cited an example in which a BYU public school partnership brought highlighted district teams together for deep-dive sessions that included both analysis and implementation practice.

Superintendent Dixon said he has heard practitioners in the field reference ULEAD materials directly. “I really commend Megan,” Dixon said, praising the outreach and collaboration that has helped teachers and principals identify and use ULEAD findings. Everett said ULEAD began in 2018 and that she joined the initiative about two years ago.

Everett said future and in-progress reports will include high-school attendance and early-literacy classroom practices. The reports, she noted, are available on ULEAD’s reports and repositories page on its website.