How you handle the departure of a top teacher, “the type who serves as the connective tissue of an entire grade or department,” matters enormously for both the departing educator and the staff watching closely.

Three principals—Deborah Dennie of Leonardtown Middle School in Maryland, Heather Bardwell of Mountain Gap Middle School in Alabama, and Ron Reetz of Mounds View High School in Minnesota—talked with Edutopia about how they handle this situation.

A few key points they agree on:

Try to retain top talent thoughtfully. Once you know why a teacher is leaving, you may be able to offer them a compelling reason to stick around—but ultimately you should support what they decide is best for them.

Honor the departure on the teacher’s terms. Some want celebrations; others prefer a quiet exit. Defer to the individual. And let them control the timeline for announcing their departure, unless it would interfere with a formal search for a replacement.

Assess whether one person, or several, can fill the gap. Have a new teacher work closely with the departing one to learn as much as possible, and lean on master teachers during transitions.

And if you really want to get ahead of the game? Begin thinking about who could replace your top teachers even before any of them make plans to leave.

What to Do When One of Your Best Teachers Leaves

Advice from three principals about how to handle exit plans, retirement ceremonies, and intimidating staffing gaps.

5 Questions to Determine Whether You’re Micromanaging

When Crystal Frommert made the leap from teacher to school leader, she vowed not to micromanage. Easier said than done. Organizing her first big event, Frommert found that no detail was too small—she wanted the event to go perfectly according to her vision. After sweating over a long late-night email about logistics, Frommert faced the truth: She was micromanaging.

She’s since written up five reflective questions you can consider if you’re worried you might be falling into similar habits:

1. Do you need to know everything all the time?
2. Are you a resource for your team—or a roadblock?
3. Do you pretend to listen to your team’s ideas knowing you’ll do things your way?
4. Do you get over-involved in details that don’t really matter?
5. Is everything urgent—do you email or text your staff in the evenings or on weekends?

Above all else, Frommert writes, she’s “learned to pause” and check in with herself. “Do I trust the people I hired?” she’ll ask. If the answer is yes, then she knows what to do next: Provide high-level guidance, but “give them room to be good at their jobs,” she says.

Are You Micromanaging?

Carefully considering these five questions can help leaders understand whether they are empowering staff members—or disregarding their expertise.

Getting 360-Degree Feedback as a Leader

Schools track students’ academic data, of course, but Principal Dan Fisher notes that “there are also many intangibles, like teacher morale, parent impressions of the school, and student experience, that won’t be captured in test scores and are nonetheless central to a school’s success.” He believes that effective leadership requires actively seeking qualitative feedback from all stakeholders—students, teachers, and parents. This is known in the business world as 360-degree feedback; Fisher prefers the term “immersive.”

Here are a few ways Fisher suggests making sure you hear from everyone: Students:

—Go outside at recess and play with kids; the informal time surfaces insights no survey can.

—Run student council meetings as mini focus groups (pizza helps).

Teachers:

—Meet regularly with department heads, opening with “What are the latest stresses, worries, or conflicts that I should be aware of?”

—Be secure in your leadership: When feedback is negative, respond with curiosity and questions, not defensiveness.

Parents:

—Send short annual surveys (three questions max) with an optional email field for follow-up.

—Use a core parent email group as a sounding board before making controversial decisions.

The bottom line: If you build genuine relationships across all groups, you can make better decisions, stay ahead of problems, and earn lasting trust from the community.

An Immersive Approach to Getting Feedback as a School Leader

Spending time with students, teachers, and parents gives administrators a 360-degree view of what the community thinks, feels, and needs.

Implementing Insights From Research to Narrow Achievement Gaps

How do you integrate education research at scale? Frederick County Public Schools in Maryland has implemented insights from learning science all across the district, with measurable success in narrowing achievement gaps for previously underserved students.

Key points from the district:

Instructional fairness is about depth of thinking. Meg Lee, former director of organizational development for the district, says, “Instructional equity is every student having an opportunity to think deeply.”

Effective strategies to achieve that goal are used in all classrooms. Teachers have been trained in strategies like activating prior knowledge, using formative data quickly and effectively, and using purposeful questioning to guide struggling students through challenges so they build confidence in their academic abilities.

As high school principal David Franceschina says, instructional equity “isn’t watering down what’s expected of the kid. It’s building a pathway to the same goals. So the goal remains the same, but the path to get there could be a little bit different depending on the student that is in front of you.”

Working Toward Instructional Equity for All

A focus on the science of learning has helped this district shrink achievement and opportunity gaps—by making sure every student is engaged in effortful thinking.