Monday, September 8, 2014
Improving Education May Come Down to Changing Principals
As we go back to school this fall, parents will naturally be fretting about teachers — mainly, did their kids get the best ones? But what if, in the interest of educational improvement, we paused to examine the role of one person who rarely gets talked about, but who just might be the most important figure in school reform: the principal?
The role of the principal has, traditionally, been overlooked.
How about a new education reform push, one that focuses less on the teachers and more on the principals who supervise them?
What makes a principal great? Historically, school leaders served as building and personnel managers while teachers made classroom-level decisions mostly on their own. Now principals are expected to do their old managerial jobs and oversee instruction, too — what and how students are learning.
The Wallace Foundation has offered six urban school districts $75 million to create stronger recruitment, training and support services for principals...