I am currently facilitating leadership teams at the central office and building level in several districts. As I researched for this work the critical importance of school based leaders was reinforced. Consider the following statements regarding the principal’s role: On average, a principal accounts for 25 percent of a school’s total impact on student achievement—significant […]

I was visiting a friend who is a principal and found myself frequently alone as another “usual” school issue arose. As I often do, I began pursuing the bookshelf for a distraction and a chance to find out what I might be missing. I found a copy of Improving Schools from Within by Roland Barth […]

In earlier postings, I have discussed the important partnership of principal and coach to build continuous teacher growth. One critical element of that partnership is identifying teachers’ current (individual) development stage or skill level and planning the appropriate support for the teacher’s growth. In a new book from ASCD, Building Teachers’ Capacity for Success….. A […]

Two of my colleagues, Jim and Lorene Malanowski , flagged me to check out the announcement that Mark Wilson, the principal of Morgan County High School, had been chosen as the 2009 High School Principal of the year. Jim is a teacher at the high school and the Malanowski’s daughter, Emily, is a student there. […]

I had another of those weeks where several projects that I am working on run together or overlapped. I am preparing to facilitate a training for the Arkansas Department of Education for principals and coaches. They asked me to include partnership agreements as presented by Killion and Harrison in Taking the Lead: New Roles for […]

I recently presented to school administrators at the Millsaps College Principal’s Academy(MS) and The College of William and Mary’s School Leadership Institute (VA). At both sessions, we examined the following belief statement. Increased teacher collaboration produces increased student achievement.As principals, how does that belief fit into your approach to school leadership? As a teacher, how […]