Selection Criteria

The MetLife/NASSP National Principal of the Year award program annually recognizes outstanding school leaders who have succeeded in providing high-quality learning opportunities for students. These principals are acknowledged by their peers for the exemplary contributions they have made to the profession. The program honors school principals who have demonstrated excellence in the areas addressed by the selection criteria. The following selection criteria reflect the themes as outlined in the Breaking Ranks framework for middle level and high schools.

Personal Excellence

• Models continuous professional growth
• Interacts professionally and tactfully with others
• Communicates effectively in speaking and writing
• Models values, beliefs, and attitudes that encourage others to higher levels of performance
• Maintains an instructional focus in managing administrative tasks
• Recognizes, appreciates, and serves the needs of diverse constituencies in the school community.

Collaborative Leadership

• Involves teachers, staff members, parents, students, and the community in creating and fostering a shared vision for the school
• Leads collaboratively to promote ownership among staff, students, parents, and community members for school efforts and outcomes
• Provides focus and direction to ensure alignment of practices, programs, and initiatives with the school's vision, mission, and goals
• Creates a culture of collaboration in which staff members work together as a professional learning community to promote student learning
• Teaches, coaches, and supports the development of potential and current school leaders
• Utilizes available technology tools for school management and operation, fostering collaboration and communication to effectively address issues in the school community.

Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment

• Improves teaching, learning, and assessment by implementing practices, programs, and improvement efforts on the basis of multiple sources of data
• Leads efforts in curriculum alignment and identification of essential learnings at each level
• Observes, supervises, and evaluates teachers and instructional programs to maximize the learning opportunities for every teacher and for every student
• Teaches, coaches, and assists others in professional development that focuses on student learning
• Demonstrates knowledge of learning, teaching, assessment practices, research, and programs that maximize student performance
• Facilitates in developing and maintaining cocurricular programs that complement the curriculum while fostering students’ academic success
• Ensures that each student has the best possible chance of realizing success by providing a customized plan that takes into account the needs of individual learners in relation to learning time, setting, methods, and course sequence
• Leads in the use of available technology for management and delivery of instruction and assessment as well as the advancement of learning, invention, and creativity.

Personalization

• Establishes and maintains a school environment that reflects high expectations for students and staff
• Creates a school climate that is warm, inviting, safe, and secure
• Organizes the school so that all social, economic, and racial/ethnic groups have equal access to all school programs and provides the support needed for student success
• Creates structures that promote positive relationships between adults and students and ensure that each student is well-known by at least one staff member
• Understands the physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development of the students served by the school
• Acknowledges the accomplishments of students, teachers, and school community members
• Leads in the use of available technology to meet the unique learning needs of each student.