It’s almost trite to declare that principals can’t do their job alone. As leadership expectations become more immediate and more complicated, a team of leaders becomes an even more urgent condition for the success and well-being of each student and adult in a school.
This month, we honor those team leaders. NASSP, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, and the American Federation of School Administrators have declared the week of April 8–12, 2019, National Assistant Principals Week to highlight the many contributions assistant principals (APs) make to building the future we all share. Principals and other community members can send APs an e-card to commemorate the week at www.nassp.org/apweek, which comes with a special AP Week gift. And APs are invited to participate in a special edition of #APchat on Twitter on Sunday, April 7 at 8:00 p.m. (ET), and to join the weeklong conversation at #APweek19 on Twitter and Instagram.
While schools celebrate locally, NASSP will continue to examine the nationwide role of APs both in school success and in the principal pipeline. NASSP recently launched a research partnership with the Learning Policy Institute (LPI), led by Linda Darling-Hammond, to study principal attrition with an eye on reinforcing leadership continuity in schools. We know from more than a decade of Wallace Foundation research that APs are essential to filling the principal pipeline, and numerous districts have leveraged the research to maintain a steady stream of qualified candidates. Inevitably, though, this new research will determine whether the leadership experiences APs receive correlate with their longevity as principals. The NASSP/LPI research has the potential to refine the AP’s role, and we look forward to sharing our findings later this year.
Meanwhile, APs, please accept NASSP’s thanks for all the great work you do. Know that we see you, we value you, and we know your school would be lesser without you. Happy AP Week!
JoAnn Bartoletti
Executive Director, NASSP