The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) named Courtney Walker, assistant principal of Carrollton High School in Carrollton, GA, the 2024 NASSP National Assistant Principal of the Year. The announcement comes during NASSP’s annual celebration of Assistant Principals Week.

Every year before school begins at First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach, VA, we review our school improvement plan, including elements like on-time graduation rate, numeracy and literacy scores, and chronic absenteeism. As with many schools, since the pandemic, our chronic absenteeism rate has steadily increased, and we are also combatting a significant increase in mental, social, and emotional health issues in our school.

President Biden signed the final Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations legislation into law, narrowly averting a government shutdown. After a year of debate, Republicans and Democrats in Congress finally reached a compromise to fund the K-12 education programs we care deeply about and fiercely advocate for along with the rest of the federal government. And it’s good news for schools — almost all K-12 programs are receiving at least level-funding from FY2023, and some are receiving small increases.

On the final day of the National School Leaders Advocacy Conference, the nearly 400 NASSP and NAESP school leaders who attended the gathering in Washington, D.C, headed to Capitol Hill for a full day of meetings with their elected representatives. That included 10 school leaders from Alabama, who met with lawmakers and staff from every member of the state’s congressional delegation: two senators and seven representatives.

Elevate your leadership at UNITED, July 15-17. Engage with peers, gain insights, and build your case to attend.

April 22–26 is National Student Leadership Week 2024 (NSLW). This year’s theme is ‘Level Up,’ and the NSLW website is packed with resources from e-cards to celebration ideas that make it easy for you and your school to promote student leadership. Take a look and make this week a truly memorable experience for your student leaders.