This school year has presented more challenges than ever before. As leaders, we are charged with keeping it all together at the schoolhouse—while at the same time, as individuals, we are in need of support and self-care due to the uncertainty and unrest that surround us. How, with all that we have going on this […]
Category: Principal Expert of the Week
How Core Values Shape Our School Culture and Ultimately Influence Student Success
Reframing the Middle Level Conversation on Postsecondary Readiness
We are firmly within the 21st century, yet we still use phrases such as “21st-century skills” and “college and career readiness.” As leaders, it is high time that we refocus our vernacular to reframe the conversation around how we prepare students for the world. We have seen many examples of professional learning and topics related […]
Note Cards: A 3×5 Teachable Moment
Some things go with the territory of being a teacher: sticky notes, colored pens, and the preferred brand of stapler. Those of us who have been teachers could effortlessly rattle off the list of things we need to make our systems run. One of my must-haves as a teacher was the standard 3 1/2 by […]
Heeding Early Warning Signs to Keep Students on Track for Graduation
As we make our way through these unprecedented COVID times, it is all the more important to keep kids on the path to graduation as best we can. We’ve seen and heard the horror stories of students losing credits, failing classes, and falling behind while in quarantine last spring. Whether it be the format, lack […]
Principals and the Pandemic
NASSP President Robert Motley recently called one of his students to see why he wasn’t logging into synchronous online classes at his Maryland high school. The student’s reply? He had to take a job at a shipping company to help support his family.
In 2020, We Are All First-Year Principals
As we celebrate National Principals Month during this unusual school year, there’s one thing all 90,000-plus of us have in common: Given the continuing challenges our schools and communities face, we often feel like first-year principals. And that’s okay! Even the most seasoned among us are learning at an incredible pace about the best ways […]
‘The State of American Education’
Kathryn Procope, head of school at the Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science in Washington, D.C., has been focused on “digital poverty”—what’s now commonly referred to as the “digital divide”—since 2005. “We have always sent devices home with students,” said Procope, a 2020 NASSP Digital Principal of the Year. Even so, the challenges […]
Reconsidering Ability Grouping Through an Equity Lens
I have worked in public education for 20 years. I entered the profession because a freshman sociology class in college introduced me to the idea that there were two institutions that impacted socioeconomic mobility—the military and education. The end of segregation in America’s public schools in 1954 is considered a landmark case. But given the […]
Sea Glass and Hope: Reflections for the Year to Come
There’s always that one teacher—the one whose content they taught pales compared to the lessons you learned from them. One of my favorite teachers growing up was the art teacher in my hometown. I say “the” art teacher because, as with many small midwestern towns, the teacher is there the entire time we are in […]
Finding Your Why Before Your Way: Setting Vision and Creating Missions
Hey there, remember me? Honestly, I don’t fully recognize myself right now either. What a marathon we’ve been through. From flipping how we teach and lead, to navigating conversations and learning around racial equity and social justice, there has been a lot to do, a lot to reflect on—and truthfully, more to come. This summer, […]