Along with its annual list of “America’s Best High Schools,” Newsweek explores the role of the principal in making a school great.
Principals “set the tone for what happens from the moment the opening bell rings and can turn a troubled school around with a combination of vision, drive and very hard work. It’s a 24/7 job,” Barbara Kantrowitz and Jay Mathews write in the magazine’s May 28 issue.
The woman named the 2007 Principal of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals tells Newsweek that running a school takes energy, leadership skills and an ability to understand teenagers. “The principal has to be someone who really loves kids and understands what it takes to motivate teachers to change every child’s life,” says Jill Martin, the award-winning principal of Doherty High School in Colorado Springs, Colo.