Opinion
School & District Management Opinion

What Keeps Principals Up at Night?

By Deborah Jewell-Sherman — November 10, 2015 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

A little known fact to many outside the K-12 education space is how often America’s public school principals have their sleep interrupted by the day’s burning issues, unresolved challenges, and persistent worries about the needs of their students and school communities. Over the past two decades, the responsibilities placed upon principals have grown, and yet their role has never been more vital to our students’ future and that of our nation. One of the questions that nag all school leaders is whether our nation and its schools can meet the current national challenge of providing all students with the skills they will need to thrive in our rapidly changing economy and society. Principals know the proverbial buck stops in large measure at their school doors.

BRIC ARCHIVE

The good news is that there’s been a seismic shift away from the federal mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act to a more local push for deeper learning. College, career, and civic readiness have replaced traditional reading and math instruction as the focal point of classroom learning in many schools. That’s good news.

BRIC ARCHIVE

Education Week Commentary invited school leaders from across the country to write about their biggest professional challenges and how they manage them. The package also includes audio slideshows, in which each of the four principals discusses what he or she would most like policymakers to know about the job.

This special section is supported by a grant from The Wallace Foundation. Education Week retained sole editorial control over the content of this package; the opinions expressed are the authors’ own, however.

Read more from the package.

From my vantage point, NCLB did one good thing, if nothing else: It reminded us that all students means all. If we salvage nothing else from that well-meaning and ill-executed piece of legislation, it is that principals have an educational and moral responsibility to reach, teach, support, promote, and believe in the potential of every child under their collective and individual watch.

We have engaged over the last four decades in a war of words and actions depicting deeply held beliefs, wide chasms in practice, and a great deal of finger-pointing coupled with blaming and shaming. Are more-rigorous standards the answer? Are charters the panacea? Should we ratchet up accountability, provide vouchers, change school structures and school levels, or should we change governance? Should we accept that America’s public education is the Titanic, and we need to save all that we can, while accepting that this will leave out many, most especially our low-income students, English-language learners, and students of color?

There’s an African proverb that reads, “When the elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled.” Guess who the elephants are?

Today’s principals know all too well that to continue the education wars while holding fast to ideological perspectives, without acknowledging the strengths and limitations of each one, will keep us trampling on the hopes and dreams of children and families—all of whom are praying that we will do what is necessary to secure their future.

Our nation’s principals are called upon to stand in the breach to make meaning of unaligned research, policies, and practices. Using wisdom, demonstrating compassion, and acting courageously on behalf of marginalized students and communities are the hallmarks of the best of our school leaders.

While we focus on ensuring that our students are ready to embrace the challenges of this century, let’s also remember what No Child Left Behind demanded: We must make sure that all students are prepared. Together, we must support school leadership to help them move their schools and communities to a place of inclusivity and respect for every child.

Coverage of leadership, expanded learning time, and arts learning is supported in part by a grant from The Wallace Foundation, at www.wallacefoundation.org. Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.
A version of this article appeared in the November 11, 2015 edition of Education Week as How Do We Keep Good Principals?

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School & District Management Advocacy or Electioneering? Education Leaders Walk Fine Line in School Voucher Debate
Texas is cracking down on district leaders' allegedly political speech—in what others see as a pretext for quashing anti-voucher sentiment.
5 min read
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton walks away after announcing Texas' lawsuit to challenge President Obama's transgender bathroom order during a news conference in Austin, Texas, on May 25, 2016.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton walks away following a news conference in Austin, Texas, on May 25, 2016. Paxton recently sued several Texas school districts for allegedly engaging in electioneering before the March 5 primaries.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP
School & District Management Q&A Prop Up the Principal, But Do It In Your Own Way: An Assistant Principal’s Advice to His Peers
Charles Longshore is both a coach and confidante to his teachers and students—all to support his principal’s larger vision for the school.
6 min read
Charles Longshore, the assistant principal at Dothan Preparatory Academy in Dothan, Ala., interacts with students.
Charles Longshore, the assistant principal at Dothan Preparatory Academy in Dothan, Ala., observes a student's project.
Courtesy photo
School & District Management It's Not Just Snow Days: How Can Districts Work Extreme Weather Into Their Calendars?
Extreme weather that's becoming more frequent is challenging districts with novel choices about when it's safe to stay open.
5 min read
Concept of counting down days. Hand is marking out dates on monthly calendar.
iStock / Getty Images Plus