Schools and districts across the country are being subjected to some of the fiercest budget cuts in recent history, even as principals are held increasingly accountable for significantly improving student achievement, particularly in schools labeled "persistently low-achieving." For the 5,000 lowest-performing schools, there is the…

Becoming a principal is a milestone in an educator's professional life. The principalship is an opportunity to provide leadership that will afford students opportunities to thrive in a nurturing and supportive environment. Despite the continuously expanding demands of being a new principal, effective time management will enable an individual to be…

There are two ways to avoid time-crunch panic attacks: work smarter and delegate wisely. In this article, the author provides a list of some strategies and tactics he has used to help more than 500 school executives in North Carolina work smarter, delegate more effectively and become more effective instructional leaders. These strategies fall into…

In order to improve what happens in classrooms, a considerable amount of work needs to take place between teachers and principals. This can only happen if campus leaders make dramatic shifts in how and where they spend their daily time. Principals can have a greater impact on teaching and learning by transforming their work one day at a time. The…

How can a dedicated principal work really, really hard but fail to get significant gains in student achievement? The answer is obvious: by spending too much time on the wrong things and not enough on the right things. The principal's number-one priority is zeroing in on the highest-priority activities for bringing all students to high levels of…

The demands of the principalship today are keeping good people away. They do not want to deal with the demands on their time, the drive for great test scores, hovering parents, neglectful parents, teachers' needs, and the political hot spot that some schools have become in their communities. They do not see current principals finding balance and…

In this article, Fr. Carl Markelz and Harold Maldonado, two veteran inner-city principals, share how they have learned to use their time more efficiently. Fr. Markelz is the principal of Mount Carmel High School, a 900-student, all-male, parochial school in an area of Chicago, Illinois, that is experiencing regentrification. Maldonado is the…

School leaders will never have an easy job, especially those who sit in the principal's chair. Yet identifying site needs, establishing priorities, and devoting the bulk of one's time to these priorities enables principals to more effectively take control of their day. It can be hard to deal with what is important instead of what is urgent, but…

In this article, the author discusses three steps that will help administrators build a system that allows them to bring balance back into their life. The first step is to create a picture of how things could be, because real change always comes from the inside. The second step is adjusting their attitude. Controlling their attitude is as…

With the demands of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the focus of the principal's role is providing instructional leadership in the school. However, one of the first things a school community expects from the principal is that management issues--particularly for special events that occur every year--are successfully administered and organized.…

After all of the theories, strategies, discussions, and classes are completed, new principals often still feel isolated and think they have to reinvent the wheel to learn the basic lessons of leadership--how to improve school climate, how to provide leadership for change, how to communicate effectively, and how to manage time. However, they do not…

When a new principal was hired at Gallup Junior High School in northwest New Mexico, he saw redesigning the administrative team as an important opportunity to develop leadership skills in his assistants and groom them for eventual advancement. His changes also provide cross training, so no single individual controls an essential function of the…

The author conducted a study of reasons why novice teachers become disenchanted with the administrative support in their schools. Using the ideas of Rosenholtz and Simpson (1990) as a basis for his research, the author designed and administered a survey to 53 novice teachers and 15 building principals regarding the factors that influence novice…