This article presents an interview with Melissa Shindel, assistant principal of Patuxent Valley Middle School in Jessup, Maryland, and 2009 NASSP/Virco National Assistant Principal of the Year. In this interview, Shindel shares her philosophy and experience.

One of the core areas of the "Breaking Ranks" framework is personalization. Although principals most often, as they should, think that personalization means personalizing the environment for students, principals also need to consider adults in the building and ask themselves, "What am I doing as a school leader to build a culture of appreciation…

This article presents an interview with Ray Landers, the 2009 MetLife NASSP Middle Level Principal of the Year. Landers talks about how he and his staff members put programs in place to erase poverty gap at his school. He stresses the need to make sure that principals empower teachers so that collaborative decision making can take place.

Upon arriving at his newly assigned school as a principal of Visitacion Valley Middle School, Jim Dierke discovered that his office was furnished with only a card table and a folding chair. The school is located in a high-crime, high-poverty area on the southeast side of San Francisco. When Dierke arrived, the expectation for student success was…