While city educators and "country" educators might argue whose hardships are greater, rural school leaders unquestionably recognize that their greatest challenge today is building, sustaining, and supporting a teacher corps so that schools can operate at high levels. Inattention to rural teachers' concerns in education reform arenas exacerbates…

Effective leaders must find ways to motivate their employees to provide maximum success for the organization. In today's world of high accountability, this ability is paramount to the success and survival of schools, and is an especially important skill for early career principals to master. Knowledge of the factors that might have contributed to…

Evaluating an unsatisfactory teacher is mentally and physically exhausting and might take months or even years to resolve. Commonly, the principal handling the unsatisfactory teacher evaluation will have his or her professional and personal conduct scrutinized. For that reason, principals must maintain professional boundaries by avoiding social…

Much has been written during the past decade about the changing role of the principal and the shift in emphasis from manager to instructional leader. Anyone in education, and especially principals themselves, could develop a mental list of responsibilities that fit within each of these realms. But research makes it clear that both those aspects of…

Teacher turnover plagues schools and fatigues principals everywhere: More than 40 percent of new teachers leave the profession within the first five years. This article presents a guide which offers practical recommendations to principals who are dedicated to retaining and developing new teachers. Brief facetious suggestions are given for…

Many schools are in some stage of implementing differentiated instruction, with some already in what Carol Tomlinson describes in "The Differentiated School" as "second order change," where the entire school practices differentiation. In high-performing schools, differentiation has proved to be an effective instructional strategy; in classroom…

The author's concern for how teachers nationwide are coping with unrelenting levels of stress is the topic of current research. A national sample of 1,200 teachers was asked to complete a survey addressing three areas: the sources of teacher stress; the manifestations of stress; and coping strategies they found most successful. Knowing the areas…

Teachers' level of confidence about ability to promote learning can depend on past experiences or on the school culture. Principals can help develop a sense of efficacy for individual teachers and for the entire school.

In this article, the author clarifies why his use of the term "my teachers" in a lunch meeting--a term that is open to interpretation and one that principals should use with great care--had given him a nagging feeling. When a student says "my teacher," there is a clear meaning. The student is literally referring to his or her teacher, usually with…

As the demands on school leaders expand, it's becoming more and more important to lead from one's strengths. The authors' review of literature on essential school leadership responsibilities led them to write "Differentiated School Leadership: Effective Collaboration, Communication and Change through Personality Type," which revealed 26 separate…

Schools and districts routinely recruit, retain, and support highly qualified teachers to ensure that students receive the best learning opportunities. However, even if one's school employs highly qualified full-time teachers, it is important to acknowledge that substitute teachers also have a significant impact on the education of students. One…

"What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future" by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future tells that teacher quality is the single most important factor in determining student achievement, so principals are wise to put their efforts into improving teaching in their schools. However, principals do not need to take on…

When principals travel down the road of change, they often find potholes of resistance, many resulting from misconceptions about the process. In this article, the author debunks five myths about change: (1) Change is always the answer; (2) The destination is more important than the journey; (3) Change depends on the principal's leadership; (4)…

A principal may have implemented a program that boasted glowing reports but didn't live up to its promise. The cause of this disparity could be that the program didn't match the school's and students' needs in terms of the curricular focus or that previous results were more positive than warranted. However, another possibility could be that the…

Serving as a new principal is not only demanding, it can also be a lonely job. But successful leadership doesn't happen in a vacuum, and principals need to know from their peers best practices about everything from focusing on instruction to planning fire drills. With this in mind, "Principal" magazine created a virtual roundtable--between…