To help principals cultivate an engaged leadership style, Principal magazine is delivering a new resource that administrators can use to strengthen bonds, build professional culture, and put to work the new research, best practices, and leadership strategies that are the magazine’s hallmark.

Principal magazine is proud to present Leading Lessons, a series designed to help practitioners take their learning into action and develop stronger leadership teams. This turn-key tool can be used as a professional guide with assistant principals, teacher leaders, or an entire school staff.

 

Social-Emotional Learning in the Time of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic closed schools. Protests forced a painful reckoning with systemic racism while raising hope for meaningful change. Just when students needed self-regulation and empathy, they were separated from daily exposure to the tenets of social-emotional learning. This special issue takes a close look at how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted social-emotional learning in schools, and how principals have adapted grown as a result. Read more

 

Shared Leadership

The challenges of the past year have magnified the importance of effective school leadership. If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us one thing, it’s that unprecedented times call for unprecedented leadership skills. When our capacity to lead is challenged and we struggle for answers, it is good to go back to our roots and reset our approach to strategic thinking. Shared and distributive leadership practices offer school leaders a range of strategies to handle even the most perplexing issues. Use this guide with your staff as a starting point for developing or improving your shared leadership strategy. Read more

 

Literacy Leaders

When it comes to literacy instruction that fosters students’ word recognition and language comprehension skills, the need for strong organizational and instructional school leaders is greater than ever. Research shows that principals and other school leaders are integral to improving student achievement and retaining quality teachers. Effective school leaders use a continuous improvement process to evaluate, build, implement, and sustain evidence-based literacy practices. Read more

 

Advocating for Equity

When it comes to adapting to change, principals are experts. It’s a requirement for the job. But, for faculty and staff, accepting change can be difficult. It often breeds uncertainty, making it harder for them to get on board with new ideas and harder for principals to lead change. By tackling tough questions as a team, everyone in the school community—principals, assistant principals, teachers, and families alike—can become advocates for equity. Read more

 

Wraparound Services

March/April 2020

Meeting the needs of today’s students requires a paradigm shift in the traditional mindset; we can no longer think of schools as serving a singular purpose. In order to support our students’ social, emotional, and academic needs, schools must build partnerships with multiple stakeholders to ensure that students come to school ready to learn. Read more

 

Growing the Capacity of Assistant Principals

January/February 2020

In this guide sponsored by the Wallace Foundation, you’ll find out how to share leadership among teams to solve problems, how to exercise and encourage autonomy within a framework for improvement, and how to mine data for insights into student and school progress. At the same time, you’ll learn how to advance your personal and professional development while producing a powerful impact on your school. Read more

 

Shared Vision, Shared Success

November/December 2019

Great schools do more than promote academic achievement. They are places where communities of learners grow and flourish. Effective principals—and their support system of faculty and staff—play an essential role in helping students succeed. Read more

 

Empowered Partners in Learning

September/October 2019

For all children to be ready for college and their careers, they need a learning experience tailored to their unique needs, skills, and interests. Data is a critical tool that makes this personalized learning possible. When students, parents, and teachers are empowered with access to timely, useful, safeguarded data, there are so many ways to support students on their path to success. Read more

 

Start Off Strong

May/June 2019

Reviewing data, rules, and regulations is necessary, but it’s not the highest priority as teachers come back to school. Use this guide with your staff to plan special activities that provide motivation, engagement, and fun to start the year in a positive and uplifting manner. Read more

 

Managing People, Data, and Processes

March/April 2019

This Leading Lessons guide, brought to you in partnership with The Wallace Foundation, is designed to facilitate planning and discussion to effectively manage people, data, and processes. Read more

 

Collaborate to Align Learning

January/February 2019

Although it is often focused on teachers, the result of leadership teams working together can be equally as powerful. Use this guide to build collective efficacy—starting with your assistant principal. Read more

 

Social and Emotional Learning

November/December 2018

This Leading Lessons guide reviews social and emotional research, lists 25 leading SEL and character development programs, and provides strategies and reflection questions to be used with a leadership team. Read more

 

Creating a Climate for Change

September/October 2018

Whether you are embarking on a new initiative to improve parent engagement, prevent teacher burnout, or bolster student engagement through culturally responsive strategies, use this guide to create the kind of open dialogue that produces change. Read more