By Nancy Foote
Principal, March/April 2016

By Sylvia Zircher
Principal, March/April 2016

By James Dillon
Principal, March/April 2016

When it comes to assessing bullying in schools, appearances are deceiving and impressions are misleading. What school staff see and feel does not equate to what students experience. When school leaders obtain and share accurate data on bullying and school climate, they shine a clear light on the discrepancy between the adult world and the student world that co-exist in the same environment.

By Kaylen Tucker
Principal, March/April 2016

Take steps to enrich the voice of your vocal and not-so-vocal teachers.

Effective data system implementation is as much about leadership as it is about technology.

Emotional intelligence pioneer Daniel Goleman weighs in on how education leaders can use the techniques to improve schools.

Five steps to help teachers reach the delicate balance of blended instruction.

Schoolwide collaboration and commitment leads to successfully integrating the arts.

Flexible makerspaces teach students to take risks, inspiring a deeper form of learning.

Special education and general education teachers teamed up to implement Marzano’s proficiency scales and improve student skills.

We have no shortage of ideas for improving instruction. The challenge is finding the right ideas, validating them, and taking them school- or system-wide.

By Perry A. Zirkel
Principal, January/February 2016

By Sherry A. Watts
Principal, January/February 2016

Until recently, a school did not have to concern itself with a marketing campaign or marketing budget. Most schools have a zone that typically ensures enrollment. However, as school choice comes into play and families have more options available to them, school marketing is becoming more common. Most schools do not have a marketing budget to draw from. So, what exactly can schools do to market themselves?

By Tracy Williams
Principal, January/February 2016

Staff at W.G. Mallett School in Farmington, Maine, know that the early school-age years—from ages 4 to 8—are a key period of time for brain development and acquiring the foundation of literacy and math. As a pre-K-2 school, it’s a priority for us to “grow” young readers.

By Wendy Crawford
Principal, January/February 2016

When I first became a principal 21 years ago, one of the first trainings I attended was on observation. It involved scripting a lesson. We were taught that you could only comment on what you actually saw during the observation and that any commendations or recommendations at the bottom of the form had to relate directly to the script portion at the top of the document.

By Carole Meyer
Principal, January/February 2016

In almost every middle school, there are students who struggle despite repeated intervention. In 2012-2013, 328 of the 736 students at Salk Middle School in Spokane, Washington, scored at Level 1 (below basic) or Level 2 (basic) on the state reading test. That means that 44 percent of our student body was not proficient in reading.

By Angèle Sancho Passe
Principal, January/February 2016

By Mary C. Clement
Principal, January/February 2016

When a lesson does not go well, a lack of planning is generally at the root of the problem. Teacher education students are required to write extensive, multipage lesson plans, but yet they admit that once they have their own classrooms, this type of planning is impossible to complete. Due to time constraints, both new and veteran teachers may resort to “survival” or limited planning.

Principals and teachers should work as a team to assist teacher candidates working in their schools.