New Handbook Identifies "What Principals Should Know and Be Able to Do"

NAESP is moving the principalship into a new era with the publication of Leading Learning Communities: Standards for What Principals Should Know and Be Able to Do. This new book takes a fresh look at the role of the school leader by addressing the need to focus on instructional leadership while balancing management responsibilities. It identifies a ten-point call to action and urges the support of policymakers. It also offers the latest findings from research and practitioners, along with an extensive bibliography and supportive information. Included: How to get a copy of this new publication!

Recognizing the ever-expanding responsibilities that school principals have in overseeing everything from student achievement to staff development, the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) recently released a groundbreaking publication that details principals' individual responsibilities in today's educational environment.

Another New Pub from NAESP Last month, the NAESP released another new publication, Data-Based Decision-Making. This commonsense guide is designed to help educators master the complex task of understanding -- and using -- the wealth of data they collect on student achievement. The 92-page book, the fifth in NAESP's Essentials for Principals series, outlines the "big picture" of testing. It describes how schools can create the kinds of conditions to allow for proper data use, how to link to state standards, how to use technology to its fullest, and even how to communicate with the community about the purposes of assessment. Learn more about this new publication at the National Principals Resource Center.

Leading Learning Communities: Standards for What Principals Should Know and Be Able To Do is a comprehensive handbook designed to guide elementary- and middle-level principals in crafting their responsibilities in key instructional areas. Those areas include the following:

• setting school goals and standards,
• improving student performance,
• providing meaningful professional development for faculty and staff,
• effectively using data and testing tools, and
• engaging the local community.

"Leading Learning Communities provides a collective voice for the nation's principals, offering a realistic view of the challenges and opportunities they face," said Vincent Ferrandino, NAESP's executive director. "Today's principals are still responsible for buses and fire drills, but they are also a key foundation in student performance and school achievement. This book redefines the principal -- as both school manager and instructional leader."

Leading Learning Communities also issues a call to action, describing ten ways for school districts, states, and the federal government to offer improved support for school principals. NAESP calls on policymakers to improve working conditions in the schools; provide the support, funds, and flexibility for alternative leadership arrangements; demand greater accountability within established frameworks; and recognize and reward principals through a national certification process.

"Throughout the nation, principals are redefining their profession and re-creating their roles and responsibilities within it," said Darrell Rud, NAESP president, who chaired the writing committee for the document. "Regardless of location, racial, or socio-economic demographics, communities demand that principals lead the instructional and academic performance in their schools. Leading Learning Communities provides principals with a method to identify the new thinking and behaviors they need to meet this challenge," said Rud, who serves as principal of Newman Elementary School in Billings, Montana.

The guide identifies six standards that redefine instructional leadership for today's principals:

• Leading schools in a way that puts student and adult learning at the center. In addition, principals serve as lead learner and teacher.
• Promoting the academic success of all students by setting high expectations and high standards and organizing the school environment around school achievement.
• Creating and demanding rigorous content and instruction that ensures student progress toward agreed-upon academic standards.
• Creating a climate of continuous learning for adults that is tied to student learning.
• Using multiple sources of data as a diagnostic tool to assess, identify, and apply instructional improvement.
• Actively engaging the community to create shared responsibility for student and school success.

Leading Learning Communities is being distributed free to all NAESP members, as well as to federal and state policymakers, leaders in the education community, and others involved in the recruitment and development of principals. Written for today's school leaders, the handbook identifies indicators of quality in schools, offers strategies to improve principal performance, provides self-assessments, and highlights key research and case studies directly related to its six standards.

Designed as "a guide for those who care about creating and supporting quality in schools," NAESP's latest publication, written in partnership with Collaborative Communications Group, of Washington, D.C., builds upon the success of two previous NAESP publications -- Standards for Quality Elementary and Middle Schools and Proficiencies for Principals, which together served as the foundation for defining the profession. Leading Learning Communities links those standards and proficiencies, offering a complete picture of today's school leader.

Copies of Leading Learning Communities are available for sale by calling 800-386-2377 or in the National Principals Resource Center.

Article by Gary Hopkins
Education World®
Copyright © 2006 Education World

11/02/1998

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