School Leadership

School districts and states must work together to recruit and keep great principals

Like any organization, the boss matters. The same goes for a school building. An excellent principal can have significant impact on teachers and school-wide student achievement. Because of this, school districts should prioritize recruiting and keeping great principals.

Stand works with school districts to:

Adopt a strategic, comprehensive approach for talent management for principals of schools that includes early career training and support;
Offer strong career development;
Advocate for a fair evaluation system tied to student achievement;
Push for ongoing professional development that meets a principal’s individual needs;
Create a fair compensation and incentives system to retain the best and brightest principals; and
Adopt high standards for great principals.

Beyond this, principals need the freedom and autonomy to do their job well, in areas such as staffing, budgeting, professional development, instruction, curriculum, and scheduling. Lastly, the school district should create a transparent process for holding itself accountable to its plan to recruit, develop, and support effective principals.