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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Improving Schools: Principal Leadership — Whole Child Education

Improving Schools: Principal Leadership — Whole Child Education:


Sean Slade

Improving Schools: Principal Leadership

The role of the prinicpal is many things to many people. Maybe we need a name change?
  • Principal? This adds weight to the role of key decisionmaker.
  • Head teacher or headmaster? It certainly echoes the need for the "head" of the school to be an overseer of instruction.
  • CEO? Some would agree, but are our schools mini-businesses? Or rather do we want them to be?
Add variations of these terms into the mix—principal teacherhead of schooldirector—and it can get confusing. Should we take Tom Hoerr's lead and redefine the position as something like relationship czar.
"[T]he debate over how student and school progress can be measured, the issue of teachers as artists, and the visible and vulnerable nature of the role of