Standards for What Principals Should Know and Be Able To Do

Standards for What Principals Should Know and Be Able To Do - An NAESP paper from the USA.

"Although long seen as essential forces in school change, principals have largely been absent from conversations defining their own role as school leaders. For years we’ve had standards for students, but principals’ pivotal role in academic progress has for the most part been overlooked. In Leading Learning Communities, principals themselves identify six characteristics of instructional leadership that outline what their role in school improvement can and should be.

The National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) believes that we cannot have first-rate schools without first-rate school leadership. Regardless of how charismatic or personable a school leader is, or how effective a manager, a principal is not going to improve academic achievement for all students unless she engages in her work differently. After a yearlong collaborative process with principals, we present these six standards for principal leadership.

The standards are directly related to the indicators of quality in schools. Influenced by the academic standards movement — which demands a sharpened focus on equity and instruction — school leaders are thinking anew about how to define "quality" in schools and how to create and manage environments that support it. Academic standards indeed are driving new thinking about student and adult learning. This in turn is forcing us to rethink not principal’s role as leader but also the principal as manager. Everything a principal does in school, whether observing instruction or ordering materials, must be focused on ensuring the learning of students and adults.

As professionals, principals welcome new kinds of accountability. But with that accountability must be the policies, resources and supports to do the job well. We call on policymakers to support principals in efforts to improve their practice and their profession. Specifically, we encourage you to pay particular attention to the section, "What Principals Need To Improve Student Achievement" (page 4). This is NAESP’s call to action to policymakers and community leaders, describing 10 specific ways to support school leaders in their efforts to ensure the achievement of all students.

Clearly, we don’t have all the answers. But we do have some. And we’re committed to helping school leaders improve outcomes for all students. We welcome your support in our efforts.

Dr. Vincent Ferrandino is the executive director of the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP)."