The Principal Challenge: Leading and Managing Schools in an Era of Accountability

This work is a blueprint for developing tomorrow's school leaders. Based on two years of research supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Broad Foundation, and the New Schools Venture Fund, "The Principal Challenge" focuses directly on the causes and cures of the crisis in school leadership. Marc Tucker, Judy Codding, and a stellar list of experts from the United States and abroad paint a revealing portrait of what it means to be a principal now, how and why most graduate schools of education have failed to provide the training principals need, what the military and business sectors do to create and support their leaders and managers, what the state of the art in professional training looks like, what other nations are doing to address this problem, and how to apply the very best practices in the world to solve the crisis in school leadership. This book is honest and hard hitting. And it offers realistic solutions. Based on the thorough analysis provided by the chapter authors, the editors of "The Principal Challenge" offer an imaginative proposal for a new kind of institution that will train school principals to be turn around artists. Drawing on the new forms of executive development programs in our business schools, they propose a similar program for school principals. The approach involves a close collaboration between the new institution and entire school districts, combining face to face instruction with web based delivery. The innovative curriculum they describe, like the best approaches in business and industry, uses carefully developed cases, simulations, games, action projects, seminars and journaling, The editors offer a clear conception of what it might mean to be an instructional leader, a way of thinking about what it takes for a principal to be a strategic thinker, an approach that principals can use to take advantage of the best current thinking on knowledge management and professional development, a conception of the principal as school designer, an emphasis on the use of data to drive planning, and a host of tested ideas that principals can use to lead their schools to better results.

Table of Contents:
Preface.Acknowledgments.The Editors.The Contributors.1. Preparing Principals in the Age of Accountability (Marc S. Tucker, Judy B. Codding).Part One: Roles of the Principal.2. What Principals Need to Know About Teaching and Learning (Peter W. Hill).3. The Principal as Moral Leader (Thomas Sobol).Part Two: Best Practices in the T raining of Leaders, Managers, and Other Professionals in Business, the Military, and Beyond.4. Best Practices in Leadership Development: Lessons from the Best Business Schools and Corporate Universities (Marie Eiter).5. Professional Military Education: A Serious Enterprise for Leaders (Robert C. Hughes, Richard Haney).6. Models of Preparation for the Professions: Implications for Educational Leadership (Gary Sykes with Cheryl King and Jeannie Patrick).Part Three: An International Perspective.7. Mission Possible? An International Analysis of Training for Principals (Brian J. Caldwell, Gerard T . Calnin, Wendy P. Cahill).Part Four: A Current Situation Report: Preparing School Principals in the United States.8. The Work of P rincipals and Their P reparation: Addressing Critical Needs for the Twenty-First Century (Carolyn Kelley, Kent D. Peterson).9. Principal In-Service Programs: A Portrait of Diversity and Promise (Kent D. Peterson, Carolyn Kelley).10. Associations and the Principalship: A History of Advocacy, a Horizon of Opportunity (Gerald N. Tirozzi).Appendix A: The National Institute for School Leadership: Design for a New Institution to Train School Leaders.Appendix B: People Consulted in the Design of the National Institute for School Leadership.Index.

About the Author :
Marc S. Tucker is president of the National Center on Education and the Economy. A leader of the national standards movement, he is coauthor of the prize-winning book Thinking for a Living and Standards for Our Schools. Judy B. Codding is an award-winning former high school principal. She is now vice president of programs for the National Center on Education and the Economy and coauthor with Tucker of Standards for Our School.

Review :
"The strategies in this book come down to one simple piece of advice: offer better preparation for the future leaders of our schools." (American School Board Journal, 4/03)