Legislators, school boards, and district administrators proposing more changes affecting schools and the principal's role should realize that many principals have little capacity to assume additional duties. Time constraints and external priorities are converting principals from instructional leaders to managers, while increasing their role's…

Although most principals and superintendents must be awarded annual or multiyear employment contracts by their school districts, such contracts offer little protection from reassignment to a lesser position or even from dismissal. Inadequate remedies for breach of employment contracts subject school administrators to working solely at their…

A study of two new middle schools demonstrates that reform is difficult to achieve unless teachers are expert in their work, share their expertise, and seek and create new knowledge to support their work. Leading from the center, school leaders figure significantly in expanding learning and developing community even in "teacher-run"…

Following a 35-year history of a Milwaukee high school's reform efforts, coauthor Nancy Connors, the new principal, unfolds her vision for this dynamic, predominantly black institution. She believes strongly in instructional improvement; participative management; facilitative leadership and teaching styles; and a caring, student-centered…

The "ideal" principal is facing a world of decentralized school structures, increasing and changing environmental boundaries and roles, less homogeneous schools, closer contact with stakeholders, and a market-driven view of education. Principals should view themselves as environmental negotiators, not merely school-system managers.…