A principal's effectiveness impacts both teachers and students. Effective principals improve the retention of effective teachers and the outcomes of students. Although all schools can benefit from an effective school principal, there is an emergent need for schools that are chronically low-performing. As states look for ways to turn around low-performing schools and improve the overall quality of education, attention should be paid to reforming the way principals are prepared, trained, and evaluated. Governors can lead efforts to redesign state policies that govern how principals are prepared, licensed, and evaluated. Specifically, they can: (1) Reform state regulations to require at least the annual evaluation of principals to assess and monitor their effectiveness; and (2) Use the state's accreditation and licensure authority to ensure that principal preparation programs make the admission process more rigorous, redesign the program curriculum, create stronger clinical experiences, use data to drive improvements in preparation programs, require partnerships between preparation programs and school districts, and create a tiered licensure structure for school principals. (Contains 1 table and 48 notes.)