The Principal: The Person and the Profession

Beginning with a pessimistic picture of the myriad challenges facing a prospective school administrator in the current complex instructional climate, this chapter deals chiefly with the structure of character, knowledge, and capability that a principal must have in order to be effective in his or her job. It is fundamental for a would-be principal to recognize that a principal's real operational duties rarely coincide with an official job description because the personalities and issues relevant to running a particular school--and balancing duties with interested outside institutions--develop a life of their own with which the principal is forced to cope. Even so, a principal must factor into his or her daily role a foundational knowledge of institutional as well as theoretical protocols that have grown up around the profession. The implication is that only with a knowledge-base foundation and the benefit of research and theoretical guidelines that have emerged, particularly in recent years, can a principal attack a given job on an informed basis.

As with other chapters throughout the text, this one places some faith in established expert systems, particularly organizations that offer professional-development help and support, notably the Association of School Business Officials, National Association of Elementary School Principals, and Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium. The purpose of supplying contact informatio

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scipline is at the forefront of concern (p. 411ff). There is something of an assumption that discipline will be a challenge, that such issues as avoidance of responsibility and stretching the limits of socially acceptable behavior are present in every school organization, particularly the middle grades. However, academics also come into play, not only in terms of subject matter but also in terms of the social features of instruction, such as the perception of students that they are being treated fairly by teachers, the institution, and the very instructional programs. Identity politics such as gender identification can be as prominent as the vagaries of academic standards and standardized-test procedures, which have obtained prominence along with cultural politics. Indeed, the stakes of giving standardized tests have risen and become more and more politicized in recent years. As for dealing with teachers, aside from evaluating the instructional competence of teaching staff there are issues of employee relations, such as collective bargaining, creating and managing contracts, and discipline of teachers (pp. 428-431). What such matters seem to come down to, whether they deal with initial contract negotiations or supervising the pr
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Peter Senge, Performance Chapter, Licensure Consortium, Communities Chapter, Task Pairing, Profession Beginning, NASSP's Internet, Basis Action, Latin America, Research Association, chapter 8, school principals, chapter 6, national association, chapter 13, chapter 4, retrieved 1 2005, 1 2005, internet sites, retrieved 1, 6 leadership, american educational research, educational research association, secondary school principals, 3 school communities,
Approximate Word count = 2442
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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