(Vol. 1, No. 2 - Spring/Summer 1997)
Principals' work is
"more ambitious and more ambiguous"
"The work of urban school principals is becoming more ambitious and
more ambiguous. What counts as good curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment
is distinctly different than what counted as good 10 years ago....
"Contemporary principals are expected to create a shared vision, foster
collaborative and team relationships among staff members, allocate resources,
provide the information teachers need to be successful with youngsters,
and promote teacher development....
"Principals trained to be managers are now expected to be leaders in
the context of school reform and district decentralization. Yet this rhetoric
about principals' importance is often unaccompanied by much attention to
either what new knowledge and skill they need or to how they will learn
what they need to know in order to fulfill their roles and forward today's
complex reform agenda."
-- From an article in Urban Education magazine
by Barbara Neufeld, an evaluator for the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation,
who has studied middle school reform in several urban school systems, including
Louisville.