Stop Ignoring The Leaders Who Can Transform High Schools

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Amid growing calls for redefining the high school experience, there’s a critical missing link that is often overlooked: principals and assistant principals. Despite their influence over how time is used, which courses are offered, how teachers and counselors collaborate, and which business and college partners can engage with students, most school administrators simply aren’t trained, supported or held accountable for transforming their high schools.

Their preparation and evaluation focuses disproportionately on compliance and core academics, not on whether students graduate ready for what comes next. The result is a system that sidelines the very leaders who could drive change. School-level leaders should be the chief architects of high school redesign and high-quality pathways, connecting what students learn in classrooms with the real skills, experiences and credentials they’ll need after graduation.

Decades of research confirm what common sense suggests: Effective principals and assistant principals drive student success. The Wallace Foundation has shown that principals are second only to teachers on their impact on student learning. recent work from the UChicago Consortium on School Research finds strong school leaders affect not only high school achievement but also students’ college enrollment and persistence.

These findings are especially relevant now as educators and policymakers across the country rethink the purpose and structure of high school. New efforts from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teachingthe National Governors Associationand others aim to align education with the demands of today’s economy — emphasizing skills, credentials, and experiences that prepare students for college, career and adult life. But these initiatives will falter if the people responsible for running high schools aren’t prepared.

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Despite the key role they play, principals rarely receive the training or guidance needed to lead this kind of redesign and must simultaneously manage competing district priorities. Surveys of district leaders consistently rank math and reading scores, chronic absenteeism and teacher recruitment as top concerns, while expanding access to career and technical education or dual enrollment programs ranks near the bottom.

The message seems to be that academic recovery matters, but preparing students for life after graduation is optional. As a result, high school redesign efforts often sit on the margins, disconnected from the day-to-day work of teaching and learning. Principals, pressed by urgent academic demands, lack the time, resources, or cover to connect those priorities with students’ long-term goals.

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If states and districts want high school redesign to succeed, they need to put principals and assistant principals at the center of those efforts. This means aligning preparation, expectations, and accountability around the idea that postsecondary readiness is not a separate responsibility but a core part of the work of principals and assistant principals.

First, it’s important to break down the silos separating high school redesign from broader school improvement priorities. Postsecondary readinessisschool improvement. Focusing on instructional achievement isn’t mutually exclusive with improving career-connected learning or access to accelerated coursework.

Matt Gandal, President of Education Strategy Group recently wrote“If we want to change the trajectory of student performance in high school, we have to do to inspire them — including showing them the connection between what they’re learning in school and their future goals.” Vermont has developed a Comprehensive Needs Assessment framework that shows how this is possible by including mechanisms to help principals and assistant principals plan for increasing access to advanced coursework.

Second, pathway planning, counselor supervision and high-quality advising need to be part of state school leader standards. Across most states, school leadership standards rarely reference or outline the specific knowledge and skills that secondary principals should develop in order to effectively lead students to postsecondary and workforce success.

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When these outcomes become part of what schools are held accountable for, principals can lead them with purpose. Illinois’ Performance Standards for School Leaders offers a strong model by explicitly including college and career readiness as a leadership competency.

Third, and most critical, the initial preparation, ongoing coaching and peer networks for school leaders should all emphasize high school redesign and pathways. Skim most state certification requirements for principals and you’ll see mandatory classes on finance, instruction, child psychology and special education law. Licensure and preparation programs should treat college and career readiness as fundamental, not elective.

Principals need to learn how to align schedules, curricula and partnerships to help every student graduate with a plan and the experiences to pursue it. They deserve ongoing coaching and peer networks that reinforce this vision.

Promising models exist and show a way forward. For example, since 2021-2022, the OneGoal Leadership Network has partnered with over 300 school and district leaders through a multi-year coaching and professional learning partnership focused on the conditions that enable postsecondary readiness. This partnership is guided by an overarching research-based framework for leadership development oriented toward long-term student success.

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Reframing the principal’s job around students’ long-term readiness offers high returns. When principals connect academic learning with meaningful experiences such as dual enrollment, apprenticeships or credential programs, students are likely to graduate with confidence and purpose. They see school as relevant to their future, not as a disconnected series of requirements.

The cost of these changes is modest compared with their potential benefits. The Wallace Foundation estimates that comprehensive leadership development can be implemented for about $42 per student. This cost is far less than the price of failed reforms.

What’s missing is not evidence or funding but alignment: Policymakers and system leaders must decide that empowering principals to lead this work is worth the investment. High school redesign will not succeed through frameworks or pilot programs alone. It will succeed when principals have the preparation, authority and support to make postsecondary readiness central to their mission — and when states and districts create the conditions for them to do so.

Disclosure: The 74 receive financial support from the Wallace Foundation.

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Author:Bill DeBaun and Andrew Schmitz and Ryan Reyna
Published on:2025-11-21 19:30:00
Source: www.the74million.org

Author: uaetodaynews
Published on: 2025-11-24 06:34:00
Source: uaetodaynews.com