Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

About the Author xv

CHAPTER ONE: Outmoded 1

Gasp! 6

Leading Learning 8

Maximizing Impact 9

This Watershed Moment 10

The Chapters That Follow 13

Still Worth a Struggle 14

CHAPTER TWO: Vices and Virtues 17

Panic Time? 21

Four Wrong Choices for Driving Policy 22

Too Broad, Too Narrow: The Transformative Versus Instructional Leader 38

Principal Autonomy and Micromanaging:

Other Roadside Attractions 42

Time to Retune 46

CHAPTER THREE: The First Key—Leading Learning 51

What Key Research Tells Us 56

Professional Capital—a Framework for Leading Learning 67

Foster and Integrate 86

The More Powerful Way 88

CHAPTER FOUR: The Second Key—Being a District and System Player 93

Looking Out to Improve Within 98

Intradistrict Development 100

Beyond the District 107

Not You Alone 115

CHAPTER FIVE: The Third Key—Becoming a Change Agent 119

Change Agency 124

Distorted Mirrors 135

CHAPTER SIX: The Future Is Now 141

The Unplanned Digital Revolution 145

Planned Change: Common Core State Standards 154

Time to Change Careers? Or to Change Gears? 157

A Final Word 160

References 161

Index 169

Praise for The Principal

"At a time when the role of school leader is simultaneously vital to the success of teachers and students and yet at its most complex, Fullan offers a new view. In the way that only Fullan can—sensibly, with slight irreverence, and ahead of the curve—he challenges us to think about the principalship as not only 'realistically doable,' but scalable: music to those of us who want to see students perform to greater heights and teachers given the support they need to be their best."
—Vicki Phillips, Director of Education, College Ready, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

"Principals are being called upon to serve as instructional leaders who supervise and evaluate teachers into better performance, one at a time. Fullan reveals this strategy for what it is—'a bloody disaster.' He redefines the principalship and provides the specific, high-leverage steps leaders can take to improve their schools. This should be required reading for all principals and those interested in improving education."
—Richard DuFour, education author and consultant

"Fullan has done it again! The Principal has reignited my passion for education the way the What's Worth Fighting For trilogy did twenty-five years ago. This book takes the principal into a wonderful new space with insights and tools to lead learning—never more crucial than now."
—Avis Glaze, Edu-quest International Incorporated; former Chief Student Achievement Officer of Ontario

"Fullan challenges the status quo and opens up a new and exciting future by systematically laying out what truly effective principals should do to have maximum impact on learning, and on the system as a whole."
—Margery Evans, chief executive officer, Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, Melbourne

“This revealing and powerful book comes just in time, as we launch the biggest education reform in the past fifty years. It should be required reading not only for principals, but perhaps even more importantly for those who support and lead them.”
—Laura Schwalm, CaEdPartners; former superintendent, Garden Grove, California

“After decades of studying, working with, and enhancing the lot of principals . . . Fullan’s conclusion? Principals are needed now more than ever, and he’s smack on target. He doesn’t mince words, yet instills hope and confidence. Simply great . . . this book should be on every leader’s desk. Another bull’s-eye!”
—Willam Parrett, director, Center for School Improvement and Policy Studies, Boise State University, Idaho

“I just read The Principal and I am on fire and in love. I couldn't put it down! Fullan's uniquely succinct brilliance for soaring above the noise and clutter that bogs us down is incredibly energizing and inspiring.”
—Alice Thomas, president and CEO, Center for Development and Learning, Metairie, Louisiana

The Principal: Three Keys to Maximizing Impact

USE THIS BOOK FOR PD! Includes discussion questions and a free professional development guide

Over the past two decades, Michael Fullan has written influentially about the change that school and district leaders must bring about as formalized achievement standards and new technology transform how schools are run. What he hasn't done until now is explore and discuss in detail how and why the principal's role itself must change.

Principals are often called the second most crucial in-school influencers (after teachers) of student learning. But what should the principal do in order to maximize student achievement? In The Principal, Fullan explains why the answer lies neither in micro-managing instruction nor in autonomous entrepreneurialism. He also shows systematically how the principal’s role must change, and demonstrates how it can be done in short order, at scale.

Fullan shows how principals have been boxed into a narrow role that undercuts their ability to develop the whole school. He sheds light on how, in times of crisis, it’s all too easy for principals to do the wrong thing—to take actions that are ineffective or even counter-productive, particularly when they don’t feel entirely in charge. But even in the toughest of external conditions, he shows, there is always leeway for action. Fullan explains how to choose the right versus wrong drivers—loosening focus on accountability and instead concentrating on capacity-building; focusing less on technology and more on pedagogy; abandoning fragmented strategies and striving for “systemness”; and forgoing individualistic solutions in favor of collaborative effort. He shares how principals can foster the professional capital of teachers and get far more accomplished for all students.

The author explains the three key roles that administrators must play in order to have the biggest impact on student achievement—the learning leader, the district and system player, and the change agent. Throughout The Principal are "action items" to help leaders implement Fullan’s program effectively, as well as provocative discussion questions that enhance the book’s usefulness in professional development and leadership courses.