Chapter One
Preparing Principals in the
Age of Accountability
Marc S. Tucker, Judy B. Codding
Why would anyone want the job of principal? Many school
principals we know have the look these days of the proverbial
deer caught in the headlights. Almost overnight, it seems, they
have been caught in the high beams of the burgeoning accountability
movement. Now as never before, the public and all the
organs of government are insisting that student academic performance
improve-and fast. The federal government is putting
ever-increasing pressure on the states to that end. The
states, in their turn, are busy creating incentives for local boards
and superintendents to raise school performance. And the local
boards and superintendents are wasting no time in putting as
much pressure as they can on the principals. And there it rests.
The principal experiences this set of pressures as a vise that is
closing fast. The expectation that the principal will lead the school
to levels of student achievement that are unprecedented for that
school, for students from that social background, for children for
whom English is not their ... read full excerpt from The Principal Challenge: Leading and Managing Schools in an Era of Accountability ebook
