There are two ways to avoid time-crunch panic attacks: work smarter and delegate wisely. In this article, the author provides a list of some strategies and tactics he has used to help more than 500 school executives in North Carolina work smarter, delegate more effectively and become more effective instructional leaders. These strategies fall into…

Retaining quality staff members is a hot topic in the public school arena. Although teachers are often the focus of concern, hiring and retaining quality assistant principals must be addressed as well. Interviewing and hiring the right assistant principal--and then ensuring that he or she remains on in a campus for several years--can do a great…

A partnership between families and schools occurs when parents and educators join in mutual efforts that have the shared goal of improving outcomes for students. Although administrators and teachers are the education experts, students are in the classroom for a relatively small portion of the day and the year. Parents, on the other hand, are the…

Whether a loss is due to the death of a student, a faculty or staff member, or a member of the community, a viable, organized strategy for coping with loss ensures that the tragedy does not increase the bereaved's pain or the students' vulnerability to further incidents. Although there are no surefire formulas for making everything OK in the face…

The overrepresentation of the Black and Hispanic subgroups in suspension data is a national problem and a troubling issue for schools and school systems across the United States. In Maryland, an analysis of student suspensions by school districts for the 2006-2007 school year revealed disproportionality issues. In 23 of the 24 jurisdictions,…

Although practitioners have been asked to make fundamental shifts in their beliefs about reaching all students, the structures of high schools to support that work have not changed appreciably. Teachers teach in isolation, departmental silos lack curricular and instructional coherence across core subject areas, and few teachers share students in…

Monkeys are the problems that need solutions, the tasks that need to be accomplished, the decisions that need to be made, and the actions that need to be taken. According to a theory, people carry monkeys around on their backs until they can successfully shift their burden to someone else and the monkey leaps from one back to the next. Managers…

Everyone has a mental image of what bullying looks like as well as how it feels. Those images may come from personal situations, staff development training, years of experience within the profession, or a combination of all three. But no matter where people's images of bullying come from, few would argue that as perpetrators and victims age and…

"Transgender" is an umbrella term for people who self-identify as other than their birth sex (male or female). The exploration of gender nonconformance occurs among people across all ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups. Transgender or questioning students may have unique challenges and stressors in their daily lives, including school. Often,…

Anxiety is one of the most basic human emotions and occurs in every person at some time, most often when someone is apprehensive about uncertain outcomes of an event or set of circumstances. Anxiety can serve an adaptive function, however, and is also a marker for typical development. In the school setting, anxiety is experienced often by students…

As members of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) Task Force on Principal Preparation, the authors recently completed a study of the changing role of the secondary principal. One striking finding was that multiple roles and responsibilities leave today's principal feeling chronically harried and overworked. For…

Cyberspace presents a serious challenge for adults who are concerned about the safety and well-being of adolescents. Approximately 93% of U.S. youths ages 12-17 use the Internet, a significant increase from 2004. The number of teens with online profiles, including those on social networking sites, also has increased. Importantly, 38% of high…

This article highlights the problem of substance use and abuse among adolescents and discusses the important role of school leaders in addressing this problem. Drug and alcohol use among adolescents is a significant and serious problem. In fact, an alarmingly high number of students report that they have used drugs or alcohol. Substance use and…

Teachers are a combination of who they are and what they've learned--with a bit more emphasis on what they've learned. It helps to be a born comedian or a motivational speaker, but it isn't necessary. What is necessary is a great desire to teach children and knowledge of how to manage student behavior to keep students engaged academically and…

In this article, the author, as an assistant superintendent, reflects on his personal experience on overcoming job fatigue. As he reflects on his personal experience, the aspect that disturbs him the most is that he was beating himself up at the start of the process because he felt like he was neglecting his responsibilities. Although he did a lot…