Only one out of five high school teachers believes that students are learning to write well according to research from Public Agenda. Test results confirm their opinion. In 1998, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) administered a writing assessment to gauge fourth- and eighth-grade students' proficiency in writing narrative, informational, and persuasive pieces. Four years later, despite results showing some overall gains at the fourth- and eighth-grade levels, about 75% of students who took the 2002 NAEP writing assessment could write only at the basic level as opposed to the proficient or advanced levels. Writing must become a priority if students are to excel in secondary schools and in college. This article discusses five things principals can do to improve students' writing.