What does it take to run a public school, especially when challenges arise? Learn from principals who have tackled everything from chronic absenteeism to student mental health.
Photo credit: James Minichello of AASA for EWA
Principals are called public school defenders, community liaisons, student motivators and safety enforcers.
Just like today’s students have more on their plates than their predecessors, so do principals. Principals can be vital sources for journalists. They’re experts on their communities and often employ innovative techniques to tackle operational challenges or crises facing their schools.
Principals across the country have been tasked with finding help during staffing shortages, seeking new ways to teach students who don’t want to attend school and keeping students off their phones and out of trouble.
Panelists shared these insights about principals during a session at the Education Writers Association’s 77th National Seminar in Las Vegas last May. Principals Michael A. Randolph and Christopher Young and journalist Natasha Singer discussed the evolving and expanding role of these leaders. The panel, moderated by Education Week’s Olina Banerji, offered reporters a glimpse into what it takes to run a school.
Here’s how principals have been tackling three of the biggest education issues – and the stories reporters can find in their communities.
Rates of anxiety and depression have been rising in children for years – and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students clearly need mental health support, and for a variety of reasons.
The opioid epidemic is one of them. In Vermont, many North Country Union High School students live in rural areas that were hit hard by the opioid crisis. So it was a big issue for Principal Christopher Young when the school lost its substance abuse counselor. To fill that void, the school contracted with a community agency to get access to multiple recovery coaches, tons of resources and ways for students to get their questions answered. Outsourcing services is a method that’s becoming more popular for U.S. schools.
What’s unique about the partnership is that it targets students who aren’t personally dealing with addiction but who have questions about what they see in their communities. It’s about building relationships.
“They were able to really create these spaces where kids can – without fear of getting in trouble, without fear of getting their friends in trouble – just talk,” Young said. The result? Vaping at his school is down 78%, and the number of drug-related seizures were cut in half, he said.
The school took a similar approach to suicide prevention. After two students died by suicide, teachers at the school were trained and expected to talk about suicide prevention with students.
“I felt there was a moral imperative to do more,” Youngsaid. He told teachers, “’Really we need you on the front lines building relationships with kids to prevent not just suicide but all sorts of unhealthy behaviors.’ And they’ve really risen to the challenge with that.”
Tips for reporting on student mental health:
When Michael A. Randolph started as principal of Leesburg High School outside of Orlando in 2017, the graduation rate was 67%. Since then, he’s been able to increase the graduation rate to over 85%.
Efforts to tailor education to meet the needs of each student were a big part of that. His school diversified its offerings, including credit-recovery options, online learning and night school.. About 150 students are enrolled in the school’s alternative learning pathways, Randolph said. And they created a system of “positive attendance,” meaning a student is considered present if they successfully complete 20 assignments per day through an online platform.
“We really had to reimagine the school day after the pandemic,” Randolph said.
In Vermont, Young’s school began offering online classes after the pandemic emergency. But his staff quickly found that the most likely students to sign up were also the least likely to be successful. The school hired a student engagement coordinator to connect with chronically absent students.
“Basing it on this foundation of relationships and connections helps us bring the kids back [to in-person school],” Young said.
Similarly, Randolph credits a lot of the big turnaround in graduation rates at his school with how he shifted the culture by posting positive things on social media every day.
“We had such a negative perception in our community about school in general and about Leesburg High in general,” he said. “We had to really reshape the narrative.”
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Student safety is top of mind for school leaders these days. But principals know that often, the most common disruptions or threats can come from inside the school. And increasingly, they’re finding these threats online.
Disputes that happen after school or on social media can spill over into the school day and require the attention of principals or other administrators.
“That is a major change, and it’s taken up a lot of time,” Natasha Singer said. She has covered the intersection of technology in schools for The New York Times.
That’s partly why some schools now employ cellphone bans or use methods like cellphone jails to minimize distractions during the day.
Randolph’s school phased in a cellphone ban during instructional time and added activities to better engage students during breaks.
Similarly, artificial intelligence tools, such as Chat GPT, were expected to lead to widespread cheating. While that didn’t pan out, there have been instances of male students using the technology to create fake nude images of female students. The level of response from officials in different parts of the country has varied. It poses a new challenge for principals who likely have little experience with these issues.
“I alway act with a moral bearing,” Randolph said. “We get our law enforcement involved right away, and we do not tolerate [the trading of explicit images or other instances of sexual harassment] at all.”
Tips for writing about student safety issues:
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