Guest post by Dennis Barger
What makes you good at what you do? I was recently asked this question in an interview, and it gave me pause to think about how it is that I have come to experience success as a principal. Everyone I know, from students and parents to friends and family, all have strengths, but what are mine as a school principal? Why is my school successful?
This academic year, students found their voice and discovered a new means of empowerment, thanks to the National Honor Society and National Junior Honor Society State Summit experience. Five locations hosted the State Summit in 2016–17: southern California, Ohio, Massachusetts, Texas, and New Mexico. This innovative leadership development experience will be coming to more locations in 2017–18. Here, two student delegates at the Texas State Summit reflect on the day, giving a glimpse into the summit from the student perspective.
Jaden Smith
NEHS member
Fourth Grade
Holy Trinity Episcopal School, Houston, TX
During the Texas State Summit I enjoyed learning about conservation and social justice efforts. The State Summit helped me understand my relationship with the environment. The State Summit also helped me develop leadership skills and more. (more…)
Having attended National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) annual conferences nearly every year since 1979, I can easily attest to the adaptive nature of our national organization to provide quality sessions that present innovative approaches, inspiring speakers, and valuable opportunities to network with diverse colleagues facing similar and different challenges. (more…)
Wrap-Up of the 2017 Advocacy Conference
Last week, NASSP hosted its 2017 Advocacy Conference, attended by more than 130 principals from across the country. During the conference, attendees engaged with panels focusing on school choice and higher education, heard and provided feedback on key policy issues directly to ED officials, and received in-depth training on how to advocate elected officials at all levels of government. (more…)
Guest post by Andrea Dennis
Do you often feel that the bulk of your day is spent as judge, jury, and executioner? Do you recall those roles being outlined in your job description? Administrators are regarded as the chief disciplinarians within schools. When classroom instructors routinely defer to administration on myriad minor student transgressions, assistant principals drown under the tidal wave of referrals and fail to evolve into the transformative instructional leaders needed for schools to thrive. Modifying policies with innovation and cooperative methodology, however, can make redirecting student behavior a shared task and curtail office referrals schoolwide. (more…)
Guest post by Robin Kvalo
As the principal of Portage High School, the term “makerspace” came into my world when I brought Naomi Harm, innovative educator consultant, to Portage High School for staff development workshops. Initially, I wasn’t sure where makerspaces would fit in a high school. However, after attending Naomi’s makerspace workshop Make Room for Makerspaces at the School Leaders Advancing Technology in Education (SLATE) convention in Wisconsin, I was hooked. (more…)
Guest post by David Caruso
Though many students successfully navigate their middle school years, some students lose focus, have tremendous difficulty developing positive relationships, often avoid work, and engage in extremely disruptive behavior—all of which impede academic and social progress. As administrators, we know well that these are the students whose problematic behaviors, if not corrected, will result in frequent visits to the office for discipline. (more…)
Guest post by Alison Maurice
Find out if your school district is eligible to provide free meals to your students with this handy FAQ guide to the community eligibility provision. (more…)
Time is Running Out to Comment on the Teacher Shortage Position Statement!
NASSP recently released a new Teacher Shortage position statement to help address the country’s growing teacher shortage. The position statement also provides recommendations for policymakers and school leaders to help find new solutions. The NASSP Board of Directors recently stated its intent to adopt this position statement, and the 30-day public comment period is now open. If you would like to send a comment or recommendation about this statement, please contact Amanda Karhuse, NASSP’s director of advocacy, at [email protected] by Friday, April 28.
Guest post by Robin Kvalo
Portage High School in Portage, WI, introduced a new STEM manufacturing program for selected sophomores this 2016-17 school year. The major highlight of the program is that the students will take English, math, and science credits in the technology education and engineering labs. The core classes are integrated with technology education projects and our new “Enterprise,” our in-house manufacturing business experience. Core content teachers share classroom space with technology educators, teaming up for academic success for these individual students. (more…)
Guest post by Denver J. Fowler
As an education leader in Mississippi, I am frustrated that our state consistently places last in national education rankings. Education Week gives Mississippi a D- and ranks it 50th (out of 50 states and the District of Columbia). Even more troubling to me is that my fellow Mississippians seem to have gotten used to this situation, and detailed plans on how to fix the problem is lacking. Year after year, it appears Mississippi is not getting the job done when it comes to educating our children. I am left wondering why and asking myself what can we do in order to address this issue? (more…)
There’s Still Time to Contact Your Representatives!
President Trump’s recent budget asked for a complete elimination of Title II, Part A funds for FY 2018 and to halve the amount of funds appropriated for FY 2017. This funding helps states and districts to prepare, train, and recruit high-quality teachers, principals, and other school leaders. Congress is still working on the final funding bills this spring, so please join NASSP by contacting your elected officials to say you support funding for Title II. Make your voice heard by standing with the other 500 individuals who have already participated in NASSP’s newest action alert opposing President Trump’s cuts and asking Congress to fully fund Title II, Part A! (more…)
Guest post by Derek Pierce
What are the annual events at your school that get your students the most excited? Does your faculty feel the same way? What do your school’s biggest traditions say about what your school most values? (more…)
Guest post by Kristan Venegas
Your students may need some help navigating their financial aid options. Kristan Venegas is a professor of clinical education and research associate at the Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California. She served as a panelist during the NHS webinar, “The FAFSA: What You Need to Know Now,” which focused on key parts of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) process. Her post below provides some insight to pass to your students about the importance of considering different types of financial aid and calculating all costs associated with going to a school of their choice.
All school leaders not only want to see their students excel academically, but they also want to ensure their students become knowledgeable about their options in financing their aspirations so they can take their education to the next level. As a panelist during a National Honor Society webinar on the FAFSA, I’d like to share some insights that might be helpful for you to pass along to your students. (more…)
Guest post by Paul Hermes
My mom asked me if I could help her answer some questions about her new iPhone. We arranged that I would come over to help her. When I arrived, my mom took out a spiral notebook with a page full of questions. I have had an iPhone for several years, so many of the “issues” were easily answered. However, there were some that I wasn’t sure about, so I Googled a few of them to find the answer. For others, I just started trying stuff to see if I could figure it out. I asked her several times if she tried various solutions, to which she replied every time, “No, I was afraid that I would wreck it.” A little frustrated, I said, “Mom, there is nothing on this phone or what we are doing that is doing to ‘wreck it,’ and if what we try doesn’t work, we can just change it back.” Through this process of trial and error, we were able to solve all of her questions. (more…)
Guest post by Alison Maurice
Nationally, on an average school day in the 2015–16 school year, 12.1 million low-income students participated in school breakfast, an increase of nearly 433,000 children from the prior school year. While this is definitely progress, there is still room for improvement, especially at the middle and high school levels, where school breakfast participation has often been lower than at the elementary school level.
Join the Fight to Support Title II Funding!
President Trump’s recent budget asked for a complete elimination of Title II, Part A funds for FY 2018 and to reduce by 50 percent the amount of funds appropriated for FY 2017. To combat these cuts and show the importance Title II plays in ensuring every child has access to high-quality teachers and school leaders, NASSP recently joined with other national organizations to send a letter to the House and Senate appropriations committees asking for full funding for Title II. Lend your voice to the fight by participating in NASSP’s newest action alert opposing President Trump’s cuts and asking Congress to fully fund Title II, Part A! (more…)
There is a great deal of attention and focus in education today surrounding the idea of providing personalized instruction to every student. Providing instruction specific to each individual student can greatly enhance the educational experience. However, personalized instruction means little if students aren’t valued as individuals within the culture of the school. (more…)
Guest post by Cheryl Spittler
The passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015 has ushered in a new paradigm for student achievement that now includes nonacademic indictors in addition to measuring proficiency in math, English language arts, and English-language proficiency (for English-language learners), as well as high school graduation rates. These nonacademic indicators are aimed at providing a broader measure of student performance and include: (more…)
Guest post by Holly Ripley
As school leaders, we are often expected to provide answers and guidance in times of uncertainty and transition. But what happens when we do not know the answers? I learned recently that sometimes the best response is to ask your students and encourage the community to share knowledge. Our job is not to have all of the answers but to help facilitate a collective search for greater understanding and help students leverage their own voices. (more…)
