FutureEd Director Thomas Toch has written extensively about efforts to improve teaching and learning. But what role do principals play in this important work? Toch sat down with Danny Carlson at the National Association of Elementary School Principals to discuss how principals should function as instructional leaders, guiding and coaching teachers to better instruction.
“There’s a ton of research that makes clear that effective leaders are the key to effective schools,” says Toch.
“Embracing the role of instructional leader, being more than building managers, is really an important dimension of the contribution that principals make to the improvement of the teaching profession. If bus schedules and student discipline dominate the school leader’s day, it’s very difficult to support high quality teaching.”