Graphic courtesy Pixabay.

Our nation’s principal preparation programs are too focused on compliance and survey-style courses that “cover” outdated theories instead of clinically proven best-practice and executive leadership competencies. Our children are our future and principals support the teachers to lead children to success. 

At New College of Florida, we are preparing to launch a program in Fall 2025 that will change K-12 educational outcomes. Think not of the principal of one’s childhood, sitting at a desk, writing grants and reports. Think of the CEO of a small, nimble company responsive to clients and customers. This executive is a service minded leader who is an expert in the core function of the business: teaching and learning. This leader is ready to serve as a model of excellent teaching and character building and as a coach and mentor.

The Master’s of Educational Leadership at NCF breaks the mold in principal development programs by developing tomorrow’s school leaders to be the CEO’s of their schools, demonstrating ownership and servant leadership, and an orientation toward mission and outcomes. The pillars of this two year in-person program are built around the following characteristics of excellent principals:  

• Mastery Focused: Embrace the mindset that all students can achieve at a high level with the appropriate support and effort.
• Analyzers of Student Work: Look at student work on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to monitor learning.
• Champion Teachers: Develop into models of high impact instructional practices. 
• Effective Coaches: Build rapport with teachers to plan and practice new techniques to drive professional growth and learning outcomes.
• Stewards of Knowledge-Rich Curriculum: Building rigor through a sequence of great books, background knowledge and complex mathematical concepts.
• Steeped in Cognitive Science of Learning and Leadership: Applying the latest peer-reviewed and proven research from cognitive scientists like Daniel Willingham and David Yeager to daily leadership with faculty and students.
• Codifiers of Clinical Best Practice: Leveraging outlier positive results to drive the identification and dissemination of effective practice.

Graduates of this groundbreaking program will not only have an intellectual understanding of these qualities but have demonstrated mastery of each of the key skills. Just as surgery residents perform procedures to demonstrate mastery of skills, New College master’s candidates will lead a cohort of teachers, proving their ability as an instructional leader before graduating.

Most traditional principals earn their position after one to two decades of service and navigating considerable politics. The next generation of principals should be developed through programs like ours, allowing them to take on significant leadership much earlier in their careers. This will help the education sector attract talent into the workforce and keep our best and most-talented educators for their entire career. Additionally, teachers who are managed by highly effective principals stay in their roles longer. They also report being more satisfied and, most importantly, have stronger learning outcomes with their students.

In 2028, our first graduates will become principals. We will follow them into their schools and track their results, breaking new ground around what is possible in education for our nation. Show me how you're educating your children, and we will tell you your future. Our future will be bright if we take care of our most precious commodity.

Richard Corcoran is President of New College of Florida.

Graphic courtesy Pixabay.