Becoming a School Principal ― Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn

The principal’s role is increasingly understood as a critical lever for school improvement. Yet the job can be a solitary one, offering few opportunities to reflect with colleagues. What does it take to manage the work of continuous improvement—to push staff members constantly to operate outside their comfort zones? What dilemmas and challenges must principals confront? How can school leaders learn from their mistakes and move forward?

In Becoming a School Principal, Sarah E. Fiarman describes her first few years as a school principal committed to enacting a powerful vision of leading and learning. Drawing thoughtfully on the literature of school reform and change leadership, Fiarman discusses a wide range of topics, including empowering teachers, building trust, addressing racial and economic inequities, and supporting a culture of continuous learning, as well as thornier issues such as learning to use authority skillfully, dealing with resistance, and managing supervision and evaluation. The book addresses common challenges and highlights missteps as well as successes.

A contributing author to several leading books on school reform and instructional improvement, Fiarman engages readers in a lively, frank, and revealing conversation about building the vision and capacity to provide effective instruction for all students and the intensely personal process of learning to lead.

Sarah E. Fiarman, a former public school teacher and principal, is a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she teaches instructional leadership for elementary, middle, and high school principals. She is a coauthor ofInstructional Rounds in Education: A Network Approach to Improving Teaching and Learning and a contributing author ofData Wise: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Assessment Results to Improve Teaching and Learning.