Dive Brief:

• A recently established group, the National Panel of New Principals, is intended to help support principals in their first and second years of leadership as they navigate early challenges.
• Its founder, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, will also use the program to shape and boost its advocacy on behalf of principals and to develop programs that will actually help early career principals.
• Roughly 1,100 principals from all over the U.S. participate in the group.

Dive Insight:

The first years of serving as principal can be a challenge. The principal is often a former educator navigating the district's bureaucracy for the first time, and with the added weight of new accountability. And new principals face increasingly complex dilemmas, such as having to teach teachers to integrate technology they’ve never used themselves. Just 60% said they felt prepared on the first day on the job, according to a survey from NAESP. Most reported high stress levels and long hours.

The group is intended to alleviate the sense that principals in their first years are on their own and to provide a community to test out ideas and get support for struggles.

"It also makes you feel better that it's not just Long Island," Mike Carlson, a middle school principal in Long Island, NY, told Education Week, "but nationwide there are people who are feeling the same things or struggling with certain aspects, like safety, or wondering whether or not they were helpful enough as instructional leaders.”

One interesting finding worth noting: Principals felt particularly unprepared to lead preschool programs. In response, the group plans to increase focus on early learning. It will also reportedly expand its membership in the next year.

Recommended Reading

Education Week: Rookie Principals' Group Sheds Light on Early-Career Challenges