If you ever needed proof that your leadership matters, here it is: Replacing a below-average principal with a strong one can result in three additional months of student learning per year. Not in one classroom, across the entire school.
Years of research, including a recent study funded by the Wallace Foundation, How Principals Affect Students and Schools, reinforce what many already suspect; you’re not just the building’s top administrator. You are its most powerful change agent. When principals lead well, student learning rises, school culture strengthens, teachers stay, and equity gaps close. We all know principals can affect their schools. The question is how can principals be effective?
The Core Domains of Effective Leadership
The aforementioned study finds that the strongest principals consistently demonstrate skill in three overlapping domains:
Instruction
Knowing what good teaching looks like, and helping it happen more often.
People
Building trust, relationships, and a shared sense of purpose.
Organizational Management
Running the school strategically and efficiently.
How Great Principals Lead Differently
1. They Lead Instruction Up Close
Effective principals shape instruction. They build trust in the evaluation process, using clear, rubric-based observations to identify strengths and opportunities. But evaluation isn’t the endgame. Great principals give feedback that’s specific, actionable, and grounded in what’s best for students. They follow through with coaching that helps teachers grow.
They also use data to make real-time decisions. More than school-wide averages, they provide granular, disaggregated insights that inform instructional priorities, shape professional development, and steer the school toward measurable improvement.
2. They Build a Culture That Feeds Learning
Instruction flourishes in schools with strong climates. That’s no accident. Principals create environments where students feel safe, teachers feel empowered, and families feel included.
This means modeling emotional intelligence, addressing issues of trust or morale head-on, and affirming the diverse identities and needs of your school community. Schools with strong professional and academic climates see faster instructional growth and better student outcomes.
3. They Make Collaboration the Norm, Not the Exception
Professional learning communities (PLCs), common planning time, and cross-grade instructional teams don’t just appear. Principals make them happen and keep them functional.
Instead of just assigning meeting times, ensure that PLCs connect to school goals, instructional data, and teacher growth. Great leaders use these groups to surface best practices, troubleshoot challenges, and build a sense of shared ownership over student success.
4. They Manage Strategically, Not Just Efficiently
Effective principals treat time and talent as strategic assets. They prioritize what matters, streamline what doesn’t, and protect instructional minutes.
Instead of hiring to fill vacancies, they find educators who meet the specific needs of their students and assign them where they can have the greatest impact. Strategic leaders also push against inequitable patterns, ensuring that all students, especially those who’ve been underserved, have access to strong teachers and rigorous opportunities.
They retain talent through clarity, feedback, and recognition. And they’re not afraid to make difficult calls when the stakes for students are too high to ignore.
5. They Lead with an Equity Lens
The best principals embed equity into every decision, from instruction to discipline to resource allocation. They invest in culturally responsive teaching, hold high expectations for every student, and monitor disparities in access and outcomes. They make equity visible in the school’s values, its staffing decisions, and its relationships with the community.
When schools close opportunity gaps, it’s rarely by chance. It’s because leaders made it a priority and took sustained, strategic action.
Where to Focus Now
If you’re looking to refine your practice, this research points to clear starting points:
- Prioritize instructional leadership. Be in classrooms, give real feedback, and connect evaluations to actual growth.
- Treat climate-building as instructional work. Culture amplifies (or undermines) every other effort.
- Design collaboration with intention. PLCs need focus, structure, and your presence to succeed.
- Get strategic about resource management. Your decisions about time, personnel, and priorities either accelerate improvement … or slow it down.
- Make equity non-negotiable. Lead in a way that reflects the diverse strengths and needs of your students and staff.
If you want to improve a school, invest in its principal. That’s the takeaway researchers have made unmistakably clear. And if you’re a principal looking to improve your school, the path forward is equally clear: Deepen your leadership in the areas that move the needle most.
