Educational Resources | Feature

The Most Important Thing a Principal Should Know

The knack for locating and providing adequate resources (that is, money)--which is on the list of traits to be found in every highly effective technology leading principal--is one of the most important jobs of anybody trying to accomplish something significant in education.

• By Michael Hart
• 08/09/12

Lucy Gray, project director for the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN)’s Leadership for Mobile Learning initiative, says, "School leaders who want things to happen find a way to make them happen. Creative leadership always knows how to rob Peter to pay Paul."

Maybe if we all lived in Finland or Singapore, this wouldn't be an issue--but I doubt it. The knack for locating and providing adequate resources (that is, money)--which is on the list of traits to be found in every highly effective technology leading principal--is one of the most important jobs of anybody trying to accomplish something significant in education.

Were it not so but still, as time goes on, it's likely to only become more important. Even without the threat of sequestration looming in Congress, there is little doubt that school district budgets will only get tighter in coming years. It will take ever greater skill and dexterity to guide schools and districts through the labyrinth of challenges ahead.

All the more reason why an article like that in the current issue of T.H.E. Journal, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Tech-leading Principals," is so important. Don't get me wrong: The ability to "rob Peter to pay Paul" is not the only important habit required, but it is clear that those educational leaders who want to make sure the students they are responsible for are prepared for the future will have to use their imaginations to provide them with all the tools they'll need.