Responsibilities of Today's Principal: Implications for Principal Preparation Programs and Principal Certification Policies

Abstract

Historically, principals served as disciplinarians and the teachers' boss. Under current federal legislation, principals now must accept the responsibility to manage personnel, funds, and strategic planning. Today's principals also must accept responsibilities associated with being their schools' instructional leaders. As instructional leaders, principals maintain the responsibility for the learning of all students, including students with disabilities. This role becomes magnified in rural school systems that typically experience high rates of special education teacher attrition and educate a large percentage of students with disabilities. For these reasons, today's principal preparation programs need to reconsider and reconstruct philosophies and practices. In this article, the author discusses principals'contemporary responsibilities and provides suggestions for principal preparation programs to better prepare principals for today's roles and responsibilities of being the instructional leaders for students with disabilities.