Leadership Changes Everything
Patricia Otway-Drummond
New Leaders Alum, 2011
New Leaders Alum, 2011

Our blog is for you, and every educator, who is answering the call to lead at this moment.
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Goal Setting & Action Planning
Adaptive Leadership
Family and Community Engagement

Goal Setting & Action Planning
Next Year Won’t Be A “Normal” School Year—So Let’s Plan Accordingly Now
Here’s how to get out in front of next school year by planning proactively to support the needs and build on the strengths of students, staff, and families.
Adaptive Leadership
Family and Community Engagement
Personal Leadership

Adaptive Leadership
Words of Wisdom From Leaders Leading Through Adversity
Gain insights from school leaders who led through past national crises as you continue to navigate the demands of leading schools in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting.
Resilient Leadership
Voices From The Field

Resilient Leadership
How to Invest In and Retain Effective Principals
In this era of the Great Resignation, when 40% of principals anticipate leaving their roles, district leaders need to develop resilient leaders who can meet the challenges ahead. Here’s how.
High-Performing Teams
Distributed Leadership
Observation & Coaching

High-Performing Teams
3 Ways to Create a Team That Drives Schoolwide Change
Leadership requires creating the conditions for achieving positive change at scale. Structuring your instructional leadership team for success will allow it to drive excellence and equity across your school.
Professional Learning & Collaboration
Voices From The Field

Professional Learning & Collaboration
Stepping Up: Advice & Insights For Aspiring Principals
Considering starting on the path to principalship? With the help of a few New Leaders alumni, we’ve put together some insights to consider as you’re thinking about your next step.
Equity-Focused Leadership
Professional Learning & Collaboration

Equity-Focused Leadership
Why Leaders of Color Make a Lasting Impact
New Leaders launched the National Aspiring Principals Fellowship in partnership with Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University. Learn more about why representation in leadership matters for students and our society.
Resilient Leadership
Personal Leadership
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Resilient Leadership
The Relationship Between Resilient Leaders and Resilient Students
Even with the many effects on student well-being, the pandemic showed that students are also capable of incredible resilience. Here’s how to continue to foster and learn from that resilience.
High-Performing Teams
Distributed Leadership
Professional Learning & Collaboration

High-Performing Teams
Building Your Instructional Leadership Team: 5 Qualities to Look For
Strong leadership is an indicator of school success, but it doesn’t need to be in a vacuum. Here are five qualities to look for when building your instructional leadership team.
Professional Learning & Collaboration
Equity-Focused Leadership

Professional Learning & Collaboration
Providing Equitable Access to High-Quality Principal Preparation
Learn how one HBCU graduate is spearheading our new online principal preparation and master’s degree program via a first-of-its-kind partnership with Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University.
Personal Leadership
Family and Community Engagement
Equity-Focused Leadership

Personal Leadership
Shaping School Culture: Four Leadership Actions to Consider
Maintaining a positive school culture is a long game, and building relationships with your school community is a big part of that process. Here are some tips to ensure success.
Adaptive Leadership
Distributed Leadership
Professional Learning & Collaboration
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Adaptive Leadership
5 Ways To Keep Your Teachers During “The Great Resignation”
The educator shortage isn't new, but it's increasingly concerning as more teachers leave the profession. Here are five actions you can take to reverse this trend in your school.
Voices From The Field
Distributed Leadership
High-Performing Teams

Distributed Leadership
Celebrating Assistant Principals
In honor of National Assistant Principals Week, learn from one New Leaders alum how her work as assistant principal is fueling a sense of ownership in her school.
Equity-Focused Leadership
Adaptive Leadership

Equity-Focused Leadership
Shining a Light On Inequity In Education: Actions You Can Take
Become aware of the most common and well-researched inequities in schools and how equity-focused leaders can disrupt them so all students have access to a high-quality education.
Professional Learning & Collaboration
Goal Setting & Action Planning
Professional Learning & Collaboration
Thinking About Becoming a Principal?
Everything you need to know about the different kinds of leadership effective principals leverage and what to look for in a principal preparation program.
Adaptive Leadership
Voices From The Field
Family and Community Engagement

Adaptive Leadership
How One School Leader is Keeping Her Teachers
In an era of the Great Resignation and educators leaving the field en masse, one school is seeing the opposite trend: almost 100% teacher retention. Here's how.
Equity-Focused Leadership
Professional Learning & Collaboration
Voices From The Field

Equity-Focused Leadership
Introducing the National Aspiring Principals Fellowship
First-of-its-kind principal preparation and masters degree program designed in partnership with Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University to train the next generation of equity-focused principals.
Goal Setting & Action Planning
Distributed Leadership
Resilient Leadership

Goal Setting & Action Planning
Six Actions to Keep Moving Your School’s Vision Forward
When you’re navigating challenges, your school’s shared vision can serve as a great reminder to keep focusing on what’s important. Here are six ways to keep it at the forefront.
Observation & Coaching
Professional Learning & Collaboration
Voices From The Field

Observation & Coaching
3 Reasons To Work With a School Leadership Coach
Virtual coaching allows more school leaders access to coaching when it’s needed most. Coaching in a virtual environment is resource-effective, provides trusted thought partnership, and focuses on your leadership goals.
Voices From The Field
Professional Learning & Collaboration
Equity-Focused Leadership
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Voices From The Field
Women's History Month: Elevating Leader Voices from the Field
Celebrating women’s voices and insights from education leaders at every level. From spreading joy in our schools to empowering principals and teachers to motivating women to step into leadership roles.
Equity-Focused Leadership
Instructional Leadership
Voices From The Field

Equity-Focused Leadership
Educators Must Spread Carter G. Woodson’s Legacy Over The Entire School Year
Woodson created the idea of celebrating Black history. His legacy demands school leaders to spread it before and after February.
Professional Learning & Collaboration
Instructional Leadership
Observation & Coaching

Observation & Coaching
“No School Leader Should Feel Alone Right Now”
Hear from four New Leaders leadership coaches about how one-on-one virtual coaching is lifting up and supporting principals and assistant principals in this moment and the next.
Resilient Leadership
Voices From The Field

Resilient Leadership
Dear School Leader: Please Hang On
From navigativing pandemic-related challenges to staffing shortages, education leaders are struggling to maintain their own well-being. We asked our New Leaders alumni to share what keeps them moving forward.
Distributed Leadership
High-Performing Teams
Family and Community Engagement

Distributed Leadership
How Distributed Leadership Can Help Leaders and Schools Right Now
The challenges of the pandemic offer a reminder: School leaders should not have to lead alone. Learn how distributed leadership can lead to improved decision-making and better student outcomes.
Equity-Focused Leadership
Personal Leadership

Equity-Focused Leadership
Strengthening Your Equity-Focused Leadership: 6 Questions for Self-Reflection
The beginning of a new year is a great time to assess your commitment to being an equity-focused leader. Reflect on the work you’re doing by asking yourself these six questions.
Adaptive Leadership
Resilient Leadership
Goal Setting & Action Planning

Adaptive Leadership
Resolve to Subtract (Not Add) to Improve Student Outcomes in 2022
Rather than adding more programs and initiatives, here are three ways education leaders can support teachers to focus their energy where it matters most: meeting the needs of students.
Instructional Leadership
Distributed Leadership
Family and Community Engagement

Equity-Focused Leadership
8 Reasons to Celebrate Education Leaders
Eight big reasons why you and your work need to be celebrated. While school leadership has its share of challenges, there can also be plenty of joy.
Equity-Focused Leadership
Personal Leadership
Resilient Leadership

Equity-Focused Leadership
Leading While Black: Negotiating Race and Role in School Leadership
A career educator reflects upon the impact of negotiating his racial identity with his role as a leader—a critical balance that leaders of color need to be successful.
Adaptive Leadership
Personal Leadership
Voices From The Field
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Adaptive Leadership
Ground Zero: What I Learned About Leadership in My First Week as Principal
9/11 changed how one school leader saw the role of the principal and reinforced the deliberate dance between the “person” and the “position” of being a school leader.
Professional Learning & Collaboration
Observation & Coaching
Instructional Leadership

Observation & Coaching
How Effective Coaching is Rooted in the Lived Realities of Students
Good coaching leaves a legacy. Here’s how an instructional coach forever changed the way one school leader taught his high school students and later led his school.
Observation & Coaching
Professional Learning & Collaboration

Observation & Coaching
Coaching Works for School Leaders, Too
Learn why a leadership coach is an important part of your support system, and how a coach can help you cut through the clutter, get clear on goals, and take action.
Resilient Leadership
Personal Leadership
Social-Emotional Learning

Resilient Leadership
Great School Leadership Includes Self-Care
Education leaders need to not only practice self-care but model it for the people they lead. Here are ways to get more confident in strengthening your self-care muscles.
Instructional Leadership
Personal Leadership
Equity-Focused Leadership

Equity-Focused Leadership
The Qualities of a Great Principal
Behind every great teacher is a great principal. Here’s what we know—and what research confirms—to be the qualities of a transformational school leader.
Equity-Focused Leadership
Instructional Leadership
Adaptive Leadership

Equity-Focused Leadership
Five Differences a Great School Principal Makes
Great principals build great schools. The difference a good principal makes is lasting—for students, teachers, families, and communities. Here are the top five ways good principals create great schools.
Instructional Leadership
Observation & Coaching
Voices From The Field

Instructional Leadership
Back to School: How small changes can lead to big wins for school leaders
A New Leaders alum reflects on the power of small changes to enhance her leadership and coaching style. After a year of disrupted learning, these tips can deliver big wins.
Personal Leadership
Instructional Leadership
Voices From The Field

Personal Leadership
Believe
Leading through crisis requires that we magnify students' strengths and put them on a path toward success. Learn how one New Leaders alum and principal did just that.
Family and Community Engagement
Voices From The Field

Family and Community Engagement
Partner
How can you reimagine the roles parents play as we build more equitable schools? Partnership is one of four key leadership shifts we’re exploring this July.
Adaptive Leadership
Observation & Coaching
Distributed Leadership

Adaptive Leadership
Empowering Principals to Empower Their Schools
Two former principals and current leadership coaches (as well as New Leaders alumni) share three essential supports that made a transformative difference in their leadership.
Equity-Focused Leadership
Voices From The Field

Equity-Focused Leadership
More than a Detour: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
A New Leaders alum and principal reflects on what cultural competency, Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) month, and representation in leadership mean to him as a school leader.
Professional Learning & Collaboration
Instructional Leadership
Distributed Leadership

Professional Learning & Collaboration
We’re All in This Together: Developing Teacher Leaders
Why invest in teacher leadership? Principals can’t do it all. Teaching and leading are different skill sets. And strong teachers with job-embedded training can have a greater impact on more students.
Equity-Focused Leadership
Distributed Leadership

Equity-Focused Leadership
Women Empowering Women to Lead
Motivating other aspiring leaders, particularly women and teachers of color, to stretch beyond their role enables them to influence positive outcomes for more students, more teachers, and more communities.
Instructional Leadership
Distributed Leadership
Voices From The Field

Instructional Leadership
Distributed Leadership: Empowering Teachers to Make a Lasting Difference for Students
A New Leaders alum and coach reflects on distributed leadership: “I knew if I created a partnership with my team, we could build the culture our students needed to thrive.”
Professional Learning & Collaboration
Personal Leadership
Distributed Leadership

Professional Learning & Collaboration
Why Investing in School Leadership Matters
Principals matter, a new report from the Wallace Foundation concludes. We could not agree more. Charged with driving excellence and equity within their school communities, principals challenge the status quo.
Remote Learning
Instructional Leadership

Remote Learning
Introducing the Leadership Toolkit for Supporting Remote Instruction
Our Leadership Toolkit for Supporting Remote Instruction offers tools and resources that you can use right now to focus on learning and teaching and keep equity front and center.
Adaptive Leadership
Equity-Focused Leadership
Social-Emotional Learning

Adaptive Leadership
Confronting History in Real Time: A Principal’s Role
School leaders are instrumental to the endurance of our democracy. Here is how you can prepare and support teachers to lead ongoing discussions that reinforce our nation’s democratic values.
Instructional Leadership
Remote Learning

Remote Learning
Announcing New Leaders FREE Virtual Classroom Toolkit
Can you please mute? Is the link working? These all-too-familiar phrases echo across our nation’s remote learning landscape. Our Virtual Classroom Toolkit helps educators set students up for success.
Instructional Leadership
Remote Learning
Voices From The Field

Instructional Leadership
Back-to-School: Making Virtual Instruction Relevant in a Pandemic
New Leaders alum and assistant principal rethinks their curricula to zero in on student voice and identity. “One thing we have control over is how we engage students in learning.”
Goal Setting & Action Planning
Remote Learning
Voices From The Field

Goal Setting & Action Planning
Setting Our Students Up for Success in 2020
In-person instruction? Remote? Hybrid? The options are swirling. One New Leaders alum and principal reflects on the power of our Transformational Leadership Framework to ground his leadership choices.
Goal Setting & Action Planning
Remote Learning
Voices From The Field

Goal Setting & Action Planning
Transforming Schools for a New Reality in the Year Ahead
Educators are deep into planning this summer. Here’s how one New Leaders alum and principal is engaging all voices in creating a new vision for their school community.
Remote Learning
Professional Learning & Collaboration

Remote Learning
Meeting the Moment with Innovative Online Leader Preparation
Learn how one online-by-design principal preparation program is training transformational school leaders. In partnership with New Leaders, this program offers a unique blueprint for remote professional learning options.