Amid growing calls for redefining the high school experience, there’s a critical missing link that is often overlooked: principals and assistant principals. Why must principals lead, and what has prevented many from effectively doing so? Despite their influence over how time is used, which courses are offered, how teachers and counselors collaborate, and which business and college partners can engage with students, most school administrators simply aren’t trained, supported or held accountable for transforming their high schools.

Their preparation and evaluation focuses disproportionately on compliance and core academics, not on whether students graduate ready for what comes next. The result is a system that sidelines the very leaders who could drive change. School-level leaders should be the chief architects of high school redesign and high-quality pathways, connecting what students learn in classrooms with the real skills, experiences and credentials they’ll need after graduation.

Decades of research confirm what common sense suggests: Effective principals and assistant principals drive student success. The Wallace Foundation has shown that principals are second only to teachers on their impact on student learning. More recent work from the UChicago Consortium on School Research finds strong school leaders affect not only high school achievement but also students’ college enrollment and persistence.

These findings are especially relevant now as educators and policymakers across the country rethink the purpose and structure of high school.  New efforts from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the National Governors Association, and others aim to align education with the demands of today’s economy — emphasizing skills, credentials, and experiences that prepare students for college, career and adult life. But these initiatives will falter if the people responsible for running high schools aren’t prepared.

Despite the key role they play,  principals rarely receive the training or guidance needed to lead this kind of redesign and must simultaneously manage competing district priorities. Surveys of district leaders consistently rank math and reading scores, chronic absenteeism and teacher recruitment as top concerns, while expanding access to career and technical education or dual enrollment programs ranks near the bottom.

Read the full article about transforming high schools by Bill DeBaun, Andrew Schmitz, and Ryan Reyna at Getting Smart.