Seth Weitzman

School administrators are accustomed to using data to inform instruction. We study statistical tools in graduate school courses, analyze both standardized test scores and locally developed formative and summative assessment results, and take data-generated information into account when making decisions affecting student placement, curriculum design, lesson planning, and instructional strategies. Tests are an invaluable lens, but they’re not the only data sets available.

Every school is like another country, each one featuring a unique constellation of history, cultural norms, values, belief systems, political dynamics, social relationships, etc. That’s why the task of onboarding new principals is both daunting and idiosyncratic: A one-size-fits-all template is not possible. For the administrator, the curriculum they must learn and the tests they will face are markedly different in every school. Research demonstrates the stakes of a principal’s leadership.

Seth remembers, in the early 1990s, sitting for his first lesson on a new technology called “email.” The district IT coordinator reassured everyone: “This will save you time”... famous last words! A decade later, in our respective jobs as a principal and a superintendent, our inboxes were jammed with hundreds of new emails every day.