What It Means to Be a Principal

"Becoming a principal involves more than merely applying for a job. It means taking part in a long voyage toward becoming the most effective leader you can become."

Author, educator, and leader John C. Daresh leads you on that journey in a unique and important book that combines self-exploration and career planning in a powerful new way.

Now you can look at every facet of the most important career decision you can make. You'll ask yourself if you really want to be a principal . . . you'll discover what the job truly entails and how it matches up with your real career goals and personal plans.

By examining a series of critical issues, this book can help you make that all-important decision by showing you what it's really like to be a principal on a day-to-day basis. Issues include:



Differing views of administration
The role of superintendents and district personnel
Visions of leadership
Conflict as part of the job
The frustrations of leadership
What it means to be in charge
Options for principal professional development

What It Means to Be a Principal is a work of insight and action - a challenging real-world framework that will help you make one of the most important decisions of your career.

John C. Daresh has worked as a professional educator for more than 30 years in public schools in Iowa and Illinois and in universities across the country, and has served as a consultant to school districts, state departments of education, and universities. Currently he serves as a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Foundations at the University of Texas at El Paso. Daresh has been a frequent contributor to the literature on principalship, and is the author of the best-seller Beginning the Principalship from Corwin Press.