NEW CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF THE PRINCIPAL'S ROLE
While there seems to be universal agreement on the importance of the principal, school systems report that they are finding it difficult to attract qualified candidates to the vacan- cies created by retiring "boomer" administrators. And because few districts have "aspiring principal" programs to identify and begin developing prospective leaders, more and more districts find themselves between the proverbial rock and a hard place-while skillful prin- cipals are essential in the reform efforts they are harder than ever to come by.
Concurrently, as we will see below, expectations for principals continue to increase. Principals are expected today to create learning communities in their schools and to engage the broader school community in creating and achieving a compelling vision for its schools, which typically serve increasingly diverse student populations. They are asked to give up "command-and-control" views of leadership and to be instructional leaders steeped in cur- riculum, instruction, and assessment who can coach, teach, develop, and distribute leader- ship to those in their charge.