It is National Principals Month. The good folks over at NAESP, NASSP, and AFSA have designated October the one month of the year when “we honor the hard work and dedication of America’s principals.” Over at www.principalsmonth.org, there is a virtual cornucopia of all things principal worth checking out.

Over at the Learning First Alliance, they have a blog post from Stephanie Hull, EVP and COO of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, on how we can truly celebrate principals by providing principal preparation programs that align with the needs of today’s schools and best position leaders for success. As Dr. Hull writes:

The research is equally clear, though, as to the importance of school principals. In fact, principals account for at least 25 percent of a school’s total impact on student achievement, according to research conducted by organizations such as ASCD and the Wallace Foundation. Principals create the necessary conditions for teachers to succeed—the individual support, the technology, the facilities, the interface with parents and policy leaders.

She then details the five key lessons the Woodrow Wilson Foundation has learned from its work to transform education leader preparation in states like Indiana, New Mexico, and Wisconsin. It’s well worth the read. Check it (and other many other interesting posts on the LFA blog) out.