The Principalship: For What Purpose?

As we have repeatedly pointed out throughout this volume, there is more to being a principal and more to an effective principalship than understanding and mastering the knowledge and skills represented by the 21 NPBEA performance domains. The primary purpose of the NBPEA knowledge base and performance domains was to produce a new better way of developing principals who would lead better schools. To that end, the 21 domains were established as a systematic approach to the principalship for principals and for those who prepare and evaluate principals. But mastery of the 21 domains by any individual principal will not automatically result in him or her becoming an excellent or even a good principal. There is something beyond the simple accumulation of competence that distinguishes outstanding principals from their peers. Precise definitions of this "something else" are elusive, although people often comment that they recognize it when they see it. As Thomas R. Carper, the governor of Delaware, put it, "I've never been to a great school where they don't have a great principal" (cited in Olsen, 1999, p. 2).