This book explores the multidimensional roles of the school principal, including instructional leader, resource manager, social architect of learning, and community organizer and activist.

Dr. Isola is the principal who led the successful turnaround effort at Sanchez School over 13 years. Readers will readily relate to his perspective, examples, and stories about:
• the principal’s roles in school transformation,
• the principal’s efforts to balance attention to top-down reform mandates with socioemotional and instructional approaches that lead to real student learning, and
• the principal’s collaborations for shared leadership, family engagement, and teacher agency.

This is a story told by a principal, Raymond R. Isola, and a university researcher, Jim Cummins, to illustrate the dynamic and complex processes of education reform during a turbulent time in the history of education in this country. It is a tale of a principal and his staff making choices in the best interests of their students.