Principal Pulse Check | We asked: What is one thing you’ve done to improve or support student attendance this fall?
Check out responses from your peers. Next week, consider contributing an idea and resource for a new next prompt. We started doing conferences early with families that had chronic absenteeism last year. Once they already hit 3 absences we scheduled a parent meeting this quarter. It has helped us come up with creative solutions to help get students to school more often. Every five weeks I send an email to all students…
Beyond the Desk: A Strategic Approach to Showing Up – Why Principals Belong on Field Trips
In the bustling world of education, it's easy for a school principal to get caught up in the day-to-day demands of managing a building. Schedules, budgets, discipline—the list goes on. But what if one of the most impactful things a principal could do has nothing to do with a spreadsheet or a meeting? What if it's as simple as getting on a school bus? The image of a principal on a field…
Preparing for the Principalship: Michigan Leadership Fellows Applications Now Open
The Michigan Leadership Fellows, a collaboration between the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP) and the Michigan College Access Network (MCAN), is now accepting applications for its 2026 cohort. This 18-month fellowship is designed to prepare Assistant Principals, Deans, and district leaders to become the next generation of equity-minded, transformative school principals across Michigan. Grounded in the 4 Dimensions of Leadership from the Center for Educational Leadership and Behavioral Elementsⓒ, the…
Learning with Intention in the Age of AI
I had the chance to hear Vriti Saraf present at the ASU+GSV conference last spring, and her focus on AI literacy and redefining 21st-century skills has stuck with me. In her piece, she describes certain uses of AI tools as “counterfeit humans.” They can crank out lesson plans, worksheets, or essays that look fine on the surface, but they can’t replace the deeper value of a real teacher: building relationships, connecting learning…
From the Classroom to the Office, and Back Again
Principal Jessica Vanderbrook left Lake City High for MSU as a teenager and discovered some students had an advantage: AP classes. Returning to LCHS as a teacher, she vowed that wouldn’t happen to other Trojans. The school offers six AP classes – and she teaches one of them. Walking from the office to the conference room her five senior AP Calc students call home, kids say “Hi!” as they pass by after…
Tell Your Story – If you don’t, someone else will
If you do a quick scroll through the headlines of a news website, whether it is local or national, you are bound to stumble across a story about education or a school district. Sharing stories about students and schools is popular reading material! Unfortunately, many of the stories about schools that you will find in the news are not always, or sometimes ever, positive stories. I believe that every district and every…
MiCAREER: The Grant-Funded Solution for Addressing Rural Staffing Shortages
The Michigan Consortium for Addressing Rural Education Expansion and Retention (MiCAREER) is asking to connect with MASSP members, offering a vital resource to help fill vacant teaching and administrative positions, particularly within rural school districts. Funded through a Michigan Department of Education (MDE) grant, MiCAREER provides no cost pathways to credentials. This collaboration network actively partners with districts, ISDs, and ESDs to assist in recruiting efforts. MiCAREER helps districts staff critical roles by seeking…
Stay on the Right Track with Student Searches
When school officials understand the rules and follow best practices with student searches, they can stay on the right side of the law. Knowing what constitutes a search, the “reasonable suspicion” standard school officials must meet at the outset, and how to tailor the search based on the items sought will help school officials stay legally compliant. At school, students generally have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their personal items, such…
MDE Concludes Public Comment on Updated Health Education Standards
The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) recently concluded its public comment period on the proposed Michigan Health Education Standards Framework, marking a significant step toward modernizing Michigan’s nearly 20-year-old health education standards. The updated framework reflects today’s health landscape and places greater emphasis on topics such as mental and emotional health, safety, healthy relationships, nutrition and physical activity, and digital wellness—all designed to better support the overall well-being of Michigan students. As…
Principal Pulse Check | We asked: What instructional practice is working really well in your classrooms right now?
Thinking Classrooms. They are getting students engaged and visually learning. Vertical learning spaces (math). Student dialogue supported through Building Thinking Classrooms (Math). A & B partner protocols to help scaffold student talk with discipline specific content. Query Based Instruction Using AI to differentiate learning for students. Restorative circles from Ali Hearn is a districtwide goal and we are also including more student choice/autonomy. We had a teacher share a great grouping strategy…