The Principals’ Leadership Academy of Nashville (PLAN) was officially birthed in the fall of 2000 as a formal partnership between Metro Nashville Public Schools, Vanderbilt University, and The Nashville Public Education Foundation. Its mission is to develop educational leaders who creatively and courageously propel teaching and learning. These leaders understand and apply professional practices, concepts, and values in learning, leadership, organizations, and policy.

PLAN is based on the foundational belief that principals make a profound difference in the quality and culture of a school and is intended to support Metro schools’ superintendent’s transformation of our community’s schools. Leaders at every level of the system must be encouraged, supported, and developed as they move from being building level administrators to strong instructional leaders. The Academy asserts that principals in all stages of their professional lives need the assistance of other professionals.

The Academy’s participants are selected from a nomination list generated by the director of Metro Schools. They are chosen to become part of PLAN because they have demonstrated unusual initiative, intelligence, and a willingness to think about schools in new ways. In addition, they have shown they have the courage to pursue these avenues in the best interest of students.

Program participants are comprised of three groups. The first group, program participants, is aspiring principals or new principals. The second group is “peer coaches” who are experienced principals and serve as advisors to the Academy participants. The third group is comprised of current Metro Principal’s who are  PLAN alumni.  These principals are invited to be advisors to current participants and to attend  on-going learning opportunities.

Have you ever participated in log rolling?  Successful rollers have the ability to understand the importance of both the smallest and largest of movements. Incorrect assessment, navigation and responses could land them in a very saturated and disengaged circumstance.  Not only were they out of the action, but they would have to create an opportunity to re-enter the competition.

School leadership is like rolling logs.  Required is agility, understanding, balance and the ability to recognize the interrelatedness of the moving parts.  To be too aggressive is to run over the goal and miss the mark.  To be too conservative is to watch while opportunity passes by. Courageous navigation demands vision, courage and competence. The ability to stay on the log while it constantly spins in ever changing directions requires perseverance and commitment.

PLAN, The Principal Leadership Academy of Nashville, seeks to develop a new breed of school leader that “creatively and courageously” propel learning in the schools they lead.  Thoughtful and effective change in school is intentional and the result of leadership. That change can only occur when well prepared and thoughtful leaders understand and shape the inevitable.