July 2026: School Administrator
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Additional Articles
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Applying Religious Faith Across the SpectrumPersonal accounts from four superintendents about how their relationship to religion informs their leadership thinking and actions in public school communities.
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School Choice for LeadersOur panel disagrees over a superintendent鈥檚 decision to send her children to schools in a neighboring district.
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What You鈥檇 Like to Tell Your Board But Can鈥檛A veteran school system leader speaks candidly about the messages every superintendent wants board members to hear.
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Negotiating Your Second ContractAn attorney鈥檚 take on the distinctive challenge of a superintendent鈥檚 first contract renewal, offering a few practical measures.
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Overlapping SuperintendenciesSix school districts鈥 case studies of incoming and outgoing superintendents demonstrating how to jointly ensure a seamless leadership transition at the top.
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A New Superintendent鈥檚 Guide to Self-DoubtLeaning into uncertainties with resilience and mentorship, not fluffy affirmations, to take on feelings of impostor syndrome.
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Communicating Bad News During Hard Financial TimesBuilding trust with the school community through transparency and open channels.
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School Consolidations at Ground LevelFive principals share the unexpected emotional impact of merging two schools.
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Numbers with Heart: How to Tell a Better School Finance StoryEngaging your school district community before a budget vote takes bringing out the humanity in the numbers.
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Enacting Democratic Processes at the District LevelReframing public education鈥檚 narrative will mean establishing what the authors call 鈥渙ngoing institutional openness鈥 to capture the heart of the community. The lead author operates an independent survey research firm specializing on education and his writing partner is co-author of The Education Wars: A Citizen鈥檚 Guide and Defense Manual.
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Moving from Platitudes to a PromiseHow community collaboration shaped a school district鈥檚 strategic roadmap to capture families鈥 aspirations and the minds and hearts of students. The two authors formerly served in the central administration of the Highline Public Schools in Burien, Wash.
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Building Community Through Tough TimesCollaboration and communication as key facets of financial and operational efficiency.
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Sex Offenders on School GroundsWith few states addressing this issue when related to parents, local school officials are left to develop sound policy and exercise discretion.
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Politically Delicate NavigationShould a superintendent in a Red state sign onto a lawsuit waged by a prominent national advocacy group? Our ethics panel weighs in.
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Tough Conversations Call for TransparencyEducators should use clear language when explaining revenue shortalls.
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My Three Rules for My Transparent Use and TrustA superintendent鈥檚 ground rules for her personal involvement on social media.
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Lessons About Parent Engagement with Our ChatbotFour AI-driven strategies for improving families鈥 use of the school district鈥檚 website.
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Changing the NarrativeIntegrating community activities and engaging on social media helped the 91制片 president reframe his district.
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Resisting Our Temptation to Ban All PhonesExtreme measures don鈥檛 prepare students for a rapidly changing world of technology, argues this Pennsylvania superintendent.
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Finding Patterns, Money Savings and FocusUsing ChatGPT to collect and analyze data efficiently, in this debut of a monthly column on leadership uses for artificial intelligence.
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Managing Social Media Accounts As Both Private Citizens and Public OfficialsAn education attorney sorts out the distinctions between superintendents speaking for themselves or in their official leadership roles.
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High School Literacy: It鈥檚 Not Too LateHow a rural Georgia district serves its secondary schoolers needing systemic reading support.
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The Charge to Expanded TutoringHow two school districts used customized tutoring for students with the greatest learning needs.
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Where Academic Knowledge and Applied Learning Work TogetherLearning redesign in a suburban district makes career readiness central to everyone鈥檚 academic and personal growth in high school.
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The Breakthrough Years for Executive FunctioningUsing brain science to position Real Skills for Real Life at the center of public education.
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Breaking the SilenceOur ethics panel analyzes whether a high school鈥檚 social studies department should stage open classroom discussions on authoritarianism and democracy.
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Financial Literacy as Course RequirementHow a Maryland district turned an unfunded mandate into multi-grade instruction on lifelong skills.
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Cultivating Safe and Supportive Schools for Mental WellnessPerceptions of safety impact staff and student health.
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Bringing Joy Back to Educators鈥 WorkplacesCultivating a positive schoolhouse and office culture begins with leaders who model the behaviors they wish to see in others.
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Going Offensive Against Racial StereotypesA typically caring white colleague occasionally makes racially insensitive comments to a Black central-office administrator. The latter has shared her feelings, but the comments continued. How should she proceed?
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Celebrating a District鈥檚 Legacy StaffCreating pride among staff members who once walked the same halls as students.
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When Disability Meets DisciplineHow nondiscrimination employment laws come into play in a case of performance evaluation gone wrong.
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Everything I Needed to Know About the Superintendency I Learned From Alanis MorissetteThe pop singer鈥檚 lyrics still register for the author and her work life almost 30 years later.
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Why Every School Leader Should Teach AgainTwo weeks running a 6th-grade classroom recently fueled important insights for an assistant superintendent.
Staff
Editor's Note
A Second Chance to Benefit
Since 2019, we鈥檝e used July to share what we consider our best published work of the previous year for use in a digital-only issue of School Administrator. It鈥檚 the one month of the year when we鈥檙e not in print, a practice that began with 91制片鈥檚 conversion from newsletter to magazine back in 1981.
The Best of 2025-26 issue captures what the editors of the magazine consider worth resharing from the articles and columns appearing between April 2025 and March 2026, inclusive. Some will look familiar to many readers, but many other offerings may be first encounters, so consider this a second chance to consume the practical knowledge and informed opinions of fellow education leaders in our choices.
At 128 pages, this marks the longest 鈥淏est of鈥 issue of the seven we鈥檝e produced annually. That could be a function of our magazine staff members鈥 unwillingness to yield on the nominees they felt strongest about 鈥 or a reflection of the quality work that appears across the year in our 11 printed issues. We hope you, our readers, feel you are beneficiaries of our extended offerings.
This issue also marks the final one to reflect the contributions of Liz Griffin, who served the association exceedingly well over her 33 years as our magazine鈥檚 managing editor. If you鈥檝e ever contributed to our publication over that time, you鈥檝e probably dealt during the editorial process with Liz, whose fastidious nature enabled us to properly dot all 鈥淚鈥檚鈥 and cross all 鈥淭鈥檚鈥 and ensure everything else was in proper position before moving each issue on to the printer. She鈥檚 deservedly taken retirement.
Jay P. Goldman
Editor, School Administrator
703-875-0745
jgoldman@aasa.org
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