What Teachers Need from Leaders - From A Former Principal and Current Coach

By Stephen Prince, Master Teacher, Cross County School District, Arkansas

NIET Fellow Stephen Prince began his career in education in 2005 as a high school English teacher after spending several years in the food service industry. Now he is an experienced educator with 18 years of teaching and learning experience. Prince excitedly transitioned from a Principal position into a Master Teacher role at Cross County High School for the 2024-2025 school year. His strong commitment to education and passion for instructional excellence continue to serve his district and school well. To learn more about his selection as an NIET Fellow, click here.

“How do you eat an elephant?” a colleague once asked me during my time as a principal at Cross County High School. My answer: “One bite at a time.” That mindset has stuck with me through my educational career ever since, and it perfectly captures what it takes to build a culture of support for teachers. Whether you're leading in a small, rural school with 300 students or a large, urban campus with 3,000, helping teachers grow requires intentional, digestible steps and a collaborative team.

Having served as both a teacher leader and a principal, I know firsthand what it takes to help educators succeed in both roles. Teacher leadership is as much about being a relentless advocate for teacher growth as it is about students, and teacher success comes with effective coaching and consistent support. Since working with NIET, I have seen this commitment and support to development show its impact in Cross County. During my time as principal, our school grew from a D score to a B score over about 8 years, and my support as a teacher leader helped drive the growth of the educators I worked with. That progress included several teachers who increased their teacher growth scores significantly over three years, ensuring that all levels of school roles - from principal to teacher leader and career teacher - are unified in goals, and a step-by-step mindset can set up schools for the success that we have seen in Cross County School District. This work has been amplified through our partnership with NIET and the implementation of their structures. 

The Role of A Principal in Teacher Support 

When I first began working as a school principal, a role that I stayed in for 16 years, it immediately became clear to me that teachers needed more support. Was it challenging? Yes - but it was my charge to find a solution. While principals have a significant responsibility, the first step to driving student outcomes is recognizing that teachers are at the heart of the school. This requires that educators are supported instructionally in the classroom. The concept of being in the field with my teachers and deeply embedded into the work they do as an administrator is a practice that NIET encourages, and one that helps leverage trust and credibility within a school. An effective principal is not just a principal who goes to all the weekly instructional collaboration meetings, but one who jumps in and rolls their sleeves up with the teacher leaders to grow teachers, who have the ultimate direct impact on student achievement.

I saw this clearly with one of our very own former students of Cross County School District, Stephanie Blake, who returned excited and nervous to teach Health Science courses as an Athletic Trainer at Cross County High School. As a graduate of our school district, I wanted this to be her home. She was a non-traditional teacher working on an alternative pathway to licensure. She strived to be great and had the innate spark to be a great teacher. I knew I had to help ensure she did not lose her spark. 

As a principal, I had many conversations with Ms. Blake about instructional practices. She attended instructional collaboration meetings, implemented best practices, but I still worried that she was losing that drive for teaching within her first year. I began to work more closely with her, giving her more direct feedback and observing small bites of her lessons, focusing on specific areas of our instructional rubric. Slowly, she began to grasp more and more of what effective instruction looks and sounds like. 

When principals show they are invested in their educators from day one, it helps build their confidence not only in the classroom but in the great community of their school - as was the case for Ms. Blake. Through one-on-one coaching, observation cycles, and clear expectations of our instructional rubric, the NIET Teaching and Learning Standards Rubric, we kept the flame lit for her, and from there, it only grew.

The 2023-2024 school year brought a new challenge: Ms. Blake was going to be teaching science for the first time to 7th graders, and prepare them for a new state test. I knew she could handle it, but I also knew there would be a learning curve. We approached the process the same way - piece by piece, so as not to be overwhelmed by new content, strategies, and material. By last school year, she celebrated earning a Level 5 in one of the areas of our rubric, a shining reflection of the investments she made with our support. Her marked improvement in her instructional practices showed in our 2024-2025 data as well. Her students scored 45% proficient compared to the state’s 30% on a state assessment, while scoring 45% proficient compared to the state’s 36% on the same assessment.

Principals play a critical role in modeling the commitment and effort it takes to elevate instructional excellence across the school. While I served in this position for years, I recently felt it was time for me to return to a role as a teacher leader, where I could help make an impact in growing teachers around the clock. 

The Role of a Teacher Leader in Teacher Support

The calling to return to being a coach turned into a reality for me in the 2024-2025 school year. I was motivated to make the shift to be even more involved in teacher support and growth, and have more opportunities to coach teachers. I am still coaching Ms. Blake, who has made much progress in her development as an instructor. In instructional collaboration meetings, we discuss her curriculum, how she will teach a specific skill, and continue our lesson planning sessions. Just as a principal needs to be an instructional leader, it is even more integral for a teacher leader to be a strong instructional leader. I have continued to support Ms. Blake by being in her classroom, providing coaching conversations, and leaning into her strengths as a teacher to build her up. 

From the teacher leaders' perspective, I can devote more time to supporting teachers like Ms. Blake. I also realized, as a former principal, that the teacher leader is the principal’s support system and anchor. Teacher leaders provide information and insight into what is effective with teachers and what can be improved, and work to translate instructional strategies from conversations with administration to the classroom. Being a teacher leader is more than just leading instructional collaboration meetings and giving scores. It’s a game of strategy, one that ends with teachers being the champions. 

As I continue to work with Ms. Blake, I’ve seen her instruction consistently improve, and she works tirelessly to support her students’ success. I believe effective coaching and support were key in retaining her and building her confidence. But teacher leadership doesn’t only build up the confidence and instructional practices of the teacher being coached - it also builds confidence for teacher leaders and administration, who become unified in their goals and strategies and bring cohesion to instruction across a school. As a teacher leader, I can balance that support for so many teachers, as well as the principal. 

Working as a principal and a teacher leader has shown me that educators can make a difference in their schools regardless of their role. Both the position I held and the one I am in now are important to effectively elevate teachers and instruction in a larger school system. Adopting NIET’s practices and structures, and having their support along the way within the Cross County School District, and as an NIET Fellow, has elevated my own ability to scale out instructional excellence and teacher support to best serve my fellow educators and drive student achievement.