The Role of Elementary and Secondary School Principals Principals currently play multiple roles: school manager, instructional leader, and the leader of school reform. With this shift in role focus, principals retained their management roles.

As the accountability movement gained momentum, the role of the principal changed from school manager to school instructional leader and then to the school reform leader. The management role included some curriculum and instruction supervision, but overall school management was the primary role principals played until the early 1980s. As managers, principals were responsible for financial operations, building maintenance, student scheduling, personnel, public relations, school policy regarding discipline, coordination of the instructional program, and other overall school matters. Most principals soon stopped teaching because of the many demands their management responsibilities placed on their time. As schools continued to grow, principal teachers became full-time administrators in most schools. These teachers were called principal teachers. This need was filled initially by teachers, who continued to teach while also dealing with their school's management needs. Around the beginning of the twentieth century, as schools grew from one-room schoolhouses into schools with multiple grades and classrooms, the need arose for someone to manage these more complex organizations. In an era of shared decision-making and site-based management, the term school leader may also be used in reference to other school administrators and leaders within the school such as assistant principals, lead teachers, and others who participate in school leadership activities. Principals, head masters, and others who are responsible for the overall operation of a school are often called school leaders. In some school districts, a single person functions as superintendent and principal. Head masters have many of the same responsibilities as principals, but they may engage in additional activities such as fund-raising. The highest-ranking school level administrator in some private schools is called the head master.

Principals typically report directly to the school superintendent, but may report to the superintendent's designee, usually an associate superintendent, in larger school districts. During a Deferral Period, the property shall continue to be considered to be the principal residence of any Non-Borrowing Spouse, who is temporarily in a health care institution, provided he or she qualified as an Eligible Non-Borrowing Spouse and physically occupied the property immediately prior to entering the health care institution and his or her residency in a health care institution does not exceed twelve consecutive months.The school principal is the highest-ranking administrator in an elementary, middle, or high school. The property shall be considered to be the principal residence of any Non-Borrowing Spouse, who is temporarily in a health care institution, as long as the property is the principal residence of his or her borrower spouse, who physically resides in the property. The property shall be considered to be the principal residence of any borrower who is temporarily in a health care institution provided the borrower's residency in a health care institution does not exceed twelve consecutive months. A person may have only one principal residence at any one time.

Principal residence means the dwelling where the borrower and, if applicable, Non-Borrowing Spouse, maintain their permanent place of abode, and typically spend the majority of the calendar year.

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