NAESP Foundation

This first-of-its-kind research in the Leaders We Need Now series shows the impact of the unprecedented crises of 2020–2021 on the principal profession and what principals need to help students and schools recover and succeed. To better understand how those crises have changed the profession and how to meet the new needs of principals and schools, NAESP and the NAESP Foundation asked the American Institutes for Research to conduct focus groups of NAESP members between April and June 2021. In the three briefs, principals recount how their schools changed in 2020–2021, speculate about which changes might endure, and identify new challenges associated with the changes; describe how the events of 2020–2021 shaped the priorities of their profession and what the principalship may look like in the future; and specify what their schools need from policymakers as they continue to grapple with the effects and aftershocks of the events of 2020 and early 2021.

Since 1967, leading American business firms have helped bring educational excellence to American children attending schools overseas through the Overseas Schools Advisory Council (OSAC). The Department of State established OSAC to seek the advice of American leaders from the business, foundation, and educational communities in pursuing the goal of assuring quality education for American children attending Department-assisted schools overseas, which are known as American overseas schools. OSAC is one of the longest standing advisory committees in the Federal Government and is subject to review and renewal every two years under the Federal Advisory Committee Act.

OSAC encourages U.S. corporate and foundation participation to support its principal objectives. These include: 1) providing advice on policy and sources of financial and personnel support for American overseas schools; 2) helping these schools become centers of excellence in education; and 3) helping make service abroad more attractive to American citizens with school-age children, both in the business community and in the U.S. government.

School leadership is second only to teaching among school-related factors in its impact on student learning, according to research. NAESP partners with The Wallace Foundation to disseminate research-based insights into school leadership and how to improve our nation’s public schools, especially those serving the children with the fewest advantages in life.

The National Elementary Honor Society (NEHS) was established in 2008 by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) in partnership with the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP). NEHS recognizes students in both public and nonpublic elementary schools for their outstanding academic achievement and demonstrated personal responsibility. Through NEHS, students provide meaningful service to the school and community and develop essential leadership skills. NEHS supports these purposes by strengthening the lives of our nation’s elementary students and the schools in which they are enrolled.

The Dawn Hochsprung Tree of Life Memorial was created to honor elementary and middle school principals who made an “extraordinary sacrifice” during their career as an educator.

In honor of Sandy Hook Elementary School principal Dawn Hochsprung, the memorial was dedicated on February 21, 2014 and is located at NAESP Headquarters in Alexandria, VA.

Contact foundation@naesp.org for more information.