The Reflective Principal: From Can’t to Can

By Tracy BarberPrincipal, May/June 2011 I faced daunting challenges when I became principal of Okolona Elementary School, which serves K-5 students in a low-income community about 10 miles south of downtown Louisville, Kentucky. The school of 440 students, 88 percent of whom qualify for reduced-price lunch, has n unusually high number of students who come from troubled and struggling families and a high transiency rate.