The Promise of a New Year: Helping Principals Set Goals That Matter

The Promise-Keeper blog series is part of AASA's 2026 "The Promise of Hope" back-to-school campaign, spotlighting AASA members who bring hope to life in their districts every day through courageous decisions, transparent leadership, and student-centered action.

As a new school year approaches, superintendents across the country are reviewing strategic plans, analyzing district-wide performance data, and fine-tuning long-term visions. Yet every experienced leader knows that a strategic plan is only as powerful as its execution at the building level.

A successful school year for students and staff rarely happens by chance. It happens when superintendents move beyond traditional supervisory oversight and actively coach principals to establish sharp, high-leverage building goals—goals that connect to district priorities and focus keenly on student achievement.

From Supervisory Oversight to Collaborative Coaching

A successful school year...happens when superintendents move beyond traditional supervisory oversight and actively coach principals to establish sharp, high-leverage building goals—goals that connect to district priorities and focus keenly on student achievement.

It’s easy to sleepwalk through goal-setting.  The constant influx of new federal and state mandates makes it challenging to stay ahead of the initiatives.  New superintendents may not have sufficient data to inform thoughtful, ambitious goals.  The work that needs to be done may be so overwhelming that no one knows where to begin.  Or, it may have been acceptable practice to develop goals that speak more to building management than to instructional leadership.

Whether you are leading a public school system implementing a board-approved strategic plan or heading an independent school delivering on a board of trustees vision, your role is the same: help the principal maintain clarity.

The Goal-Setting Blueprint

1. Ladder Up

School goals should “ladder up” to district goals.  If a district's priority is expanding early literacy proficiency, the principal’s goal should focus on their school’s RTI protocols, guided reading instruction, professional learning communities (PLCs), or coaching structures within their specific school that will achieve that outcome.

2. Redefine Student Achievement Metrics

Grounding goals in student achievement requires looking beyond a single end-of-year standardized test score. Superintendents should guide principals to incorporate balanced, multi-faceted indicators of success:

• Academic Growth: Diagnostic assessments, formative benchmarks, and growth targets across diverse learning student populations.

• Instructional Quality: Being present in classrooms to monitor instruction, ensure steady pacing, and provide constructive feedback.

• Conditions for Learning: Chronic absenteeism rates, student sense-of-belonging indicators, and staff retention data.

3. "The Rule of Three"

One of the greatest gifts a superintendent can offer a principal is protection from overcommitment. When everything is a priority, nothing is. Require principals to narrow their focus to 2–3 deeply meaningful, measurable goals. Fewer goals allow for deeper execution, clearer communication with staff, and sustained momentum throughout the year.

The Leader’s Playbook

When superintendents invest intentional time in coaching building leaders—helping them ground their work in clear, achievable student outcomes—we do more than streamline operations. We ensure that every teacher is supported, every resource is aligned, and every student experiences a successful year. 

Ideally, goal-setting discussions occur over the summer when the schools are quiet(er) and reflection comes more readily.  Mid- to late August is an equally appropriate time to connect the dots between district goals and individual school/principal goals.  What does this look like?

• Listen First: Begin by asking the principal to share their school's current reality. What does their local data show? What are their staff's immediate needs?  What feedback was provided to the principal in the previous year’s evaluation?

• Bridge the Gap: Help the principal frame their building's specific needs through the lens of district-wide outcomes.

• Equip for Execution: Ensure the goal includes clear commitments from the central office. Does the principal have the professional development budget, data tools, and staffing support required to reach these targets?

Sustain the Momentum 

We would never approve a teacher's goals in September and ignore them until the June evaluation season. Superintendents must hold building goals to the same standard.

Build a cadence of quarterly progress-monitoring check-ins.

Embed these into joint classroom walkthroughs where you and the principal visit classrooms, examine instruction, review interim data, and celebrate early wins.

Trust your principals to use these discussions to catch warning signs early and make quick, smart adjustments before it's too late in the school year.

Lead the Change

The school principal remains the ultimate multiplier of the district’s vision. When superintendents invest intentional time in coaching building leaders—helping them ground their work in clear, achievable student outcomes—we do more than streamline operations. We ensure that every teacher is supported, every resource is aligned, and every student experiences a successful year.  In other words, we’re all rowing in the same direction.

As you finalize your leadership calendar for the weeks ahead, prioritize your goal-alignment sessions with your principals. It may well be the highest-leverage investment you make all year.