The Principals' Center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education is dedicated to the personal and professional development of school principals, assistant principals, headmasters, and other school leaders who influence the character and quality of a school.

The Center is committed to school improvement from within. Our programs and services offer the chance to acquire new perspectives on leadership, engage in personal reflection, and develop professional networks.

Current members bring an extraordinary diversity to The Principal's Center, with backgrounds in elementary, middle and high school settings from urban, rural, suburban, public, private and parochial schools.

Founded in 1981, The Principals’ Center has dedicated itself to the support, development, and improvement of school principals.

According to the founding documents, the major impetus to create a Principals’ Center came from a desire on the part of the Harvard Graduate School of Education to strengthen its connections with schools and to the work of school leaders.

The founder and first director, Roland Barth, set the stage by citing literature that credited principals with being key to effective schools. Barth quoted the conclusion of the 1974 Select Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity of the United States Senate:

“It is the principal’s leadership that sets the tone of the school, the climate for learning, the level of professionalism and morals of teachers, and the degree of concern for what students may or may not become.

If a school is a vibrant, innovative, child-centered place, if it has a reputation for excellence in teaching, if students are performing to the best of their ability, one can almost always point to the principal’s leadership as the key to success.”

Barth added that being a principal posed “a major challenge for research and training as well as new opportunities for practice.” It is just such opportunities for meeting the changing demands of the principalship that motivated the work of The Principals’ Center throughout the past quarter century.

Today, the programs at The Principals’ Center attract educators from all over the world. This is particularly true of the summer institutes, which participants credit with having a profound impact on their practice.

In addition, The Center has an active membership base of principals from across the country and around the globe.

Celebrating its 25th year, The Principals' Center remains committed to its mission of helping principals and other school leaders expand repertoire of skills.