Chapter 9: Pressure of Outside Forces, Stress, and Finding Balance

Superintendent and principal decision making is influenced by a wide variety of internal and external pressures. In this chapter, we highlight outside forces that have changed the landscape of the superintendency and principalship in recent years, the stress conveyed by these forces, and how leaders navigate those stresses in practice. Dilemmas related to increased accountability from state and federal mandates, including the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2002), have certainly contributed to the changed landscape. Additional challenges include highly political environments that encompass coalitions and alliances, greater social diversity in ethnicity and race, conflict internal to school districts, and increasingly complex expectations for schooling (Malen, 1995).