August 2026

Throughout more than three decades in education, I’ve come to believe that the most valuable leadership lessons are rarely learned in isolation. They emerge from the work itself, from conversations in hallways, difficult decisions, moments of doubt, and experiences that reshape how we think about leadership.

Voices From the Field is a place to reflect on those experiences and the lessons they continue to teach us about leadership. Some reflections will come from my own journey. Others will feature the voices of EDL faculty, practicing principals, and educational leaders whose work continues to shape our profession.

My hope is that these reflections encourage conversation, challenge assumptions, and remind us that leadership is learned not only through study, but through thoughtful practice.

This first reflection begins with a lesson that fundamentally changed the way I think about school leadership.

What Serving at the National Level Taught Me About Leading Locally

Before I began my year serving as president of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), I found myself losing perspective. Like many school leaders, I was buried in the day-to-day challenges of running a building, staffing issues, student needs, community pressures, and I noticed that my thinking was becoming increasingly reactive. I focused more on problems than possibilities. The work felt heavier than it should.

Stepping away from the daily grind and spending time with principals across the country changed that.

Visiting schools in different states, listening to leaders describe their challenges and successes, and seeing classrooms in action reminded me of something essential: education is not broken. Despite real and persistent challenges, staffing shortages, aging facilities, inequities, educators across the country are doing extraordinary work every single day. What struck me most was not the variety of contexts, but the consistency of leadership themes: the power of relationships, the importance of teacher leadership, the need for coaching and support, and the responsibility school leaders have to shape the narrative about their schools.

Again and again, I heard the same message: leadership is not about having all the answers. It’s about creating the conditions for others to succeed.

That lesson continues to shape how I approach leadership today. I didn’t leave those lessons behind when my year as NASSP president ended. If anything, they’ve become even more relevant. Today, my work centers on preparing aspiring school leaders at the University of Rhode Island, partnering with Rhode Island principals on AI literacy, and staying close to schools to listen to the realities of leadership practice.

Leading locally requires perspective. It means resisting the pull toward constant urgency and negativity and instead focusing on culture, relationships, and purpose. It requires advocating for your community while never losing sight of the students in front of you. And it requires balance, recognizing that sustainable leadership depends on caring for yourself as well as others.

Those lessons became part of how we designed leadership preparation at URI.

Coursework emphasizes real-world problem solving rather than abstract theory. Assignments are field-based and rooted in candidates’ own school contexts. Classes are small to foster trust, dialogue, and professional relationships. Advising and mentoring are central, not peripheral, because leadership development does not happen in isolation.

Just as importantly, the program encourages candidates to reflect on who they are as leaders, how they sustain themselves in the work, and how they advocate for their schools and communities with clarity and purpose. The best preparation for leadership begins with listening to those who continue to do the work. That’s the spirit behind Voices From the Field.

Dan Kelley

Program Director Educational Leadership & Policy