Collateral Damage in the Middle of Transformation: School Board Politics in Lieu of a Student’s Academic Needs

This case focuses on a novice principal who advocates for a student who was assigned to the first grade for 3 consecutive years. As the instructional leader of the school, the novice principal is troubled by ethics and social justice issues involved to make the decision to assign the student to his age-appropriate grade. The student was placed in the exceptional students’ program to receive services for a specific learning disability in reading and writing during his first year returning to public school. The student will enter the second grade at the age of 9 years. The superintendent does not support the novice principal. The novice principal now has to decide next steps as a transformative leader in the district