In 1984, when the College of Education's Principals Center was first founded, it offered a session on "Women and Minorities in Leadership Positions," designed to smooth the way for a diverse workplace that, these days, we all but take for granted. Fast forward to the summer of 2009, when the Center conducted a session called "What Principals Should Know: The Virtual Lives of Teachers and Students," so principals could help their community avoid the pitfalls of social networking on the Internet.
 
Clearly, the world has changed a lot during the Principals Center's first 25 years, but one thing has not: its ongoing commitment to giving principals the tools they need for the times they live in.
 
The Center is under the leadership of Rhonda Tighe, a Georgia State University alumna (Ph.D., ´88) and former high school principal with 34 years in public schools. Tighe, aided by a two-person staff, oversees the Center's popular Expert Leaders Series, in addition to a range programs including the Tool Box Series, Turnaround Leadership, and the New Principals Celebration. The overriding goal in everything the Principals Center does is to help principals so they can help teachers and students. "Increasing student achievement. That's it in a nutshell," Tighe says.
 
The Principals Center is now one of about 40 nationwide. Year after year, as principals have opened their school doors not just to teachers and students but to new technologies, new state and federal mandates, new social mores, and new economic realities, the Principals Center has been there for them. Now, as it celebrates its 25th anniversary, the Principals Center is poised to find more and better ways to serve principals with professional development that helps them meet the challenges they face every day.
 
For more information on the Principals Center, visit www.principalscenter.org.