What does it really take to transform a troubled school into one where students thrive? What do principals actually do during the school day? What traits and skills do they consider essential to turning a struggling school around?

Prepared for The Wallace Foundation by Public Agenda, "A Mission of the Heart: Leaders in High-Needs Districts Talk about What It Takes to Transform a School" attempts to understand the best ways to recruit and sustain top leaders in high-needs schools. The study is based on in-depth focus groups with principals in high-needs districts and sixteen one-on-one interviews with superintendents and other high-ranking education officials, including a state superintendent of education.

The study reveals that principals often fall into two distinct categories: "Transformers" and "Copers." Transformers had an explicit vision for what their school might be and a "can do" attitude about changing the status quo. Copers were often caring and well-intentioned, but rarely able to do more than just "cope" with the turmoil of the day. Other observations from the study touch on topics ranging from managing teaching staff to whether top-notch principals are "made" or "born."

"Mission of the Heart" was produced by Education Insights, a unit of Public Agenda dedicated to helping those on the front lines of education reform – teachers, parents, community and school leaders – cooperate more effectively to achieve key education goals. Education Insights’ chief goal is to address the misunderstandings, miscommunications, divisions and lack of consensus that sometimes derail progress.