Automatically apply for jobs with Zippia

Upload your resume to get started.

K-12 school principal skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

1 min read

Quoted experts

Linda Vogel Ph.D.,

Nathan Boles

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical k-12 school principal skills. We ranked the top skills for k-12 school principals based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 38.7% of k-12 school principal resumes contained curriculum development as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a k-12 school principal needs to be successful in the workplace.

5 k-12 school principal skills for your resume and career

1. Curriculum Development

Here's how k-12 school principals use curriculum development:

Facilitate and manage grade-level curriculum development, ensuring alignment with learning foundations, curriculum framework, and the common core standards.
Created data reports that increased high leverage student success strategies ranging from curriculum development and credit retrieval to student planning meetings.

2. Professional Development

Professional development means to have the essential training certification or education with the purpose of earning and having a successful career. Every job requires a different set of skills. However, new skills may be needed in the future. Professional development, in this regard, helps people to develop and polish the skills and become efficient workers.

Here's how k-12 school principals use professional development:

Provided professional development for teachers as needed in the use of the curriculum and ancillary materials for the assigned programs.
Improved professional responsibility and accountability through participation in professional development.

3. Mathematics

Here's how k-12 school principals use mathematics:

Designed and facilitated dynamic and effective staff development programs for language arts, mathematics, discipline, and character education.
Presented at the International Polar Year summer Science Technology Engineering Mathematics Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

4. Instructional Leadership

Here's how k-12 school principals use instructional leadership:

Maintained administrative responsibility and instructional leadership.
Provide instructional leadership, academic performance data/analysis and guidance/support for an effective learning environment.

5. Staff Development

Here's how k-12 school principals use staff development:

Coordinated and participated in weekly common prep activities/meetings, as well as staff development activities.
Initiated and facilitated staff development activities, observed, evaluated and recorded my observations of teaching staff.

What skills help K-12 School Principals find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What k-12 school principal skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Linda Vogel Ph.D.

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Professor & Program Coordinator, Website

The easy answer is to apply to a school/district in a higher SES urban area. However, small, rural schools are in desperate need of effective teachers and also for effective school and district leaders. Few educators who remain in the classroom or who take on leadership roles are motivated primarily by the financial rewards, so one needs to understand what motivates them and what contexts they feel most comfortable and fulfilled.

What type of skills will young k-12 school principals need?

Nathan Boles

Assistant Professor of INS (Intervention Specialist) Program, Central State University

The current state of our country, due to COVID-19, will be a challenge for current and future graduates from the college of education. Rethinking and revising how instruction can be delivered to students, especially those with disabilities, has been one of the main topics for providing a safe learning environment. Graduates will need to have the tenacity to face various challenges that our local schools face during virtual learning and classroom changes.

Creativity, flexibility, and being a system thinker is imperative for young graduates entering the workforce. Having the ability to make critical adjustments to their mental models for creating a conducive and productive learning environment for their students is crucial. Recent and future graduates who have or will obtain their teaching license must understand and empathize with their teaching students, how our country's condition has had a tremendous effect on the families of the students they will be serving. Being a highly qualified teacher (HQT) in the specific content area is vital, but using technology and different learning management systems (LMS) will be of great importance to the schools they serve.

Do you want to know more?

List of k-12 school principal skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a k-12 school principal resume and required skills for a k-12 school principal to have include:

Curriculum Development
Professional Development

Mathematics
Instructional Leadership

Staff Development

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse executive management jobs