One of the keys to being a great school leader is communication: being able to talk, get into, and understand the school's culture.  This is necessary for any school leader who wishes to drive sustainable change.

However, great leaders are not “lone rangers” — they should develop and rely on leadership teams, distribute responsibility among staff, and partner with the district and the community. 

In order to do so, they need to be accessible to parents, students, and staff through a variety of mediums, including, but not limited to:

• One-on-one meetings
• Group forums
• Phone
• Email

It also requires school leaders to consistently reach out to parents and staff in order to maintain open lines of communication, such as:

• Weekly newsletters
• Weekly staff meetings
• Daily updates to school website

Moving towards an increasingly diverse student population is a fact of the American education system.  As such, the importance of both multicultural communication and speaking more than one language increases rapidly for those who wish to lead such a diverse school community.