How a Principal Creates a Culture of Consistency

Effective Teaching

by Harry & Rosemary Wong
Special to the Gazette
August 2011 

Karen Whitney arrived in Sisseton, South Dakota, three years ago and in her first year as a principal, there were not only 578 office referrals, but 87 inches of snow.  This past year office referrals dropped drastically, with only 193 referrals, and was accompanied with a rise in student achievement.  But, to everyone’s dismay, the snow kept falling! Karen is principal of Sisseton Middle School, a school placed inside the homeland of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribe, a branch of the Sioux group of Native Americans, on the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation.  Native Americans make up slightly more than 50 percent of the student population. Continued at this link...