Reporter Joshua Benton describes how principal Nancy Hambrick turned around a failing middle school in Texas in "Principal demands perfection, gets it," The Dallas Morning News, September 29, 2002. But it can work the other way, too. After the last in a string of popular principals retired, top-scoring P.S. 87 in Manhattan struggled when it was assigned an interim principal with no leadership experience and a tin ear, according to reporter Katherine Marsh in "Fingers Crossed," The New York Times, September 29, 2002.
