Learn from Principal Moore

You need an outstanding principal to turn a struggling school into a good school. But that apparently doesn't mean you always need two outstanding principals to turn two struggling schools into good schools.

MiShawna Moore, an outstanding principal, has been doing double duty by putting two struggling elementary schools on the Charleston peninsula on the right track. As reported by The Post and Courier's Diette Courrege in a Sunday story aptly titled "Miracle Worker," Principal Moore's dynamic leadership has been the key to the encouraging progress made at Sanders-Clyde and Fraser elementary schools.

That success reconfirms the folly of accepting persistently dismal academic results from schools with low-income enrollments as an inevitable product of the disadvantages far too many children in our community face. Yes, such disadvantages, including a widespread lack of parental support for education, are daunting obstacles to the learning process.

But rather than lamenting parents' apathy, Principal Moore strives to reverse it. Our story cited changes at Sanders-Clyde after she took over in 2003: "When one mother avoided the school, Moore went to her home, listened to her concerns and encouraged her to be part of the school. That same parent began volunteering and spending time in her children's classes. Her kids' scores shot up."

So did many other students' scores as the school's state report card rating soared from "unsatisfactory" to "good."

Meanwhile, though, Fraser Elementary, also downtown, continued to falter. Former district Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson decided to use Principal Moore's proven abilities there, too — but without taking her away from Sanders-Clyde. Before leaving the district last year, Dr. Goodloe-Johnson gave Principal Moore the additional assignment of running Fraser, starting in this school year.

After encountering initial skepticism from Fraser's faculty, Principal Moore has helped produce at least the beginning of a similar resurgence there, reconfirming the difference a positive, committed, innovative principal can make.

Charleston County School District Superintendent Nancy McGinley put that well-established educational maxim this way: "In my view, the principal is the bedrock of the school. There are several things that make a school work well, but by far, the most important is having an excellent leader."

While Principal Moore doesn't get a second salary for being in charge of a second school, she does get a stipend. And while she told our reporter to "focus on the children" because "I don't do much," she obviously does plenty to earn that extra money. As Principal Moore vowed: "I'm not going to allow either school to be short-changed. If I can't do both, I'm going to give it up."

Fortunately, she evidently can do both, at least for the near future. Her extraordinary dedication and skill are helping create better futures for lots of local children. Replicating Principal Moore's effective, inspiring leadership is an enduring challenge in the continuing quest to improve public education.