Discovering strategies of support to build distinguished school executives

According to Reeves (2006), "the demands of leadership almost invariably exceed the capacity of a single person to meet the needs at hand" (p. 32).This research study intended to identify challenges that school administrators face in their profession and how school district leaders can offer supportive strategies to alleviate these obstacles.Through a qualitative approach, interviews with school principals and district administrators in one school system were carried out to discover trend data that would validate the commonalities of principals' needs and describe potential solutions for district staff to implement. This research was specifically linked to the North Carolina School Executive Standards (SES) adopted by the State Board of Education as the new evaluation tool for school administrators.The seven leadership standards outlined in the SES served as a guide during interviews and prompted discussion in each function to determine the supportive mechanisms needed to build capacity for distinguished school executives.The purpose of this study was to benefit the thoughtful process of evaluation that will be required by districts in order to meet the expectations of the new evaluation model.The study should also contribute to the ongoing efforts of other scholarly works that attempt to identify the complexities of the principalship and the need for sustainable support