Presented by the Black Principals Network

Our most recent Black Principals Network annual survey was administered to principals and school leaders across the network to better understand their lived experiences, evolving needs, and priorities in the role. As leaders continue to navigate increasing demands, accountability pressures, and systemic challenges, three clear trends surfaced from the data: a growing need for sustainability, a clear preference for depth in professional learning, and a strong desire for values-aligned leadership over compliance-driven expectations. 

These trends call for a collective shift away from short-term coping and into long-term leadership practices that center restoration and sustainability. Principals are not asking how to push harder; they are asking how to sustain themselves and the work. 

Introducing RESET

In January, we introduced the RESET Framework through our Professional Learning Series. We introduced it, not as a new initiative, but as a response to what principals were already naming. RESET emerged from listening closely to leaders who were navigating relentless pressure while being asked to lead with vision, steadiness, and hope. The framework was designed to meet the needs of this moment. 

We recognized that many principals were operating in environments where urgency had become the default, and reflection felt like a luxury. Decisions were being made quickly, publicly, and under scrutiny, oftentimes without the space to pause, process, and recalibrate. RESET was introduced to interrupt that pattern. 

RESET offers principals a disciplined, healing-centered way to slow the moment down without disengaging from the work. It creates space to restore capacity, examine what is actually happening beneath the noise, and identify high-leverage leadership moves that are both strategic and values-aligned. Rather than asking leaders to do more, RESET helps them discern what matters most and act from clarity rather than depletion. 

Applying the RESET framework

Within the Professional Learning Series, principals applied the RESET framework to real leadership challenges, including staffing decisions, cultural tensions, policy conflicts, and personal capacity. Through this process, leaders practiced slowing down to examine assumptions, clarify priorities, and determine one or two intentional, high-leverage actions that would meaningfully shift their leadership practice, team, and school community. 

RESET supports principals in: 

• Restoring capacity before producing more output. 
• Examining challenges with honesty and discernment. 
• Recalibrating leadership moves towards sustainability. 
• Acting with intention instead of reaction. 

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RESET, unpacked as an acronym, invites principals to walk through five reflective moves. Each move is designed to slow the moment down without stalling progress. 

Recall

RESET begins with recall - naming what actually happened. 

This step invites principals to describe the leadership moment or challenge as it occurred, without editing, minimizing, or justifying. Recall resists the urge to jump to solutions or self-critique. It asks leaders to stay close to the facts before interpreting them. Recall restores accuracy. 

Extract

From recall, leaders move to extracting the learning. 

Here, principals identify what the moment revealed about themselves, their systems, their teams, or their leadership patterns. This is where insight emerges. Here principals notice what’s working, what’s not working, and what the moment exposed that had previously gone unseen. Extracting learning turns experience into wisdom. 

Stop

RESET, then ask a courageous question: What must stop?

This step names behaviors, patterns, mindsets, and beliefs that are no longer serving the leader, students, and the work. For some principals, this means stopping over-functioning. For others, this means letting go of perfectionism, urgency, or the need to carry everything alone. Stopping is not failure; it is discernment. 

Embed

From there, leaders name what must be embedded. 

This is where reflection becomes design. Principals identify new practices, boundaries, systems, or ways of showing up that need to become consistent. Embedding might look like building in protected thinking time, redistributing leadership, or establishing clearer expectations with staff. Insight without structure will not last. 

Transform

Finally, RESET asks leaders to consider what they should transform as a result. 

Transformation is not abstract. Transformation is practical and observable. Here, leaders name how their decision-making, presence, or leadership posture shifts when they act from clarity instead of urgency. This step helps principals see that small, intentional changes can produce meaningful impact over time. Transformation is not about becoming someone new. It is about leading from a more grounded version of yourself. 

Together, these five moves help principals move from reaction to reflection to intentional action. RESET does not remove the complexity of the role, but it equips leaders to navigate it with greater clarity, alignment, and ultimately, sustainability. 

As we reflect on the moment we’re in, one truth stands out: Black principals are not struggling because they lack commitment or capacity. They are leading in systems that rarely pause to consider sustainability for the ladder. RESET is our response to that reality. It is a disciplined choice to lead with clarity instead of urgency. At BPN, we remain committed to building spaces where Black school leaders are supported not just to persist, but to thrive.

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