Principals play a key role in the success of their schools and students’ performance (Grissom et al., 2021). At the same time the literature also shows that principals do not feel prepared to lead and support special education programming. This places some of the most academically vulnerable students without the benefit of quality school leadership. This case study chronicles one principal’s work in changing the special education model within his school from direct instruction to co-teaching. Through interviews with the principal and with five co-teachers in the school, we used deductive coding with Hitt and Tucker’s (2016) unified framework for effective principal practices to help show if and how effective principal practices can be employed to overcome specific content weakness and move schools toward more inclusive practices. Findings suggest that principals who apply general effective leadership practices can overcome gaps in special education training. This case study suggests that strong instructional leadership actions could mitigate the limitations reported in the literature that principals have in providing special education leadership.
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