400 episodes listed below
Evidence-heavy leadership for working school administrators.
Urban Principal: Leadership Lessons treats school administration as a daily craft of evidence, tone, relationships, and persistence. Brett Anderson works through books, articles, quotes, and principal experience to argue for clearer curriculum, stronger literacy practice, and healthier leadership culture.
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Urban Principal: Leadership Lessons is a brisk, argument-driven show about school leadership, instructional practice, and the everyday responsibilities of administration. Brett Anderson uses books, articles, quotes, and school stories as fuel for direct commentary. The format is mostly solo. The tone is purposeful rather than conversational, with long runs of citation and paraphrase broken by quick practical asides. Literacy is a major concern. Recent episodes spend extended time with Mike Schmoker’s Results Now 2.0, returning again and again to writing, reading, coherent curriculum, teacher collaboration, and the gap between known effective practice and what actually happens in classrooms. The show is especially interested in what leaders can control. It argues for clearer expectations, stronger curriculum guidance, better use of research-based strategies, and a willingness to confront uncomfortable evidence. Anderson often frames leadership as a matter of culture as much as technique. Episodes on difficult conversations lean on John Gordon and Amy Kelly’s work, emphasizing small ego, truth-telling, positive intent, emotional control, and rules for healthier team dialogue. Another episode focuses on tone, treating tact as a leadership skill that can determine whether a conference or hard conversation succeeds. There is also room for memory and community. The tribute to Laverne Grandma Harris recalls neighborhood trust, school support, and relationship-based leadership in South Omaha and Indian Hill. The show’s rhythm can feel rough-edged, with restarts, repeated phrases, and visible searching through notes. That roughness is part of its character. It sounds less like studio education media and more like a working leader thinking aloud with a stack of highlighted sources nearby. The audience is narrow but clear: principals, assistant principals, instructional coaches, education consultants, and teacher leaders who want firm positions connected to building-level practice. It is not built for listeners seeking detached policy analysis or casual staff-room chat. Its value comes from the pressure it puts on leaders to act on what they already know. The recurring message is simple and demanding: better culture, clearer curriculum, stronger literacy, and more disciplined leadership habits can change what schools deliver.
Made for: The show is for principals, assistant principals, instructional coaches, education consultants, and teacher leaders who want practical school-improvement arguments. It best suits listeners who are comfortable with book-based commentary, repeated emphasis, and direct claims about what leaders should do.
What sets it apart: Urban Principal: Leadership Lessons stands apart through its blend of citation-heavy education commentary and building-level leadership examples. It treats research, curriculum, tone, community relationships, and principal judgment as one connected administrative practice.
This podcast is based upon lessons learned in my 31 years of experience in education--21 as a principal. I spent 10 years turning around a high poverty school, and left to start Nebraska's first focus school--a year-round extended day program centered on leadership, technology and communication. It was named by Harvard's One Nation, Indivisible publication as one of the most innovative and successful schools in the country.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Brett Anderson tests leadership ideas against school management, making culture change, staff trust and institutional follow-through easier to understand.
Urban Principal: Leadership Lessons turns school administration into a study of management in practice. Brett Anderson works in a solo commentary format, moving between leadership books and examples from his own schools.
This is the principal's office where literacy audits and dunk tanks share the same leadership plan.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A firm, practical case for treating literacy time as a leadership choice with consequences beyond the classroom.
Urban Principle continues its discussion of Mike Schmoker's Results Now 2.0 by making literacy feel like a leadership issue, not just an instructional preference.
A practical case for curriculum clarity as the place where school improvement has to get specific.
Urban Principle: Leadership Lessons frames curriculum clarity as a core condition for school improvement, with Mike Schmoker's Results Now 2.0 and Brett Anderson's school experience anchoring the discussion.
A principal's case for turning Schmoker's evidence-based priorities into stronger school practice.
Brett Anderson builds a practical case for school leadership through Mike Schmoker's Results Now 2.0, arguing that high-yield, evidence-based teaching strategies matter most when principals help teachers use them consistently.
A principal argues that school spirit can strengthen, not weaken, professional leadership.
Brett Anderson takes up a small but revealing question: does a principal look less professional after getting taped to a wall, taking a pie in the face, or stepping into a dunk tank for a school fundraiser? His answer is less about stunts than about the culture around them.
A grounded leadership episode on making difficult conversations serve trust and shared purpose.
Conversations of Growth, Part II frames the STAR model from a leadership book as a usable way into hard conversations. Brett Anderson circles back to small ego and big mission, truth-telling, and assuming positive intent, linking those habits to trust, emotional energy, and the…
A practical, leadership-minded case for putting curriculum at the center of school improvement.
Curriculum sits at the center of this PlayNext review as Brett Anderson continues through Mike Schmoker's Results Now 2.0, focusing on why school leadership depends on clear, sequential guidance.
School leadership notes and a firm case for public schools
Steady counsel for school leaders.
Student radio with a community pulse.
Brett Anderson continues part two of 'Conversations of Growth,' focusing on the STAR model from John Gordon and Amy Kelly's book 'Difficult Conversations Don't Have to be Difficult.' He details the model's components: Small ego, Tell the truth, Assume positive intent, and three R's including Rules of Engagement.
Host Brett Anderson continues his analysis of Mike Schmoker's book 'Results Now 2.0,' focusing on curriculum's critical role in education.
Brett Anderson continues his series on emotional intelligence for leaders, focusing on self-awareness and self-management from the book Emotional Intelligence 2.0.
In episode 354 of Urban Principal: Leadership Lessons, Brett Anderson reviews the Learning Policy Institute's May 2026 fact sheet, “The Principal Effect.” The fact sheet links principals' instructional leadership—including observation, coaching, feedback, and data review—to student outcomes and teacher retention.
Episode 330 stays with Schmoker.
Brett Anderson’s episode 329, "Schmoker with the Knockout!
Brett Anderson reviews Mike Schmoker's Results Now 2.0, connecting its focus on curriculum, literacy, effective instruction, and evidence-based school improvement to Anderson's experience as a principal.
Brett Anderson pays tribute to Laverne 'Grandma' Harris, a beloved community figure from his time as principal at Indian Hill.
Brett Anderson continues discussing the STAR model from the book 'Difficult Conversations Don't Have to be Difficult', focusing on small ego, telling truth, assuming positive intent, and beginning the rules component.
Brett Anderson discusses handling difficult conversations using principles from John Gordon and Amy Kelly's book 'Difficult Conversations Don't Have to be Difficult'.
Brett Anderson discusses the importance of tone and tact in leadership communication, especially during school conferences.
Brett Anderson discusses the importance of balancing leadership and management, inspired by the positivity of U.S.
Brett Anderson argues that “professionalism” can include laughing on the intercom, 100th Day costumes, and a culture of fun.
Brett Anderson discusses the national teacher shortage, citing reasons like changing standards and increased responsibilities, and emphasizes the need for support.