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Principal honored by Dept. of Education By JOHN DARLING Hoover Elementary School Principal Phillip Meager has been named one of the nation's 64 distinguished principals by the U.S. Department of Education and will fly to Washington, D.C., next week to accept the honor. Meager, 52, named Oregon's top elementary and middle school principal by the National Association of Elementary School Principals in May, will be honored Oct. 19 at an awards banquet in Washington and, depending on world events, at a White House reception with the president. He also will attend a forum titled "The Heart and Soul of Leadership" with other top principals. The group will share leadership ideas, listen to suggestions and develop networks to share ideas and challenges into the future, he said. "The gathering is kind of a think tank," Meager said, "meeting with all the top principals (and) brainstorming the possibilities around all the main challenges, such as funding, vouchers, assessment, accountability and improving student achievement. I'm eager to represent all the principals in Oregon and pass our thoughts along to the U.S. Department of Education." As principal of Jefferson Elementary School in Medford before he moved to Hoover two years ago, Meager oversaw a significant boosting of state test scores, ending up 87th in the nation and netting a national award. Meager has been a leader in development of districtwide tests that assess student performance to fine-tune curriculum with the state tests and to show student growth. "Testing is fine," he said, "but it's only one measure of success. Some kids don't test well because they're dealing with other issues and trying to get through one day at a time. The relationship of teachers with the kids is where the power lies and the success of that can't be measured by tests - so accountability and assessment aren't the be-all and end-all." John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.