The five facets of trust—benevolence, honesty, openness, reliability, and competence…demonstrate the importance of trust to building successful schools.  It follows, then, that the absence of trust impedes effectiveness and progress.  If trust breaks down among any constituency, it can spread like a cancer by eroding academic performance and ultimately undermining the tenure of the instructional leader.  In this day and age, no leader can long survive the demise of trust.

– Megan Tschannen-Moran, Professor and Chief Academic Officer of the Center for School Transformation at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia