What Makes a Great Principal?
What Makes a Great Principal?Behind any great organization is a great leader, and schools are no exception. The principal of the school sets the tone, the vision and the expectations for the staff and students.
By Lisa Rosenthal, GreatSchools.net Staff
Like teachers, principals must fill many roles. First and foremost, they must guide the instructional program. They must manage and evaluate teachers, implement school discipline policies, develop school budgets, foster parent involvement, and most importantly, make sure students make academic progress.
A report entitled “Searching for a Superhero: Can Principals Do It All?” published in 2002 by the Education Writers Association, highlights the difficulties inherent in a principal’s job. With increased demands to meet state learning standards and raise academic achievement levels, the report notes the average K-8 principal works 54 hours per week and spends considerable time managing harsh public criticism and political heat. There aren’t many willing to rise to the challenge or stick with it. From 1988 to 1998, the principal turnover rate in the U.S. was 42%. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that 40% of all principals intend to retire in the next decade. All this adds up to a principal shortage looming in the decade ahead for our nation’s schools.
“Today the school leader is expected simultaneously to be a servant-leader, an organizational and social architect, an educator, a moral agent, a child advocate and social worker, a community activist and a crisis-negotiator—all while raising students’ standardized-test performance,” write Leslie T. Fenwick and Mildred Collins Blackman in an Education Week commentary.
A great principal balances all these roles while keeping his chief responsibility, that of being the instructional leader of the school, in the forefront.
Signs of a Great Principal
Principals may have different levels of experience and educational backgrounds, and may have different leadership styles. Here are some qualities commonly found in great principals:
Great principals are instructional leaders. They must be knowledgeable of curriculum and state standards and have clear instructional goals for the school. They are the team leaders who should involve the staff in curriculum issues.
Great principals foster collaboration among staff members and the school community.Mary Meissner, principal at a K-5 school in Burlingame, California, notes, “You can’t lead if no one is following! You are the team leader but you are also a member of the team. You have to pitch in and roll up your sleeves.”
Great principals have clear goals for their schools and measure achievement against these goals. The staff and students know where the school is headed and what they need to do to reach the goals. “Anyone can have good ideas, but a successful principal follows through,” says Daniel Chaja, a high school biology teacher studying to be a principal in Union City, California.
Great principals set clear expectations for discipline. They let students know what is expected of them and they follow through with disciplinary actions when necessary.
Great principals communicate well. They have regular communication with staff and parents. They host parent nights, parent conferences and are available to meet with individual parents. They returns phone calls promptly and respond to parents’ concerns.
Great principals support and evaluate the teaching staff. During the hiring process, they look for teachers that fit with the philosophy and personalities of the school staff. “You can see a teacher's academic credentials on their résumé, “ says Ray Rivera, principal of a K-8 school in El Paso, Texas. “But I try to establish in the interview if they have heart and a fire burning in their eyes when they talk about kids.”
Great principals provide proper orientation and assistance for new teachers and observe them frequently, particularly at the beginning of the year. They set clear expectations and provide feedback on the teachers' performance. They help to develop teacher leaders at the school to share in decision-making and make sure that staff have the resources and opportunities to learn and grow through meaningful teacher training.
Great principals are visible. “His door is always open, but he is seldom sitting in his office; he seems to be everywhere at once: classrooms, playground, bus stop, lunchroom,” writes Elaine K. McEwan in 10 Traits of Highly Successful Schools. Great principals make an effort to know students by name and interact with them.
Great principals establish an atmosphere of fairness and trust. They have a reputation for being fair to all. Parents and staff realize they will not always get what they want, but they know their views will be heard and considered. They try to ensure equity in the division of responsibilities and allocation of resources. “Great principals accept responsibility, though not necessarily ‘blame’ when things go wrong and share credit, or better yet, give credit away when there are reasons to celebrate,” notes Bill Broderick, principal of a K-8 school in Texas.
Signs of a Poor Principal
If you notice any of the following signs, there may be a problem with your school principal:
The principal has no overall vision for the school. He doesn’t have a sense of what kind of school community he and the staff are trying to establish or what values the whole school should uphold.
There is no plan to address academic achievement and the schools’ test scores continue to decline. Although principals can’t take all the blame for declining test scores, they should have clear goals for school-wide academic improvement that they communicate to staff and students, and ways to measure improvement against the goals. They should include staff and parents in the goal-setting process.
The principal spends all his time in his office pushing papers. He delegates discipline decisions and dealing with parents to the school secretary. You never see him in classrooms or on the playground. He doesn’t know students’ names and doesn’t interact with them.
The principal is seldom there. He spends much of his time away from the school in meetings or at conferences.
The principal does not return your phone calls. If you have tried to contact him several times and he does not respond, you should be concerned. If you do make contact, but he doesn’t provide you with any possible solution, you have a problem.
The principal tells everyone what he or she wants to hear. He says “yes” to everyone but doesn’t take action.
The principal shows favoritism. It is obvious that certain teachers, students or parents have the ear of the principal but others do not.
When a Parent Should Contact the Principal
When you have a concern about your child’s academic achievement or discipline within the classroom, you should first contact your child’s teacher. If you are not satisfied with the teacher’s response, you should contact the principal. It is always better to try to work out problems with the teacher first. If you have a concern about a school-wide discipline problem or the school’s philosophy, you should contact the principal.
When a Parent Should Contact the Superintendent
If the principal does not return your phone calls or if you are dissatisfied with the response of the principal, then you should contact the superintendent. If you have concerns about the principal’s leadership abilities and you can clearly document those concerns, you should contact the superintendent. If several parents feel the same way, make an appointment as a group to visit the superintendent. There is always greater power in numbers!
posted by AcrosticGuy @ 9:43 AM
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