What Makes a School Principal

The Washington Post is reporting today on a program by which the DC school system fills principal vacancies by hiring form a program called New Leaders for New Schools. The story does a good job presenting both sides of the argument. Essentially what the program provides is a one year training program designed to equip graduates with skills necessary for effective principals. From their website: (emphsis added)

Mission:New Leaders fosters high academic achievement for every child by attracting, preparing, and supporting the next generation of outstanding leaders for our nation's urban public schools.

Core Beliefs:
1. Every child can achieve the highest levels of academic excellence. At New Leaders for New Schools, we mean every child in every circumstance.
2. Adults are responsible for ensuring that all children excel academically. We as adults can and must do more to unlock the potential of each and every student.
3. Delivering high quality public education to all children is critical to a just society that affords every child the full range of opportunities in life.
4. Great schools are led by great principals. These principals coach and inspire teachers to reach and teach every child and collaborate with their parents, families, and communities to make schools work.
5. With access to outstanding public schools, all children will develop the competence, critical thinking, social and civil skills to reach their highest potential in the classroom and in life.

Truly successful principals understand that when a child fails in school, the root cause of the problem is not the child, but rather the adults in that child's life. If it takes a principal to make regular housecalls to parents to get them to understand what is at stake, then that is what a great principal does.

The selection criteria covers a broad range of skills, including management, teaching, team building, communications, and committment to education of students AND themselves. Although teaching certification is not required, it is highly recommended and they require actual classroom experience to qualify for the program. The program appears to be highly professionalized, with a residency requirement (not unlike residency for doctors) where the gradtuate is paired with an experience principal and commits to serving a minimum of three years in the district that hires them upon completion.

The program focuses on leadership skills in the area of instructional, operational and tranformational leadership, practical skills and reflective exercises. What is interesting about the program is the emphasis placed on transfromational leadership. With the need to change the way things are done in a school that has consistently failed in its mission requires a unique set of leadership qualities not found in most leadership courses.

Of course, as one would expect in Washington, DC, there are those who oppose the idea of actually training principals.

The New Leaders program is not without critics. Announcements of the hirings have sparked some debates on who best qualifies as a principal -- the candidate with the most experience in the system or the one with the most determination to shake up the system.

Those especially disparaging of the recruiting effort are veteran school administrators, some of whom refer to those in the program as "microwave" leaders because they are groomed for their new posts so quickly.

Bernard C. Lucas Sr., president of the Council of School Officers, which represents D.C. public school principals, said he recently filed a grievance against the school system, alleging that several assistant principals were discouraged from applying for principals' jobs. Given that the assistant principals were qualified, according to the grievance, the school system's action was "capricious and age discriminatory."

I am of the mind set that qualified principals are not simply a product of time in service. You shouldn't get a promotion merely because you have been there the longest. Anytime a bold step is taken to increase the accountibility of principals or to look for new ideas, there is a group that will always throw up roadblocks. But these principals are trained to look for ways around it.

Community leaders also have gotten a little upset.

"Just because a person goes through this [program] doesn't mean they are qualified to lead a school at this point in their career," said the Rev. Anthony J. Motley, president of a nonprofit education program in Southeast. "What are we doing to our students when we select people without a proven track record?"

Of course, the principal Rev. Motley speaks of is the third principal in three years at one of the largest high schools in DC. Apparently the previous two, products of the old system, did not make any impact. Why then is there a fear of trying something new? Perhaps radical change is best in some situtations.

Whether the principals trained through the New Leaders New Schools program are better than principals trained through traditional programs remains to be seen. But anytime a challenge is made to seniority rights system of promotion, I think we are in a better place. The traditional method of principal training often involves taking senior teachers, perhaps those who are truly excellent at teaching and move them into administration. However, being a great teacher does not make a great principal. Many teaching colleges and education programs do not cover leadership skills, budgeting or other management skills necessary for successful principals.

In a city that is rife with traditional mindset thinking about education, the fact that something new is being tried is a blessing in itself.