What's Not Working in School Leadership
Formerly a teacher, now an administrator-in-training, Chris Canter blogs about his yearlong assistant principal internship at Fulton County Public Schools in Atlanta, Ga. Canter was a 2010ASCD OYEA honoree.
I've spent a great deal of time discussing what works in school leadership. As I near the end of my internship, however, I find it helpful to talk about what DOESN'T work in school leadership.
For the sake of discussion, I have created a small list of things that can severely inhibit the roles of principals and assistant principals, per my experiences.
#1: Don't nurture power struggles within the building.
Too many times, a behavior referral comes across my desk that is really about a teacher wanting to show "who's boss." Some of the behaviors written up include things like sneezing too loudly and popping gum (I always wonder, why not just ask the student to spit out the gum?). And, when this particular student wasn't suspended, the teacher brought me another referral and said, "I'm bringing you another one because nothing was done to him and I want something done."
This is the ultimate power struggle. When teachers don't have a list of interventions they have tried, I am rare to intervene. The teacher must show at minimum that some phone calls have been made, e-mails sent, and detentions (even lunch
