School Leadership

As a principal, you must choose to be fair in all your dealings and practice ethical leadership. While pretty much everyone agrees that it’s important to live according to what’s right and to avoid acting in a way that’s wrong, not everyone always agrees on the what’s right or what’s wrong in any given situation. That’s why you should develop a code of ethics to guide you along the way. A code of ethics is personal and different for everyone. It determines an individual’s response to a particular situation and also accounts for the varied responses exhibited by different individuals in the same situation.

An individual code of ethics comes into play in everyday situations that principals experience, such as when an influential parent asks for special favors for his child, while dealing with an impudent student or an impertinent remark, while dealing with teachers or administrative colleagues, or at any point while performing the daily duties of the job. All actions and responses are a function of a personal code of ethics, which is the foundation for differences in principals’ style of dealing with teachers, students, and school-related situations. A clear code of ethics will help you negotiate difficult times during the life of your career. It allows you to decipher the right thing to do based on your current perspective and to take responsibility for and stand by your decisions.

Another idea to be realized in the process of abiding by your code of ethics is to make quick and prudent decisions. Principals should not delay ethically correct decisions for long periods before putting them into practice. If your code of ethics is strong, you should be able to make decisions on the spot and have the conviction to bear the consequences. Too much pondering or hesitation takes the impact out of even the soundest ethical decisions.

Ultimately, the way you respond to what you believe is right and wrong provides insight into your code of ethics. And that’s why a personal code of ethics is not a rigorous, formulated code. You can approximate and set guidelines for yourself based on what you think is right and depend on these guidelines to solve dilemmas and complex educational situations. Individual codes of ethics are not formal codes laid out by organizations and institutions to be obligatorily adhered to by their members. They are intangible moral guidelines that individuals appropriate on their own.

Let’s test your ability to lead ethically. In the scenario below, the principal is faced with an ethical dilemma and he fails horribly. At the end, you will be asked to let us know how you would have handled the situation. Reflect on this question, using your thoughts to shape your own practice.

Scenario: Mr. Fisher had been one of the most prominent and creative teachers at Rosston Elementary for over a decade. He had a devoted following of students and was renowned county-wide for taking “problem cases” under his wing and getting them hooked on learning. His methods were unorthodox and involved closer attention and more one-on-one sessions than was the norm, but there was no question that they worked.

Now, however, a student had come to the principal, Mr. Allen, with the story that Mr. Fisher had met her one evening near her house, and had touched her inappropriately. The student, Gretchen, was a known liar and a petty thief and had been suspended twice already this year.

Mr. Allen called Mr. Fisher into his office and presented the allegations. Mr. Fisher acknowledged that he’d met Gretchen near her house one evening. He said she’d called him in distress, saying her father had beaten her and she needed to talk. They’d talked for nearly an hour, sitting in his car. Mr. Fisher admitted that he’d given Gretchen a hug, but strenuously denied that there was any inappropriate behavior.

Mr. Allen knew he had to deal with the situation impartially. However, his gut feeling was that Mr. Fisher was in the right and that Gretchen was taking advantage of him. Losing Mr. Fisher would be a calamity for the school, but a scandal that wasn’t dealt with correctly would be even more damaging.

As an ethical leader, how would you have handled this situation?

You want to be a transformational leader, capable of helping your school reach the pinnacle of success and innovation. To accomplish this, you need to be a visionary, capable of visualizing what you want your school to become, and crafting a strategic plan that will get you there in increments. Periodically, you can break out your strategic plan, and check the progress that you have made.

For instance, you may have a vision for a new state of the art, multipurpose stadium that can house football, baseball, soccer, lacrosse, and field hockey games at your high school, in addition to graduation and community events. Before you start working on this phase of the plan, you need to delegate more responsibilities to your subordinates, which will free you up to see this all the way to the end.

Next, you will need to come up with a formal proposal to present to your Superintendent and eventually the school board (your Superintendent will take the lead on this). This pitch will need to convince them that your high school is in dire need of this stadium, and why renovating the old one wouldn’t suffice. Even if the school board agrees, they still have also to decide if the school district can afford it. If you are successful, things will move forward, and that part of your vision will be complete.

Now, let’s test your knowledge of strategic planning. In the scenario below, Principal Johns implements several strategic reforms. Afterward, reflect on the following question, using your thoughts to shape your own practice: Can you think of two more ideas Elm Circle High could implement to reenergize the school?

Scenario: At Elm Circle High School, a sixty-five-year-old principal who had emphasized traditional methods of teaching and leadership retired. For seven years, the school went into a nosedive under the leadership of three principals, each of whom lasted a couple years. Finally, the school board hired Connie Johns, a young and energetic principal who had some new ideas.         

After talking with the staff, Principal Johns realized that the three interim principals had been what she termed “firefighters”: they spent all their time solving day-to-day problems, and the general structures, which had been put in place thirty years before, were unchanged. No wonder the school was having trouble.

Principal Johns delegated most of the day-to-day administrative tasks to various subordinates, and spent the first six months of the year in dialogue with teachers and members of the community, coming up with a five-year plan to redefine and reenergize the school. Some of the ideas included networking with other schools via the Internet, creating a more bottom-up listening structure, and holding monthly meetings open to the community, in order to ensure the plan was on track.

The effects of Principal Johns’ restructuring were not apparent during the first or even the second year of her tenure, and some members of the school board were skeptical. However, halfway through the third year, higher test scores and lower teacher attrition showed that the school was finally taking a turn for the better.

As we saw with Connie Johns in the vignette, it takes a strong and confident leader to enact real, lasting change. Transformative, systemic change is a slow process and one that requires an immense amount of dialogue, keeping the connections among all stakeholders strong and active. Principal Johns, by spending the first six months of her tenure in dialogue, was able to get everyone on board, and implement changes. However, in the case of Elm High, creating lasting change also required tenacity in the face of objections from members of the board.

Some principals fall into the trap of attempting to be superman or superwomen, working crazy hours, and handling most of the administrative tasks themselves. In the end, they end up burning themselves out and being forced to retire early because of health concerns. There is no viable leadership pipeline because by failing to delegate authority, your assistant principals and teachers never gained the practical experience that it takes to build leadership skills.

Your school district will be forced to bring in someone from outside of your building, which further complicates things. For one, they have no idea how you ran your building, so they will be starting from scratch, with no viable leaders to assist them. Teachers, parents and students, and your assistant principals will have to get used to an entirely new way of doing things, and there will be a steep learning curve. In the end, students suffer. To further illustrate this, let’s look a scenario of what can happen when principals fail to delegate authority.

Scenario: Amy Paquinette took over the principalship of Sequoia Middle School after the previous principal had left in the middle of the year, citing health issues. In the three months that the school had functioned under the assistant principal, things had fallen apart. Her very first day on the job, Ms. Paquinette was horrified to find two students sitting in a hallway, bent over a video game. They claimed that their teacher had given them permission to leave the room. When she confronted the teacher, she found that it was true – the students had been disrupting the class, and the teacher had sent them to the principal’s office. But the acting principal told them he had no time to deal with them, and sent them into the hallway. There seemed to be no structures in place to deal with this type of situation.

The acting principal was sitting before a jagged mound of files. As Ms. Paquinette questioned him, trying to get a sense of the school’s situation, his eyes filled with tears. It transpired that the former principal had worked ten or twelve hours a day, six days a week, and had done everything himself. He had made it a point to visit every classroom once a day. All paperwork had to be approved by him. Every test had to cross his desk. All disciplinary cases were referred to him. He’d been able to sustain that for seven years. But finally, high blood pressure and a nagging stomach ulcer had forced him into sudden retirement. The assistant principal, who felt he was expected to keep the same pace, was overwhelmed and worried that his health as well would deteriorate.

In the vignette, Amy Paquinette discovers two students playing a video game in the hallway. As became obvious when she questioned them, they had fallen through the cracks of the leadership structure. Distributing leadership among many stakeholders not only relieves some of the pressure on the principal; it also casts a broader net. If other teachers or staff members felt responsible for the wellbeing of the students, they would likely have stopped to question the students before Ms. Paquinette got to them, or the acting principal would have had someone – the guidance counselor or the school nurse – to whom he could have entrusted the students.

Now reflect on the scenario and my commentary, and use your thoughts to shape your own practice.

To become an effective principal, your staff members must feel comfortable coming to you with their problems or concerns. Do you come off as someone that is approachable? If your staff members communicate their needs to you, ask questions and let you know when problems arise, then you probably have nothing to worry about.

However, if weeks pass by, and virtually no one asks you a question or complains about a problem or issue, then either your school is a utopia, or people feel intimidated by your personality, intellect, or both. Don’t worry, becoming approachable is not the most challenging thing to do, it just takes some practice and consistency.

Let’s look at how this plays out in real life. In the vignette below, a colleague offers to describe a few useful feedback tools to get communication flowing. How would you enable teachers at Principal Riley’s school to feel more comfortable sharing information? How can you incorporate your suggestions into your own professional practice?

Scenario: Principal Riley was frustrated. In her weekly staff meetings, she begged her staff to come forward with problems or issues they had, rather than griping behind her back. But almost six months of the school year had passed, and not a single teacher had come forward. Her administrative assistant, however, sometimes dropped hints that the teachers weren’t satisfied.

He would meet them in informal settings after school, where they’d confide that they were unhappy with Principal Riley’s management style.

“Then why don’t they come forward?” she raged, banging her desk. “Are they cowards? I ask them in every staff meeting to tell me their problems. Did I say ask? I meant beg! But they just sit there looking at their hands.”

Finally, Principal Riley approached fellow principal about her communication problems.

“Think about it from their side,” he told her. “You’re a powerful, intimidating woman, with a huge voice and a huge intellect. You’re standing in front of them, yelling at them to tell you their problems. Obviously, they aren’t comfortable in that setting.”

Principal Riley realized that she lacked the skills necessary to make the teachers feel comfortable. She asked her colleague if he could offer some suggestions, and he agreed to meet with her and provide some tools that would get the information flowing again.

As we can see, Principal Riley’s inability to create an effective feedback process hampered the development of the school. Her colleague might encourage her to try out different formats for staff meetings, including circular seating arrangements or meetings led by other staff members, in which Principal Riley would sit amongst the teachers and take notes.

Her colleague might encourage Principal Riley to have more one-on-one sessions with teachers, in less formal situations, and to make a genuine effort to listen to and learn from them. It would require a shift in thinking and tone but could have a dramatic effect on the school environment.

No one goes into their first principalship thinking, “I just want to be a mediocre principal.” No, you want to be a successful education administrator, who is recognized for their contributions to the profession. If this is true, then there are a few things that you should know. Some are common sense, and because of this, we take their importance for granted. To help you realize your goals, I want to give you the 8 keys to becoming an effective principal.

The teacher turnover rate is something that you own. If there is a high rate of teacher turnover in your school building each year, then you have a significant problem. If you don’t correct this, you will have difficulty convincing the best teachers to work in one of your classrooms. Your school’s high teacher turnover will scare them away like an apparition in a Stephen King movie. Only the teachers who have no other options will even entertain giving your school a try.

You need to take responsibility for the environment in which your teachers work. You are in charge of creating a culture where teachers feel safe, appreciated, and supported. It doesn’t matter if your school is located in the toughest neighborhood in the Bronx, Compton, New Orleans or Chicago; if you take the job, the buck stops with you. No one wants to hear excuses or see you play the blame game. If you follow my advice, your school will be a place where quality teachers compete for a chance to work. Remember having a quality teacher in each classroom is a foundational step to being an effective principal.

Don’t be intimidated by knowledge gaps. As a principal, there will be things that you don’t know or don’t understand completely. I know that everyone expects you to know everything on day one, but don’t put this kind of pressure on yourself. It takes effective principals years to learn about all of the nuances of the position, and all of the laws, policies, strategies, and methods that are at their disposal.

Also, most of the things that you don’t know can only be learned with experience and time. If you are in the position long enough, you will be able to say that you have seen it all. Just trust that what you have learned as a pre-service/in-service teacher and in your education administration program is sufficient to start. Once you get started, create a professional development plan that will help you acquire the skills and knowledge that you believe you lack. You will be just fine.

Communication is key. To be an effective principal, you have to learn how to communicate effectively. To begin the journey (it takes time to develop the skill) of being a good communicator, you only have to remember one rule; the foundation of good communication is seeking to understand and then seeking to be understood. When doing so, you can frame the conversation, but then give them a chance to express themselves before you chime in.

For instance, if a student is sent to your office for disrupting the class, explain why they are in your office, and what they are being accused of. Then allow them to tell their side of the story, and when it’s your time to speak, ask clarifying or follow up questions, and then use your part of the conversation to discuss expectations, consequences, preventive measures, etc. Even if you have to suspend the student, they will feel as though they were treated fairly.

Its ok to play devils advocate when mediating conflicts. Parents, teachers, students, etc. will all come to you complaining about one another. They will tell you their side of the story, but as we all know, there are three sides to situation, person A’s perspective, person B’s perspective, and the truth, which is sometimes in the middle. Bridge this gap by playing devil’s advocate, and playing the role of the other combatant. In this way, you can allow the other person to understand what the other person’s perspective may be and how they may be feeling. Sometimes forcing others to empathize with the plight of the person with whom they have a conflict with forces them to see the issue in another light.

Cultivate a school culture where all students are expected to reach their potential. As a principal, you should cultivate a school culture where everyone succeeds, up to their own potential and learning capacity. In this culture, teachers are expected to add value to all their students, helping them to demonstrate academic growth throughout the school year. But, how can you gauge student growth and teacher efficiency? By utilizing value-added assessment.

Value-added assessment Is designed to ensure that students are learning, by comparing their current level of academic performance against their previous level of academic performance. This type of assessment focuses on student growth, rather than comparisons to other students or accomplishments of specific achievement levels. Value-added assessment provides an objective way of evaluating teachers and is less about who a student is and more about what goes on in the classroom. With this info, you can create reasonable conclusions about each students learning potential, using student outcomes as your compass. Every decision that you make should be made with one guiding principle; how will this affect my students?

Always be organized and prepared. I know that this seems like common sense, but I cannot stress the importance of organization and preparation enough. Being organized and prepared is a prerequisite for all professionals. If you are not, it will cost you time, energy, and respect. People who are not organized, are inefficient, as it takes them much longer to complete tasks or track down files and documents.

For instance, a teacher needs travel requisition form (yes, some districts still use paper) to book a flight to a national conference, but you misplaced the forms. What could have been a 5-second task, will now take more time as you need to commander more from the central office, as the form is in triplicate, so you can’t just print out more.

Another example would be failing to thoroughly prepare for a principal’s meeting at your district’s central office as you believed that it would not be necessary. The other principals used the agenda your Assistant Superintendent’s emailed the week before to anticipate the talking points and were prepared to chime in. After the Assistant Superintendent introduced each item, he asked for thoughts from the attendees. Everyone, except you, was able to add something useful and timely to the conversation. You should have been more prepared.

Become the master of data-based decision making. Being able to analyze data and use it as part of your decision-making process is one of those skills that separate good principals from great ones. Data-based decision making can be defined as the process of acquiring and analyzing data, then using it to make decisions. For example, expanding the use of a piloted learning tool to an entire grade level, school or school district only if it can be shown by pre- and post-assessments to improve student mastery.

Provide high-quality professional development for your staff. You want to have the best team in the district, and I assume that you have hired qualified teachers, so you are all good there. However, the key to continued student success is providing your teachers with high-quality professional development. Since you have seen your teachers in action, you know what skills they possess, what skills that need to acquire, and which skills need a little retooling or updating. Just make sure you choose professional development providers who are highly effective and who have data to back this up.

What did I miss?

Schools are a lot like companies, in the sense that innovation and creativity are vitally important. However, some principals believe that they know it all, and refuse to listen to others, even in dark times, which stifles the creativity of their staff. A great idea is a great idea, and the principals that embrace this logic are often the most successful.

Maybe some administrators believe that if they take advice from their subordinates, it will make them seem weak or unintelligent. Take it from me, the most intelligent people that I know ask a ton of questions. If they don’t understand something, they ask questions and add this new knowledge to their existing database. If you do the same, you will see your life and career flourish.

To illustrate my point, let’s look a scenario where a know it all principal finally admits that he needs help, and it changes his principalship for the better. Afterward, reflect and use your thoughts to inform your practice.

Scenario: Grover Cleveland Elementary was going through a difficult time. Its finances were in dire shape, and it seemed rudderless. The principal, Joe Alheusen, knew that it was up to him to get the school back on course, but he was having a hard time creating the required environment. Certain teachers came to his office from time to time with unconventional ideas that he would have to veto, but in the back of his mind he knew that he shouldn’t be stifling their creative thinking.

One of the parents at Grover Cleveland, Oren Milner, was a wealthy financier and advisor for tech start-ups. One Friday evening, at a social get-together, Alheusen told Milner that he envied the freedom and energy of the start-up companies he dealt with, and said he wished he could bring those qualities to his school. Milner asked him a few questions and realized that the school situation really wasn’t that different from a company: creative employees had ideas that needed to be heard, it required sound leadership, and the finances had to be managed effectively. He suggested that he meet with a few of the school leaders.

After a month of Wednesday-afternoon meetings, Milner made three suggestions. He offered Alheusen the services of his accountant for a few weeks, to look at areas where the budget could be trimmed. He recommended implementing a new structure for staff meetings, in which all ideas would be heard, no matter how crazy. The ideas would be discussed on their merits and vetoed or promoted by the staff as a whole. And he advocated building stronger relationships between the “customers” – the parents – and the staff, to listen to complaints and receive ideas.