Sunday, April 12, 2015
Research on APs
Being an Assistant Principal, Becoming an Administrator: an Organizational Socialization Study
Monday, February 9, 2015
If I Knew Then What I Know Now: Today’s Principalship
by Frederick Brown, director of strategy and development for Learning Forward, and a former senior program officer for the Wallace Foundation
It has been almost 20 years since I began my principalship, and it’s incredible to me how much has changed in what we expect from our school leaders.
I was trained as a building manager, and my success was often measured by keeping operations and procedures running smoothly. Someone once told me, “Just make sure your school isn’t on the front page of the newspaper because of something negative, and you’ll be seen as a good principal.” Yes, I was expected to know instruction and support teachers, but my main work was focused on things like budgets and making sure the central office received their completed reports on time. Indeed, so much has changed!
Around the time that I was exiting my principalship, the Wallace Foundation was beginning its intense focus on leadership. In ways that no funder had done before, Wallace began asking the question: “What do effective principals do, and how do school systems and states support them?” By investing heavily in states and districts across the country while also commissioning research to uncover lessons from that work, Wallace got the field talking extensively about leadership.
Last year, the Wallace Foundation reflected on all of that work and asked itself the question, “What’s our perspective on what great principals do?” It made sense for Wallace to pose that question and offer its own assessment on what makes for a great leader. That perspective, The School Principal as Leader: Guiding Schools to Better Teaching and Learning, begins
Education research shows that most school variables, considered separately, have at most small effects on learning. The real payoff comes when individual variables combine to reach critical mass. Creating the conditions under which that can occur is the job of the principal.
What a powerful opening and reminder about the real work of today’s school principals. The perspective goes on to highlight what effective principals do including:
In the midst of the national focus on leadership, school districts are realizing more and more how important it is to clearly define their own expectations for leaders and then align their pre-service work, hiring, induction, evaluation, and ongoing professional learning systems to those expectations. Central offices are recognizing more and more how important it is to support school leaders and their leadership teams and do everything to ensure they remained focused on teaching and learning. So much has changed during these 20 years.
Frederick Brown will expand on this topic at NASSP's Ignite '15 conference in San Diego, Feb. 19-21
It has been almost 20 years since I began my principalship, and it’s incredible to me how much has changed in what we expect from our school leaders.
I was trained as a building manager, and my success was often measured by keeping operations and procedures running smoothly. Someone once told me, “Just make sure your school isn’t on the front page of the newspaper because of something negative, and you’ll be seen as a good principal.” Yes, I was expected to know instruction and support teachers, but my main work was focused on things like budgets and making sure the central office received their completed reports on time. Indeed, so much has changed!
Around the time that I was exiting my principalship, the Wallace Foundation was beginning its intense focus on leadership. In ways that no funder had done before, Wallace began asking the question: “What do effective principals do, and how do school systems and states support them?” By investing heavily in states and districts across the country while also commissioning research to uncover lessons from that work, Wallace got the field talking extensively about leadership.
Last year, the Wallace Foundation reflected on all of that work and asked itself the question, “What’s our perspective on what great principals do?” It made sense for Wallace to pose that question and offer its own assessment on what makes for a great leader. That perspective, The School Principal as Leader: Guiding Schools to Better Teaching and Learning, begins
Education research shows that most school variables, considered separately, have at most small effects on learning. The real payoff comes when individual variables combine to reach critical mass. Creating the conditions under which that can occur is the job of the principal.
What a powerful opening and reminder about the real work of today’s school principals. The perspective goes on to highlight what effective principals do including:
- Shaping a vision of academic success for all students
- Creating a climate hospitable to education
- Cultivating leadership in others
- Improving instruction
- Managing people, data, and processes to foster school improvement
In the midst of the national focus on leadership, school districts are realizing more and more how important it is to clearly define their own expectations for leaders and then align their pre-service work, hiring, induction, evaluation, and ongoing professional learning systems to those expectations. Central offices are recognizing more and more how important it is to support school leaders and their leadership teams and do everything to ensure they remained focused on teaching and learning. So much has changed during these 20 years.
Frederick Brown will expand on this topic at NASSP's Ignite '15 conference in San Diego, Feb. 19-21
Monday, February 2, 2015
A Leader’s Resolution: Professional Fitness in the New Year
It is that time of year again—time to set resolutions for the New Year. Eating healthier? Using technology less? Exercising more? Those are the popular ones. However, this year I challenge you to consider a different type of resolution. My challenge to each and every one of you is to resolve to become more professionally fit.
Professional fitness does not refer to how many stairs you can climb throughout your building during the day or the number of steps you take during bus and lunch duty. Instead, professional fitness refers to your aptitude as a continual learner. Ignite ’15 Thought Leader Michael Fullan uses a key term in his book The Principal: Three Keys to Maximizing Impact: lead learner. Let’s face it … that is what we, as school administrators, are at our core. The best way for us to improve our schools is to “lead the school’s teachers in the process of learning to improve their teaching” (Fullan, 55), and that requires administrators who are committed to continual learning and improvement for themselves as well.
So, how does one get to be professionally fit? Here is a quick checklist of goals to improve your own professional fitness:
□ Develop a personal learning network
□ Collaborate with colleagues to reflect on current practices
□ Identify and research innovative programs that can be implemented in your own school
□ Connect with other leaders
□ Engage in your own professional learning
by Jared Wastler, assistant principal, Liberty High School, Eldersburg, MD, and Co-Founder of NASSP sponsored #APChat for assistant principals.
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Florida-- Leadership Institute Designed Especially for Assistant Principals
Join fellow assistant principals at a one-day institute, “What
Good APs Know and Do,” January 23, at the University of South Florida, Tampa.
The sessions will target the improvement of key skills necessary for leadership
success. Content will be correlated to the Florida Principal Leadership
Standards. Presented by FASA and the National Association of Secondary School
Principals, the institute will feature Janice Case, a certified trainer through
the National Institute for School Leadership Executive Development Program. The
cost is $120. Register
now.
Nevada -- Leadership Institute Designed Especially for Assistant Principals
Join fellow assistant principals at a one-day institute, “10
Skills for Successful School Leaders: A Focus on the Assistant Principal,” February
6 at Del Sol High School, Las Vegas. The sessions will target the improvement
of key skills necessary for leadership success. Content will be correlated to
the State Principal Performance Standards. Presented by the National
Association of Secondary School Principals, the institute will feature
educational leadership consultant Pam Salazar. The cost for NASSP members is
$125; the nonmember cost is $150. Register
now.
Leadership Institute Designed Especially for Assistant Principals
Kansas/Missouri
Join fellow assistant principals at a one-day institute, “10
Skills for Successful School Leaders: A Focus on the Assistant Principal,”
January 12 at Staley High School in Kansas City, MO. The sessions will target
the improvement of key skills necessary for leadership success. Content will be
correlated to the State Principal Performance Standards. Presented by KASSP,
MOASSP, and the National Association of Secondary School Principals. The cost
for NASSP members is $125; the nonmember cost is $150. Register now.
Assistant Principal Leaderhip PD Opportunities
NASSP Principal’s Update
Leadership Institute
Designed Especially for Assistant Principals
Assistant principals have an opportunity to hone their own leadership
skills at a one-day institute, based on the book 10 Skills for Successful School Leaders. Offered on different dates
in three locations—Kansas City, MO (Jan. 12); Las Vegas, NV (Feb. 6); and
Tampa, FL (Jan. 23)—the institute’s sessions will target the improvement of key
skills necessary for leadership success. Content will be correlated to the
State Principal Performance Standards in each location. Registration is now
open for each site: Kansas City,
Las Vegas, Tampa.
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