Initially created for a university class on principal leadership, the ideals charted here continue to guide my daily teaching and parenting.
The school environment is the very wellspring of human
potential to simultaneously acquire the most rudimentary skills of survival in
the modern-day world while also gaining the capacity to approach the
particulars of life as a dynamic and engaging participant. “We trample on the backs of apes to clutch
the muddied hems of angels” (Moore). The
systematic education of children within this expansive spectrum of opportunity
requires certain exceptional leadership characteristics that cannot be
relegated to personal charisma or to rigid adherents of tried-and-true
management styles. Beyond caricatured
notions of authoritative power, beyond the final arbiter of discipline, beyond
thankless lunchroom oversight and morning announcements, the attributes of a
confident, competent education leader are not an ad hoc assemblage of job
requirements or pragmatic realities of simply someone taking charge of
logistics. Instead, there is an array of
characteristics repeatedly identified by experts in education that have a
direct correlation to student achievement. Though these characteristics might
be daunting in list form, there are a select number that take precedence over
all others. A principal must focus upon
a cohesive interweaving of five primary characteristics – culture,
motivation/evaluation, optimizing, communication, and ideals/beliefs – to
provide the behaviors that will infuse a given learning environment with
purpose, adaptability, success, and continued renewal.
As societies’ grapple continually with defining, defending,
and rediscovering a shared vision of what constitutes their collective culture,
so too does a principal have a responsibility to consider the culture of a
school. The principal who nourishes a
pervasive school culture instills the perspective that each individual is an
integral component in the transmission and continuation of a community’s
beliefs and values as delineated through the school board and curriculum. Robert J. Marzano et al, authors of School
Leadership that Works: From Research to Results, asserts that a principal
exemplifies this characteristic by “building and maintaining a culture in which
a common language is employed, ideas are shared, and staff members operate
within the norms of cooperation” (71).
The camaraderie of the staff in the face of lesson planning and
implementation, but essentially a “shared sense of purpose” fostered by the
principal to include consensus, on-going collaboration, and assuring
“consistency between the school’s actual operations and its espoused ideals and
beliefs” (Marzano et al. 103). The
principal here invites community members to speak at staff meetings or responds
to events in the surrounding neighborhoods, such as redevelopment or business
interests, to link school-wide objectives back out to the culture of the
community.
Often erroneously relegated to the piecemeal work of teacher
evaluation cycles and intermittent staff development days, the principal’s
monitoring and evaluating of the school curriculum, instruction, and assessment
practices are essentially the tools by which to judge “the effectiveness of
school practices in terms of their impact on student achievement” (Marzano et
al. 55). From this vantage point,
awareness of the students’ achievement and running an ongoing appraisal is not
some blunt leverage tool to reprimand faculty or students who have yet to meet
the expectation of curriculum mastery.
The characteristic of monitoring and evaluation is instead a
self-diagnostic to determine to what degree a school is satisfying the
objectives of the community. Here the
exceptional principal sets student achievement as the forever-retreating
endgame, revising all related conditions that may conceivably trickle down and
influence the student. Ideally, these
conditions would demand that the entire school structure consider what the
students are able to do and constantly adapt to provide whatever means are
necessary to determine what the students need to do. Teacher teams would evaluate assessments and
set goals for objectives to be revised or taught in reinvigorating
approaches. The principal here sets
conference times with teachers primarily to listen and provide a sounding board
for teachers to refine their methods take evaluation as an opportunity for
refinement of skills.
No matter the totality of a musical score’s arrangement and
performance, the misplayed notes or sour tones leap from the stage and turn the
devoted listener into a suffering attendee.
In the professional relationships within education, the tone is
analogous to the characteristic of optimizer.
The principal here “inspires others and is the driving force when
implementing a challenging innovation” (Marzano et al. 56). The teachers may function and even find
success without an overriding feeling of support and encouragement, but led and
sustained by a principal who gives attention to conveying a positive
disposition about the goals of the school and the teachers’ ability to meet
those goals is invaluable. Everyone
within the walls of a school is likewise within certain bounds of
self-appreciation and self-judgment as to what are the personal limits of what
can be done. To encourage students,
faculty, and staff to push further than they thought possible, to acknowledge
perceived obstacles even as they move past them, to present a drive tempered
with optimism, here the principal may infuse a persistent disposition of
emotional safety, acceptance, and support.
The principal here makes a point to publicly acknowledge the innovations
of school staff and share successes and even struggles. The goals are articulated consistently and
all are brought into the fold to drive onward as a team.
The basis of any education system may be distilled into the
sharing and mastery of the qualities a community holds as precious and vital to
the continuation of that community.
Communication as a characteristic of a principal charged with managing
and guiding that educational system involves “the extent to which the school
leader establishes strong lines of communication with and between teachers and
students” (Marzano et al. 46). Such a
multitude of individuals working closely together toward the nebulas and often
bewildering demands of convincing children to care, to do their best, and to
demonstrate their learning in a variety of forums can be rife with
struggles. The lines of communication
need to cross-reference: teachers able to talk to one another, to parents, to
administrators, to students – and each of those points of connection, those groups,
similarly able to talk to one another.
It becomes maddening to consider the tribulations faced by a school
community in which the principal allows communication to degrade or outright
sever. All other leadership
characteristics become secondary and impeded.
The principal here must consider communication the highest
consideration, working at every moment to speak with all members of the school
on a daily basis in the halls, at meetings, and in every announcement, school
bulletin, and awards ceremony.
Though we expect our leaders to demonstrate a certain depth
and breadth of knowledge, relevant prior experience, and attention to the tasks
at hand, these are but hollow forms of routine and function without the
informing characteristic of ideals and beliefs.
In essence, “human beings are at their best when they operate from a set
of strong ideals and beliefs” (Marzano et al. 51). The hope is for a principal who has invested
the substantial personal costs of time and energy to construct a cohesive core
belief system that pervades the entirety of a school. This is neither the mountain hermit offering
wisdom to those who undertake arduous pilgrimages nor the scholar who proclaims
edicts from on high. Instead, the principal
shares a consistent stream of “beliefs about the school, teaching, and learning
with the staff” during staff meetings, impromptu hallway meetings, and in the
very framing of information, programs, and the decision making process (Marzano
et al. 51). Although often transmitted
through overt means, ideals and beliefs are also demonstrated through actions
that may be observed by all people within a school, the principal projecting a
thoughtful and relevant persona for all to cue off of.
We seed the prospects of each new generation in classrooms
with molded plastic chairs, along hallways decorated with construction paper
projects, using teacher-made materials we laminate with pride late into the
evenings, utilizing the energy and dedication of regular people who still find
enthusiasm for group projects rubrics, field trips, and new math
manipulatives. The spectrum of
characteristics utilized by exceptional leaders to inspire these teachers, and
in turn their students, is expansive but increasingly researched. The achievement of these students is strongly
dependent upon five characteristics that a principal is most accountable
for. This includes culture,
monitoring/evaluation, optimizing, communication, and ideals/beliefs; by not
recognizing and acting upon these characteristics we decay the very essence of
the world’s we might have successfully built and maintained but which we always
need to start anew in the minds of our children.
