Articles

ONE-ON-ONE SUPPORT FOR NEW PRINCIPALS:
Sink or Swim No More

“My first year in the principalship has been a roller coaster ride, with ups and downs, successes and failures.

“It has been isolating, physically and mentally draining, and a huge responsibility.  You are a public figure, always in the spotlight, from the moment you leave home in the morning till the time you pull into the garage late at night.

“If I could limit my reflections on the first year principalship it would be one word, ‘isolation’.”

“At times its like I’m maneuvering in a minefield.  Things blow up and I crawl out of the hole.”

This is what participants in The New Teacher Center’s (NTC) New Administrators Program (NAP) have to say about their first year in the principalship.  For many new administrators, the first few years on the job are a trial by fire.  And while we are not aware of any hard data on the retention of new administrators, it is almost certainly worse than that of new teachers, 50% of whom leave the profession within the first seven years on the job.

California has led the nation in establishing a systematic and well-funded approach to new teacher induction, through the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program (BTSA).  In BTSA programs, new teachers receive one-on-one mentoring, and an ongoing and structured program of support in their first two years of professional practice.  The NTC, recognizing the importance of site leadership and the difficulties often encountered by new principals, has established a program which attempts to build upon what we have learned in teacher induction to provide support to new administrators.  In the fall of 1998, with support from the Noyce Foundation, the NTC began to pilot a BTSA-like model of administrator support with a small group of new principals in the Central California region.  Our program is based upon a number of premises:

School improvement depends upon effective school leadership

Perhaps the most consistent finding in the large body of school effectiveness research is that the success of school improvement efforts is dependent upon leadership.  Effective schools have effective principals and effective teacher leaders.  (Fullan, 1993)

As Mike Schmoker states in Results, “Leadership is essential to substantive and enduring progress, yet the literature reveals a lack of strategic leadership that focuses on improving instruction…principals rarely apply systematic approaches to solving school problems.” (Schmoker, 1996)

Recent reform and restructuring efforts have often been frustrated by ineffective school leaders,  turnover in leadership ranks and by a shortage of individuals ready to step forward into leadership positions.

Contemporary school leadership requires a high degree of skill, sophistication, and intuitive ability.

The complexity and variety of the demands and expectations placed upon school leaders have never been greater.  School effectiveness research in the ‘80’s brought a new focus upon the importance of instructional leadership.  In the 90’s,  restructuring and site based management have  established the need to be able to build a collaborative school culture, and to balance and support multiple constituencies.  School leaders are expected to coordinate, nurture and lead highly diverse student, staff and community groups; all of this in a climate that is increasingly politicized and driven by the call for accountability.  Today’s school leaders are expected to function as education professor, teacher supervisor, budget manager, counselor, local politician, social worker, disciplinarian, visionary, assistant custodian and bureaucrat.  These are difficult, disparate,  and vitally important jobs.

There is a pressing need for effective new school administrators

California is experiencing a shortage of school leaders at the same time that we are realizing how important those school leaders are to the future of education in our state. The National Bureau of Labor Statistics expects a 10-20% increase in the need for school administrators through 2005.   The pool of available candidates for administrative positions has diminished substantially over the past twenty years.   In  a recent national survey of school districts conducted by the National Associations of Elementary and Secondary School Principals, a majority of districts reported that there was a shortage of qualified candidates for principal positions.  Particular shortages of qualified minority candidates are reported.

Administrators need intensive support in their early years of service

It is widely recognized that administrators need intensive support during their early years of service.  The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing has acknowledged this through the establishment of the Second Tier requirement.  Other organizations, such as the California School Leadership Academy and the Association of California School Administrators Principal Support Network, have attempted to create inservice programs and support networks for new school administrators.

As in the case of classroom teaching, the spectrum of knowledge and skills that school administrators must be able to bring into play are not easily learned in a classroom setting; they are learned in practice.  Administrators, unlike most teachers, have nothing like a student teaching experience.  A student teacher serves a sort of apprenticeship, working side by side with a master teacher, receiving daily modeling and daily feedback.  Administrators, while they typically move through positions of increasing responsibility, step into those positions with very limited practical preparation.

New administrators struggle in their positions.  The multiple demands placed upon them are daunting.  They are in even more public and vulnerable positions than new teachers.  They are in positions that demand all of their time and energy, and are isolated from their colleagues.

The issues that often are most difficult for new administrators are issues of individual style and daily practice.  Typical concerns include time management, interpersonal communication, decision- making and follow through, meeting management, and supervision.  Practice, with effective coaching, is probably the best way of learning in these arenas.

Any program designed for new administrators must be highly respectful of the demands for time, energy and attention that are already being made upon these individuals.  It must be relevant to their immediate needs and must be perceived by them as being useful and appropriate.

The State Commission on Teacher Credentialing requires that administrators work with a mentor during their Second Tier. Second Tier programs typically designate mentors who are senior administrators in the same district as the new administrator. However, when a coach or mentor works in the same school district as a new administrator, it may be difficult to establish an open relationship built upon assumed trust and confidentiality.  When a coach or mentor is working fifty hours a week in his/her own principalship, it is difficult to be fully available to a new administrator.  And great veteran administrators are not necessarily great coaches.  Professional coaching is a learned skill which not all of us possess.  For all of these reasons, the quality of support received by administrators in Second Tier programs appears to be highly variable.

PROGRAM DESIGN

The NTC has designed a program of support for new administrators that is built upon the above assumptions.  Professional coaching is at the heart of the New Teacher Center’s New Administrators Program.   Coaches must possess substantial successful site administrative experience and a high level of coaching competency.  They have to be available to new administrators, which means that individuals working in full time administrative positions cannot serve in this capacity.  To date, coaches have been either employees of the NTC dedicated to this work, or retirees.

Early in the school year, coaches and new administrators meet to review the program’s expectations, and to establish goals and areas of focus for the year.  They then meet at least once every two weeks at the new administrator’s site for the purpose of individualized coaching conversations.   In the interim periods, they stay in touch by phone and email.

The program provides new administrators with the opportunity to be observed and coached through authentic situations; conducting teacher observations and post-observation conferences, facilitating staff meetings, working with parents, managing budgets, and so forth.

Coaches have served as an important resource to new administrators.  They have assisted new administrators in accessing research to support school improvement efforts, in identifying trainers, consultants, and model schools, and in finding specific tools such as budget management software.  Most importantly, coaches have been available as an independent and confidential sounding board as new administrators have struggled with a variety of difficult issues in their first years of service.  In response to requests from participants, in 1999-2000, the program will include regular job-alike sessions and seminars focused upon topics identified as common needs.

LESSONS LEARNED

“It was good to have an outside, neutral person who could listen and give me a thumbs up or thumbs down, and give me new ideas.  I received great reassurance from my mentor, moving me on instead of giving up.”

“This program has been central to my coping with the isolation and with the spotlight.  The opportunity to meet with a neutral person and to reflect with job-alikes most definitely will aid my longevity as a principal.  I am reminded through visits with my mentor of the necessity for balance and by listening to my colleagues experiences can learn and grow.  My coach helped me to remember to keep my reflective mirror in action and to interpret more clearly my first year in action-or should I say front line action.”

“I especially valued my coaches’ input.  He is honest and direct and in a short period of time is able to assess what is observed.  This kind of third party objective feedback is essential to a first year principal because it is often the only source of such feedback.  By attending staff and school site meetings he was able to point out verbal and management miscues.   By participating in the teacher evaluation process he offered his experience to me.”

“Being a part of this program has pushed my learning and practice forward.  Every situation that I share with my coach is real; there are no hypothetical situations.  Therefore the mentoring is authentic.  I know that I can seek his help in any situation and in a variety of ways.”

Quotes from first year principals

Our project’s pilot year has confirmed that there is a need for the type of one-on-one intensive coaching and support offered by this program.  The participants universally confirmed the value of the program model.  They spoke about the isolation of the principalship, the value of coaching, and the value of having a third party mentor from outside of their own school systems.

New principals are not fully prepared to assume their duties without significant support.  Our participants struggled with very basic issues such as budget management, time management and staff supervision.  Until principals begin to master management and interpersonal issues, they cannot successfully serve as positive change agents.

Becoming an effective site principal is a developmental process.  Not unlike the process of becoming an effective teacher, most of what makes for an effective principalship is learned by doing.  New principals go through phases in their first year not unlike those experienced by  new teachers :anticipation, survival, disillusionment, rejuvenation, reflection. (Moir, 1996)

New administrators did not necessarily know how to take best advantage of the program.  Some participants struggled with making time for the program (despite the fact that the program held the promise of helping them to make more effective and efficient use of their time) and others resisted the use of coaches in observing and providing feedback on real work at their sites.  Most of our participants had never participated in a true professional coaching relationship, and the relationship itself had to be learned.

New administrators value “job alike” time.  Participants indicated that they would like to participate in regular gatherings of new administrators for “job alike” purposes, and to have collegial conversation with others who are having similar experiences.

New administrators need support with technology.  A number of technological tools can be very helpful to site administrators.  None of our participants knew how to use spreadsheets for budget management,  and many were making only limited use of email and the internet.  Most of our participants made only limited use of technology in gathering and analyzing student achievement data.

Effective coaching/mentoring relationships are highly individual.  As might have been predicted, each relationship was different, driven by participant need, trust level, and other particulars.  Not all new administrators want or need a mentor, and not all will take full advantage of such a program.  Individual needs vary; during 1998-9 some participants needed support with basic survival skills, while others were ready to move their schools forward with clear improvement plans.  Coaches had to be prepared to support new administrators through activities ranging from working through an “in box” to designing and facilitating a staff retreat with the goal of initiating a major restructuring initiative.

Our experience has led us to conclude that new  administrators and their schools will benefit from the kind of intensive support offered by the New Teacher Center’s New Administrators Program.  The cost of such a program is insignificant when compared to the real costs of failed leadership to school districts, staff members, and students.  

REFERENCES

Fullan, Michael (1993) Change Forces: Probing the Depths of Education Reform, Teachers College
Schmoker, Michael (1996) Results: The Key to Continuous School Improvement, , ASCD
Moir, Ellen (1996). A Guide to Prepare Support Providers. Santa Cruz New Teacher Project