Comment

Comment by Robert. B. Vellani, PhD on February 22, 2015 at 2:46pm

Dear Dr. Allen:

Perhaps this isn't the right question. The question should be does the school culture in the building allow for a path to school leadership among its colleagues? Moreover your question doesn't allow for the distinct leadership cultures in an individual private/parochial school and in public schools driven by school district offices.

Currently, I am  an Englsih instructor and part of the Admin team in a Bronx area Catholic high school. But, I did not lose any of my ethos and credibility when I joined Admin.

My teaching colleagues have witnessed my transformation from new faculty member to school leader over the past 7 years. And, I have earned their respect through all the department and faculty meetings and the programs and ideas I have championed, not simply because I could earn a School Leader certification. In fact, I do not have such a document.

If a classroom instructor has not earned the respect of his or her peers in the building where that instructor was learning to be what Seth Godin calls a linchpin then we cannot assume that he or she will be a school leader in a new school building simply through a lateral move inside a district.

Where I believe it can be valuable to be "The New School Leader in Town" is when the school culture has so calcified that it cannot reboot its operating system to meet new changes in teaching methods and curriculum. Here I refer to the real school reform we so long for - integrated studies, team planning and teaching, and more student driven learning.

In such cases where the school community needs real transformation, it takes an administrator with a clear and understandable vision and the ability to build consensus around that vision to remain in the same building and be a change agent. It may be easier for an outsider, but an insider could still do it. But, again, the key terms here are "vision" and "consensus" and "leadership skills" not "new" or "old" school community.

It reminds me of a line from Mamet's GlenGarry Glen Ross, and I quote, Shelly "The Machine" Levine and Williamson, the office manager, are discussing the salesman's trade; Levine tells him, "You can't learn that in an office. Eh? He's (Roma) right. You have to learn it on the streets."

If you haven't learned the street smarts necessary to be a school leader, a certificate or a new building won't make you one.