Where Are the Next Successful Principals Coming From? Creating a strong candidate pool through informal internships is a step in the right direction.

by Dr. Donald Sternberg

WANTED

Wanted, a new principal to fill the vacancy of a departing administrative staff member! The superintendent is looking for a bright, energetic, hardworking individual with pedagogical expertise whose leadership qualities and performance in collaborative initiatives has been impressive. Someone whose tone and professionalism with parents is perfect and who possesses a professional tone and quality when they speak with people….and now the hunt begins!

If this is the first time central office administration has thought about replacing a principal, then one might accuse those central office administrators of being short-sighted. Turnover is inevitable and just as central office administrative leaders plan for the acquisition of new textbooks, technology advancements and/or curricula initiatives; they must also plan for the succession of leadership in a school. By developing a potential line of succession for the inevitability of principal turnover; a proactive leader, at the very least, starts the process of addressing future administrative vacancies long before the need arises.

Actively planning for a line of succession can be a great deal more fruitful than sitting at a table with dozens of cover letters and resumes or scrolling through Internet-based job search engines the day after a principal submits his or her letter of resignation and/or retirement. A succession plan, at the very least, offers central office administration a   highly viable option in addition to trolling for attractive resumes. 

The interview scenario plays out thousands of times each year all across the country as central office administrators seek to find the most highly competent and successful successor to a retiring, or worse, a dismissed principal. The standard interview system has been in place since a school year was first determined by when seeds needed to be sowed and subsequently crops harvested. It has probably worked successfully as many times as it has failed. Good odds? No, not if I was the superintendent of schools. What is at stake? Nothing short of the educational well-being of hundreds of children, the leadership of faculty and staff, and the confidence of parents whose expectations are nothing short of demanding perfection. 

Even with the sharpest of interview techniques, years of interviewing experience, and dozens of interview questions that will test the intellect, ethics, and pedagogical knowledge-base of the candidates, it is still somewhat of a sophisticated guessing game. Eventually, a final candidate is offered the position and, subsequently, he or she responds in the affirmative. The superintendent crosses every finger they have and hopes that this match will work. However, there is too much at stake for this to be the predominant manner in which educational leaders are hired. Seek to enhance this traditional approach to hiring with an inside candidate or two who have demonstrated significant progress and promise through a gamut of pseudo-, quasi-administrative tasks within the district during the last couple of years.

NEEDLE IN HAYSTACK

A superintendent with an eye toward the next five years would tend to look at not only the philosophical and practical educational direction they want to move their district toward, but would certainly have an eye towards who would be assisting him or her in bringing that plan to fruition. The concept of how many of their present cadre of administrators might not be in district within the next five years must be part of a reasonable, logical, and well thought out part of the equation. 

Why do administrators only seem to follow the ‘find the needle in the haystack’ method of recruitment when one could possibly have the potential of home growing the next successful administrator? Why aren’t we informally, at least, planning a possible line of succession? With no guarantees to anyone, why aren’t we at the very least tapping gifted teachers to be potential gifted administrative leaders?

As an Adjunct Lecturer at a local campus of my state’s university system, I teach a variety of educational administration classes. The university goes to significant lengths to create a program that is authentically-based, rigorous, and one that provides learners with a full compliment of administrative experiences, so they can not only earn a certification as a building level administrator but ultimately be successful in that endeavor. Many students approach these courses with enthusiasm as they plot out the next step in their personal career ladder. There are many who posses the skills to ‘pass’ the class and, subsequently, obtain the certification/Master’s Degree. However, based upon my experience, many may not initially be successful as a building administrator with a foundation based solely on university classroom-based experiences. The university experience and even the formal internship associated with certification programs in educational administration should be nothing more than a key to the gate that allows prospective administrators to indicate, “I am here!” I always tell my educational administration students that the Internship during their university program is just the ‘ticket to begin.’ On the very next day after your university Internship ends, you should go back to your building level and district level mentors and simply knock on their doors and ask, “…what can I do next?”

If the relationship between the university student seeking a certification to become a principal and his or her school district has been successful, then the continuation of administrative tasks, outside of the degree seeking experience, provides a continuation, an ‘apprenticeship’ toward a possible administrative position. This continuation is the step that starts that ‘informal apprenticeship.’  

A LINE OF POSSIBLE SUCCESSION

It would serve the best interests of all stakeholders of a school district if a plan was in place whereby building principals could recommend to the superintendent people within the district who might aspire to be a principal in the future. We already have a principal preparatory program called the assistant principal, and it is rare that an accomplished assistant principal will not become a principal either in district or out of district.

I started my path toward being a principal by working in the discipline office for one period a day in the high school where I was teaching. This led to doing other administrative-like activities that I volunteered for both before and after school, as well as time spent during the summer months. I was informally coached, mentored, and counseled along the way because I asked questions and sought advice. I eventually was recognized by my superintendent who provided me with a few district-wide assignments to work on. During a two and half year period, I was given a number of school-based, as well as district-wide tasks that strengthen my skills and frankly, got me noticed! All of this started after my formal, university level, field Internship. This was my ‘informal apprenticeship.’

LISTENING TO MY ‘UNCLE’

I remember applying to be a principal in my school district at the end of my second year of this kind of apprenticeship and my superintendent called me into his office and served as my ‘Dutch-Uncle’ as he candidly stated, “…you’re just not ready yet.” A year later, an assistant principal vacancy opened and I was the preverbal shoe-in. I had worked hard. People within the district knew me, respected my work, ethics and newly acquired skill-sets. Both my patience and theirs were rewarded. Absent this kind of succession plan, albeit an informal, non-delineated one, I might never have been considered for any administrative position, based purely on my resume and a set of interviews.

My informal apprenticeship was an outgrowth of my Internship. The apprenticeship was not a formal one laid out by the district, but rather one orchestrated by me and embraced by my district as I knocked on everyone’s door in the district to garner work (experience). “An internship is essential for the development of competency-based leadership. Variation in the quality of time spent in clinical settings depends on the use of approaches that provide interns with opportunities to observe, participate in, and reflect on the problems of leadership and management found in schools. In essence, the internship is an apprenticeship for aspirants to experience job-embedded learning through problem solving and coaching” (Gaudreau, Patricia A.; Kufel, Andrew P.; Parks, David J., 2006, p.27).  

NO PROMISES, JUST AN OPPORTUNITY

No one can be promised a job in the future and all applicable Equal Opportunity Employment laws must always be followed. However, there needs to be an added component to the hiring process for principals other than a cold and blind resume review and interview process with people who look good on paper. In a process that rewards the candidate that gives the best interview, who is going to get the job? In many cases the job goes to not necessarily the best candidate but the best interviewee. Having a program, even an informal one, where potentially strong academic leaders are sought out and encouraged to become leaders seeds the field of candidates with home-grown people who have been culled-out based upon their demonstrated ability, not just their paperwork.

Central office personnel would not be blueprinting one particular person for a job, but rather would be building a strong candidate pool. Central office administrators practice effective collaborative endeavors in most components of their educational process, extending that concept to recruiting potential administrators is a logical and potentially beneficial step.

AASA Journal of Scholarship & Practice, v3 n3 p27, Fall 2006

Don Sternberg, Ed.D. (sternbergd@wantaghschools.org) has been the principal of the Wantagh Elementary School for 32 years. He was the New York State Elementary School Principal of the Year (2009) as well as being recognized as a National Distinguished Principal by the National Association of Elementary School Principals. He is co-president of the Nassau County Elementary School Principals’ Association and is an adjunct Lecturer at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, teaching educational administration classes. He serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the National Association of Elementary School Principals. He has written articles for national and state publications. His book, The Principal: Traversing the Hire-Wire with No Net Below: 79 Places Where the High-Wire Can Be Greasy, is available through Amazon.com.