A
Year of Change: Leadership in the Principal’s Office
by
Gillian Granoff
A
New PBS Series airing on October 10th was unveiled at channel
13’s
headquarters shortly before this paper went to press. With
Bill Baker, President of Channel 13 presiding and Schools
Chancellor Joel Klein as well as Deputy Chancellor Carmen
Fariña in attendance, three graduates of the unique
initiative to train New York City’s principals were
followed from summer training, to shadowing working principals,
to finally assuming leadership of their own schools. The
three aspiring principals never expected to become the subjects
of their own PBS reality series.
A Year of Change,
Leadership in the Principal’s
Office chronicles the trials and tribulations faced by Rafaela
Espinal- Pacheco, Larry Wilson and Alexandra Anormaliza.
The Leadership Academy, a 15-month long “boot camp” for
aspiring principals was the brainchild of Chancellor Klein
and Mayor Bloomberg and funded by Christine DeVita of the
Wallace Foundation. Ms. DeVita stated, “Support and
sharing effective ideas in practice is the ultimate reality
show. Our priority is to educate leaders for the 21st century.
Chancellor Klein added that the “core of education
is giving each school a great leader.” Launched in
July 2003, 77 aspiring principals passed through the rigors
and rewards in the life of an actual school principal. The
program participants completed three phases of an intensive
training program designed to teach them effective leadership
skills.
During Phase one, the
aspiring principals were exposed to problem–based learning
scenarios that simulated the actual situations they would
confront as future school leaders. The goal
was give them the skills and strategies to confront the challenges
they would face as leaders.
In phase two, the principals experienced the realities
of everyday life in schools under the supervision of an assigned
mentor.
Larry Wilson started
the school year by taking his students on an overnight trip
to the Poconos, a bonding experience in which students performed
activities and came to trust each other. Alexandra, founder
of a school for immigrant children, spoke about developing
language through interdisciplinary projects. “We must
challenge and modify the curriculum to fit what we want to
do.”
The
evening concluded with actual roundtable discussion moderated
by Bob Morris, the program’s senior producer, who questioned
the participants on the challenges of navigating their new
roles under the watchful lens of the camera, They were candid
about the difficulties but seemed grateful for the opportunity
to reflect on their progress and the work still needed to
be done as leaders.
When the discussion
turned to the question of whether talent and intelligence
is innate or can be nurtured through experience, the three
star principals’ articulate
responses revealed that leadership demands a combination of
dedication, intelligence and hard work. As Larry emphatically
stated, “Effort is valued over aptitude; that is what
the academy has instilled in us.”
The documentary provides
insight and inspiration into the lives of new principals,
and is proof positive of the dramatic improvement taking
place in New York City public schools. The successful graduates
will have the opportunity to share the rewards of their efforts
with PBS ‘s five
million viewers when the series premieres. One can only hope
that they continue to demonstrate the same strength, poise,
dedication, and determination throughout the challenging times
ahead.#
