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MAY 2005

Assistant Principals: Crisis Management to Instructional Expertise
By Jill Levy, President, CSA

It’s no secret. I love to teach. And what I love to teach is about leadership—what it is, how we use it, and what are the essential characteristics, attitudes and skills required to effectively implement our respective visions of what our schools should be like.

Recently, it has been my pleasure to work with Assistant Principals through the Executive Leadership Institute, and be exposed to their enthusiasm and intelligence. But it has also been a challenge to help them deal with the day-to-day issues that arise in the context of leadership.

The role of the Assistant Principal is difficult. Though these school leaders are usually chosen for their instructional skills, they are relegated to crisis management, bus and lunch duty, oversight of testing—duties that teachers no longer perform and that supervisors must take over despite CSA contractual protections.

Some high school Assistant Principals are straining under the responsibility of supervising 30 or more teachers, almost half of whom are probationary and require four formal observations annually. These department leaders want to lead their respective departments; they crave skill development. But they are hampered by the reality of their own responsibilities to teach and to formally supervise.

APs at all levels hunger for the exhilaration that comes from being part of a leadership team, assisting in decision-making and formulating the direction of a school. There is much that they can bring to the party; they want their gifts to be opened, admired or modified. Having much to learn, they look to their Principals for guidance and mentoring. They want their professional skills and ideas to be shaped by the effective leaders who guide them. They are our future school leaders.

Also keen observers, APs understand the pressures and responsibilities of their Principals. Often they have to miss their own professional development because of the daily demands on their Principals to be out of the school or deal with crises. They understand. They don’t complain a lot, but they do challenge us to find ways to provide Principals with the necessary support so that Assistant Principals can be free to be the instructional leaders they were hired to be, and free to learn and grow professionally.

It’s a hard job for Principals. Challenged to delegate in order to free themselves for other important things, there is often no one but the Assistant Principal to lend a hand. Principals are pulled in many directions as well—they must contend with shifting budgets, regional meetings, visits from the universe of LISes, visiting teams, DOE directives and revised mandates. Principals too, need relief.

I often think I should call my seminars, “So You Think You Want To Become a Principal!” The good news, in a way, is that some participants learn that being a Principal is not the career they desire, that they are happy being an Assistant Principal supporting an effective school leader. What I hope, when they leave my workshops, is that they walk away reflective, energized and inspired to be excellent Assistant Principals and perhaps Principals of the future.#

Jill Levy is the President of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators.

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