The discussion about principal turnover is hot in the educational streets these days and has been for quite sometime. At some of our struggling campuses, this has been happening for years with come have 3+ principals in the past 3 years. Now it's making some noise because some principals at some of the better performing schools with more involved parents (correlation or causation?) are starting to get shuffled around. The lack of explanation from the district is, of course, frustrating for everyone involved, but the important thing to focus on is the impact it has on our students.
Have you ever seen a successful sports franchise that changes head coaches every year? Have you ever seen a successful football team changing quarterbacks every year? No. Why? Because everyone on the team has to get used to a new system and then they learn to work better together going forward. This constant churn breeds ineffectiveness, not remedies it. Teachers don't adjust as well as you'd think to new administrations. It takes time. Relationships and understanding make for effective instruction, and that's just talking about the teachers. If the teachers are in an uproar, or students suffer the most.
Students, particularly those in our most difficult schools, need to know you to respect you. Respect isn't automatic with them, it's earned. The President of the United States himself could walk in here and tell a kid to sit down and the response he'd get in return would make even the most hardened of sailors blush. Our students don't respect authority, they respect respect. That's not a typo. If you respect them, you get it back. If they know you, they will listen. Maybe not all the time, but more than they would for a stranger. Putting a new stranger in charge every year is not the answer.
If a school is really under suffering, really under performing, or in disarray, then yes, make a move. But success takes time to show itself. Give your leaders a chance.
A response to a DMN article by Holly K. Hacker
Have you ever seen a successful sports franchise that changes head coaches every year? Have you ever seen a successful football team changing quarterbacks every year? No. Why? Because everyone on the team has to get used to a new system and then they learn to work better together going forward. This constant churn breeds ineffectiveness, not remedies it. Teachers don't adjust as well as you'd think to new administrations. It takes time. Relationships and understanding make for effective instruction, and that's just talking about the teachers. If the teachers are in an uproar, or students suffer the most.
Students, particularly those in our most difficult schools, need to know you to respect you. Respect isn't automatic with them, it's earned. The President of the United States himself could walk in here and tell a kid to sit down and the response he'd get in return would make even the most hardened of sailors blush. Our students don't respect authority, they respect respect. That's not a typo. If you respect them, you get it back. If they know you, they will listen. Maybe not all the time, but more than they would for a stranger. Putting a new stranger in charge every year is not the answer.
If a school is really under suffering, really under performing, or in disarray, then yes, make a move. But success takes time to show itself. Give your leaders a chance.
A response to a DMN article by Holly K. Hacker
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