Getting the Job

I was recently visiting a secondary campus where the principal asked me to meet with one of his assistant principles who was beginning to get disgruntled due to his lack of success at securing his next job.  I agreed. When I met with the AP, I asked him what he was thought set him apart from other applicants.  He shared his background, which was solid, and he had some professional experiences that were valuable and unique.  As his principal had attested, he was (and is) a viable principal candidate. 

I then asked him what in his experience was hurting him in the selection process.  He said that in his district a lot of informal hiring power belonged to a specific Assistant Superintendent and his lack of a relationship with that person meant that lesser qualified candidates were being hired instead of him.  This may be an honest assessment, but it was something that I had no knowledge of, so I asked him what about in other districts?  And there was the rub. 

The Assistant Principal told me that he had not applied in other districts and would not be doing so. In fact he had an extensive list of "not's."  He would not move; he would not consider an elementary principalship; he would not transfer his children to a different school in a different district; and he would not entertain the pay cut that would come with a job at a smaller campus/district.

I looked at him and told him that obviously he did not want to be a Principal.  Regardless of how he believed the World should work, here is how it actually works.  There are three ways to get a principalship.

1. Be in the right place at the right time.  This is the Assistant Principal at a campus who inherits the job when the sitting principal leaves.  Though this is not a rare occurrence, you should never plan on this happening.  I suspect it happens less than 15% of the time.

2. Know the right person.  This is the Assistant Principal that has a relationship with someone who has an impact on the hiring decision.  This too is not a rare occurrence, but it is not as prevalent as many AP’s believe.  My guess is that this type of hire occurs about 20% to 25% of the time.

So one could postulate that 25% to 40% of principal hires are because of timing and/or connections.  Thin odds for an aspiring leader.  Which brings us to...

3. Play the numbers game.  Long time blog readers will be familiar with this rule.  Plan on sending out 100 applications, to get 10 interviews, to get 1 job.  Which means if you can expand the geographic territory you would be willing to move to you have a greater pool of jobs to apply for.

Work of all three avenues concurrently and your chances greatly improve.  Purposefully limit your options and the typical result will be that your first principalship is much further off than you want it to be.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); NEASP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Reader Writes... Advice for a First Year Principal - Part 4

In response to the 11/1/2013 post, “A Superintendent Writes... Advice for the First Year Principal – Part 1,” a reader writes:

SC,

I am probably wasting my time, but I am going to respond to this anyway.

Teachers have been given an impossible task and then they are blamed when they get frustrated or angry because of it.

Let’s start with a couple of places where both the administrator and the policy (in this case the mission statement) are being dishonest. You start by saying teachers do not believe in the mission and your first statement of the mission is that "all students can learn." Not only is this statement true, every educator believes it or they would not be educators in the first place. No, the mission statement itself is false because the standard for measurement is NOT whether all children can learn, but whether all children can learn up to a standard, and that standard seems to be set at the college entrance level.

You said it yourself, not every child can go to college.

Then you come up with a ridiculous example that has no relationship to the morale problem. A better example would be a doctor with limited time and resources, asking them to focus on a patient who is dying (soon, not eventually) while ignoring a large group of patients who can be helped.

This exposes the fundamental lie of a mission statement like "all children can learn." What it really means is that teachers are required (evaluated) to focus on those students who are at risk of failure while ignoring those who have passed but can achieve a much higher (even excellent) level.

This is like telling the basketball coach you are not going to be evaluated based on how well the team does (wins and losses) but on how many kids make the team. The goal is every kid can be a basketball player and if a kid does not make the team it is the coach’s fault.

This is where you are asking teachers to do the impossible. No wonder you have a morale problem.

SC Response

First, I don’t think that you wasted your time with your response and I appreciate the dialogue.

Second, I do agree that teachers undertake a Herculean task everyday. They are expected to:

1. Educate every student to a previously unheard of level

2. Manage every ill that our communities refuse to provide services for

  

3. Keep everyone safe

4. Do the above with resources that are cut annually

5. Smile when unappreciative politicians and fringe elements kick them in the teeth.

I know that the author of the original post also understands this, because we have discussed it at length.

What I took from the post was the danger to both students and teachers when we allow our beliefs to erode.  And we are at risk for this occurring when the external factors impacting education are the most daunting.  Take the teacher working in the most impoverished neighborhood.  This teacher knows that her students face unimaginable (for her) hardship everyday.  Without aggressive, measurable performance targets, it is easy for this teacher to equate making her students comfortable and happy to classroom success.  But a comfortable, happy, inadequately educated childhood leads to a stressful, comfortless adulthood.  That is why the teacher at the Title One campus has to be a tad more clinical and a tad more focused than the non-Title One campus teacher.  Bottom line, the stakes are higher.  And the Title One campus teacher who cannot deal with this (for any number of legitimate reasons) cannot be considered an asset to the campus.

I would argue that the accountability systems in place across the country put an undue burden on the teachers of academically fragile students while (comparatively speaking) placing a much lighter performance burden on the teachers of non-fragile learners. This very fact runs counter to the argument that accountability is forcing teachers to ignore the needs of higher performing students.  Actually, what accountability has shown us is that the typical campus underserves all of its students.  You don’t have to believe me; just look at any instructional practice observation data.  For 20 years our profession has known the difference between higher-yield and lower-yield instructional practices, we just don’t implement the higher-yield practices, at scale, at adequate frequency.  Which brings me to this.  Yes, the external factors that impact our schools, classrooms and students can seem insurmountable.  But when we (educators) have only begun to scratch the surface when it comes to implementation of best practice, we still have hope. That’s what gets me out of bed in the morning.     

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); NEASP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Your After STAAR Plan

I have talked extensively about how the schools that consistently outperform their peers make better use of time.  The tempo of these peer-beating schools is always a notch or two above the norm, and nowhere is this more evident than at the end of the year.  When everyone else is winding down, these campuses are still pushing forward.  If your campus is going to join these ranks, you need to have a “May Plan,” or in Texas, an “After STAAR Plan.”  Here is what my “After STAAR Plan” would look like:

The day after the STAAR test for a given course, I would begin teaching the first unit of the next course.  For example, the day after my 7^th graders take the 7^th grade math STAAR, we begin day one of 8^th grade math and teach at full speed until the last day of school. At the beginning of the next year, I start teaching day one of 8^th grade math on day one of school.  No need for review or easing into the subject because my students are already familiar with the material.  Due to that familiarity, all of my students will have better grades on their initial assignments sowing the seeds of confidence and optimism.

Now imagine the long-term effect of implementing this plan on your campus as opposed to 4 week slow down process that is all too typical in May.  So what is your plan?

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); NEASP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of April 6, 2014

A number of you in the LYS Nation are now Twitter users.  If you haven’t done so yet, we want you to join us.  To let you see what you are missing, here are the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of April 6, 2014.

1. Congratulations to LYS Coach and Icon, Barbara Fine! She was just named as one of the 75 most influential people for Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District during its 75-year history! (By @LYSNation)

2. That which doesn't kill you, doesn't kill you. Get back up and try again. (By @JohnMorris419)

3. Strong leadership requires transparent communication.  Failure to have it leaves your followers to create information in the vacuum. (By @blitzkrieg607)

4. Impossible isn't a fact, it's an opinion. (By @CoachKWisdom)

5. The most unfair school accountability system is the one that treats the at-risk and the advantaged the same. (By @LYSNation)

6. The number one purpose of open house night is to build relationships. It is not about rules, homework, or permission slips. (By @ToddWhitaker)

7. "Winging it" should not be your plan, your backup plan, or your emergency plan. (By @TinneyTroy)

8. Take away from Final Four so far: Don't let your rank determine your destiny. Work hard and you may end up #1. (By @christystarrett)

9. The world of a teacher in a tested subject vs. a non-tested subject is slightly different this time of year. (By @BluntEducator)

10. Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement. (By @CoachKWisdom)

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); NEASP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook