It happens all the time. An Anzar staff member is at a conference, workshop, or county meeting, talking with people about our new high school, sharing our experience with integrated curriculum or service learning or true, full inclusion of all students. Then, two words bring silence: "No principal."
How people take these two words may best be represented by the punctuation they tack on when they echo in response. "No principal?" say teachers, with curiosity, as they try to imagine what it's like to operate freely, setting their own rules and guidelines. "No principal!" say administrators, with bewilderment, as they wonder what role they could play in such an educational system, or how it could possibly operate without them. "No principal?!" say people in the community, with mixed concerns: Whom do we call when there's a problem? Where does the buck really stop? Oh no! Can this system really work?!
A Commitment to New Principles
Anzar High School is a small school (approaching 450 students) in a new unified district in central California. Now in our fourth year, we are preparing to graduate our first class of seniors. We've been operating without a principal since the beginning. It's been quite a challenge.
The school district has made a commitment to shared decision making and site-based management. Anzar's team leadership model features a site council with staff, community, and student representation; lead teachers; and a strong staff role in decision making. Lead teacher positions are supported with release time, and rotate from year to year. We also employ a classified site manager who manages non-instructional operational and organizational aspects of the program.
We have committed to the principles that support our team leadership model. We have used professional performance coaches, counselors, communication experts, critical friends, and community representatives to organize ourselves in a way that makes true shared leadership possible.
Because we all came from large, traditionally run schools, we have had to challenge the notions of leadership that we had internalized over the years. We have had to develop personal and interpersonal sensibilities in order not to re-create the same kind of hierarchical system with which we were familiar and comfortable.
Communication Is Key
- I commit to practice these guidelines. We are committed to communicating well. It sounds like common sense, of course, but it is not a common practice in most schools. Teachers are notorious for working in isolation. School staff meetings are notorious for being dysfunctional. By committing ourselves to practicing these guidelines, we remind ourselves to leave personal baggage at the door.
- We are all part of the same team; we collectively own the problems, and we collectively solve them. Our shared leadership approach requires a strong sense of ownership from all participating staff members. Staff enthusiasm is indispensable to the culture of a school, but it is exceedingly difficult to achieve in a top-down system. At Anzar, we must all take responsibility for any problems that arise, whether it be the poor performance of a specific student, the implications of a new school-wide schedule, or the hurt feelings of a colleague. In traditional schools, the principal is ultimately responsible for solving these kinds of problems. At Anzar, shared responsibility keeps us from falling into the blame-game trap. The "us versus them" dynamic doesn't materialize, because there's no them—just us. We must be alert at all times to prevent problems from falling through the cracks. We are learning to anticipate problems that are not always apparent from the traditional teacher perspective. We must understand and promote the idea that the needs of the school outweigh the needs of individual teachers and the teachers as a group. We need to be ever-vigilant not to slip into previous hierarchical ways of thinking and the shirking of responsibility.
- We will allow conflict/differing ideas to exist. Tension is normal. I will be accountable for speaking my ideas. Our staff operates on a "fist-o-five" consensus model for all important decisions. After discussion of a proposal, the facilitator calls for a fist-o-five vote. Five extended fingers signifies total support; four down to two indicates graduated degrees of support. Anyone who blocks a proposal (with a finger or a fist) must propose an alternative. We are encouraged to voice dissenting ideas; meetings are never boring, and we get to throw in a little humor even while discussing serious matters.We are individually responsible for speaking up, even on issues that don't involve consensus. By demanding evidence to back up our opinions, we hold one another to high levels of accountability. Feuding among colleagues is simply not accepted; this helps keep our words and actions in check as we speak our minds.This model is not without potential pitfalls, and we need to be constantly aware of them. Open discussion can be unbelievably time-consuming. It's a constant struggle to balance the time for shared decision making against the time dedicated to classroom instruction, and the school's demands on our lives can lead to burnout. We have addressed these issues through the development of efficient meeting rules and procedures and by delegating some decisions to subcommittees.
- We will help and support others. New members of our staff need to be retrained in the Anzar mode. At the same time, we old-timers need to be open to the perspectives they bring us. Everything, however, must accord to a set of five givens: (1) Community; (2) Inclusion; (3) Professionalism; (4) Quality; and (5) High Expectations.
- I will be honest. The success of our team hinges on our ability to be open and honest with one another. One of the most difficult challenges has been self-policing and teacher evaluation. We have created a system of reciprocal peer coaching, and a lead teachers/superintendent formal evaluation team as a means of meeting legal and professional obligations without undermining the spirit of shared leadership. Honesty is critical in self-evaluations and in peer coaching. We can afford no weak links in our school; therefore, we must maintain high standards for ourselves and one another in the classroom.
True Believers
At Anzar High School, we believe that true shared leadership is possible. Moreover, we have demonstrated that this "no principal" approach can be highly successful. But how to guarantee that it will endure? We need to educate the community so that they understand and support our nontraditional approach. We face the organizational challenges and time demands that come with a less hierarchical command structure. And we are not exempt from the dissipation of vision that all institutions face as they grow and age.
To ensure Anzar's continuing success, we have all committed to an ongoing process of problem solving, reflection, and genuine communication. It is because of that commitment that we are confident we have created an effective and enduring approach to school leadership.
