Here's a professional development idea that will work almost anywhere there are new administrators: Set up formal networks for informal discussion to help them exchange ideas and solutions to problems common to those who are making the jump from classroom to office.
"There's an incredible shift between being a teacher and an assistant principal and a principal," said Marianne True, now an education professor at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. "When I made those changes, I found the experience very isolating."
At her ASCD Annual Conference session in April, True said she struggled until one afternoon she picked up the phone. "As a new assistant principal, I didn't know anyone else who was in my position. So I just called up someone I hadn't ever met but who had a similar job in another district. I asked, ‘Rick, are you lonely?’" she recalled with a laugh. "And he said he was."
On their own, they formed a support group to share the practices, policies, and pitfalls unique to young administrators. It worked, and the experience provided impetus for a program True would implement when she moved into a university faculty role.
Flash forward a few years: "That sense of getting together, of assuaging that loneliness stuck with me," said True. In her work at the university, she often heard education grad students—most often bound for school administration jobs—wishing that their program didn't have to end. She said they worried about missing "the collegiality and sharing that came from being in that learning community."
In response, True launched Plymouth State's "Collaborative Conversations" program.
The yearlong workshop series was open both to graduate students for credit and to young New Hampshire administrators who simply needed a forum for professional development. The 20 participants attended monthly meetings in restaurants and participants' homes. They communicated regularly via e-mail between their face-to-face get-togethers.
Throughout the year, they addressed seven key facets of the administrator's role:
- School culture.
- Finding one's voice.
- Developing a leadership persona.
- Making connections within the larger community.
- Balancing custodianship and innovation
- Building alliances and networks.
- Articulating a vision.
Although frequent guest speakers (state and local officials, for example) and the participation of experienced administrators on e-mail lists provided important perspective, the real benefit came from less structured interaction, True said. The chance to vent frustrations, share success stories, and sometimes just unload in front of people who understood was what participants valued most.
Discussions featured heavy-duty doses of reflection, an aspect that True said "sets this apart from other, more formal professional development." A regular exercise found participants sharing what they were thinking or worrying about and reflecting on what others were dealing with. "One of the participants said he felt like he was drowning and the other participants offered him a buoy of support," True said.
She said similar programs could be replicated in almost any school district or state. "There's a large focus on mentoring new teachers, but not on leaders at the building level," she observed. Finding willing participants shouldn't be hard. She suggested talking up the idea with ASCD affiliates and principals associations, on e-mail and electronic mailing lists, and at conferences.
The logistics are relatively easy to manage. "The biggest problem is scheduling. It's very difficult to get administrators to tear themselves away," True said. On the other hand, "if you feel like you can't leave the building without it all falling apart, that's a problem." Administrators in that situation might need a good support group most of all.