The Unbearable Shortness of Being (a head of school)

How can we help school heads stay for more than three years??

And Board Chairs longer than one?

I had the pleasure of co-facilitating the Institute for New and Aspiring School Heads with Jeff Paulson , Executive Director of the Academy for International School Heads (AISH) last summer. During our time learning and building relationships together, we talked about the promises and perils of leading a school.

Based on research findings about the longevity of international school heads in the 1980s and 90s, recently confirmed as unchanged in the 2020s by John Littleford , about eighty percent of newly appointed school heads (I hope none from this summer's well prepared talented cohort) will leave sometime in their first three years.?

Most boards are fired with enthusiasm about their newly hired head. A few years later, boards with high turnover of its members, especially upon the departure of the chair, will often fire that same head with enthusiasm.

Of course, the board’s confident enthusiasm about firing a head is not shared with the community in the same way as when they hired them. The reason why the head is moving on will be described in kind but opaque terms by the head and the board.

The overwhelming anecdotal evidence from those who work in recruiting school heads and organizations like AISH and AAIE suggests that these early departures result from a breakdown in the relationship between the head and the board chair or person in an equivalent governance role. It is not uncommon that in three years a head will have had two to three different board chairs, often thwarting the head’s ability to build a stable relationship and leadership partnership with the chair in the first place. In the absence of a relationship, trust is absent too. And when the chair is a parent at the school with strong relationships with other parents and staff, all it takes is a WhatsApp group chat to undermine the head. And we know where that can lead.

During my own tenure at three schools over three decades, I had over a dozen board chairs. In my last international school I had five board chairs in six years. My successor has had four since I left less than two years ago.

While an appropriate length of tenure as a school head is context specific, I think we can agree that with eighty percent of international school heads leaving within three years, we are not serving our students and families as well as we could. Educational and governance instability makes the ambitious missions of these schools too stressful for staff and students to pursue with serenity. Maybe even out of reach.

Both parties, the school leaders and those who govern them, can be complicit, consciously or? unconsciously, in this. Some heads have no intention to stay more than a few years and some who hire them have no intention to support longer head tenure.

This needs to change.?

For schools to thrive and to build and sustain great places for students and adults to learn, to grow and to flourish, heads need to stay longer than a few years.

This school year, instead of being a school head, I am working with school leaders and those who govern them in a different capacity - as a consultant, mentor and coach. I am also replicating the research I did at the end of last century examining the factors that influence the longevity of international school heads during the first twenty-five years of this century, with a particular focus:

What do international school heads, who have served as head for ten or more years in the same school during this period, have in common?

If you fit that category, please reach out to me if you would like to be part of this research. I will publish the preliminary findings in January 2025.

For heads in their first three years, board chairs or their equivalent, and those aspiring to be a school head or governor of a school, I am happy to have a conversation to support leadership beyond three years. With good intention and perseverance, there are many steps that can be taken and several support structures can be built towards achieving this goal.

Let’s do it for the students.

Jeff Paulson Sheena Nabholz Laura Light Olli-Pekka Heinonen Dr Nicole Bien Conrad Hughes Tom Hawkins, Ed.D. Dr. Paul Fochtman Melinda Bihn Kevin Simpson (he/him) Kevin Glass Faith Abiodun Mark E. Ulfers Kam Chohan Trillium Hibbeln Jane Larsson Kevin J Ruth Russell Speirs Bambi Betts Chip Barder Shelly Berlin Chris Edwards Cecile Doyen Kristi Williams Rick Detwiler Keith Hanigan Colleen Keenan Richard Gaskell Dr Helen Wright Keith Clark