WHAT DO DEPUTY PRINCIPALS DO ALL DAY?
Well, deputise, I guess. Advise? Assist? Support? Tidy up? Fix up? Yes, all of these.
They also Manage. Lead. Investigate. Head off. Deflect. Hose down. Encourage. Empower. Build up. Nurture. Foster. Enculturate. Instil.
And they Care. They deeply, deeply care. Good ones do, anyway.
One Deputy of my experience explained that her role was to keep the Principal’s feet on the ground while his head was in the clouds.
In a conversation with EdWeek staffer Olina Banerji, Charles Longshore, who has been Assistant Principal at Dothan Preparatory Academy in Dothan Alabama since 2022, suggested that his role was to prop up the Principal (in Prop Up the Principal, But Do It In Your Own Way: An Assistant Principal’s Advice to His Peers, in Edweek, 11 Mar 24). ?
Assistant principals have a unique position in a school’s hierarchy, Banerji explains, adding that they are technically part of the leadership but also need to be grounded in the everyday challenges that students and teachers face. Moreover, she continues, they don’t make all the decisions but have responsibility for?implementing them. Longshore points out that APs also can’t rush in head-first with their own ideas; they have to hang back and first understand their principal’s vision for the school.
Longshore has a long list of duties, which range from improving student behaviour and learning outcomes to retaining teachers, he tells Banerji. He also directly supervises 20 of the 50 teachers at Dothan. When I joined the school, we had a 40 percent teacher-attrition rate. But I’m happy that all 20 teachers whom I supervised last year are back. None of them left,” he says proudly.?
How does the AP’s role differ from the Principal’s role? Banerji asks Longshore.
I don’t think we’re massively different, Longshore replies. The principal is in charge of an entire school, and APs have their own jurisdictions within that. But the overarching premise is that this is the Principal’s school and s/he has a certain vision approved by the central office. The Principal thus needs the school to function in a specific way.
Of course, it’s impossible for the Principal to do it all, Longshore attests, noting that the Principal cannot connect with every teacher every day. So, what does Longshore actually do? He affirms that his role is to take what the Principal wants as outcomes for teachers and students and make it happen using my own personality traits, my own leadership skills, and my personal experience.
The key point Longshore makes is that as AP, he sees his responsibility as supporting all that the Principal wants to do, progress and achieve, but at the same time still to be myself through the process. It’s a mindset shift, he emphasises - you can’t come in thinking you know everything.
The evolving role of Deputy Principals/ Assistant Principals?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
The number of people serving as APs in US public schools has doubled over the last 25 years, Banerji asserts, from close to 40,000 to over 80,000, according to a 2021?study by Vanderbilt University and the research group Mathematica.
The proportional change in Australia might well be the same. Certainly in independent and Catholic schools in the past ten to fifteen years, more positions for Deputy Principals have been created as traditional Deputy roles are carved up by separating Academic leadership responsibilities from Well-being and pastoral welfare roles as student populations in these schools have grown. During the same period, in the US the number of APs has grown six times faster than the number of principals, due to an increase in AP positions at elementary schools, Banerji states.
The Vanderbilt study makes a critical point, Banerji says: The growing number of APs forms a ready talent pool from which to draw future principals. The AP position acts like an apprenticeship, and the study recommends more targeted leadership development of APs as they chart a course to becoming principals. Effective APs can also help schools to retain their principals, by sharing their responsibilities and reducing chances of burnout.
Longshore told Banerji that he is keen to become a principal in the next three to five years and climb the administrative ranks further. He told her about a book he’s working on, which distils what he’s learned during his two Assistant Principal assignments about how to support Principals better. It might also help leaders understand how to pitch their own vision for their schools to their APs, Longshore said.
How do you bring your own personality to the role?? ??????????????????????????????????
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In answer to this question, Longshore tells Banerji that he used to coach baseball, adding that he remains close to the students he coached. I’ve always enjoyed the team atmosphere, but as a teacher, I’d never thought of the school as a collection of teams, Longshore continues, noting that now he is an AP, that view has changed. He understands now how a school staff is comprised of a cluster of independent but interrelated teams of teachers, indicating that the 20 teachers under his direct supervision has become like a small family. I was able to retain every one of those teachers, Longshore repeats, and that makes a difference because you put a lot of effort into training them.
In our staff meetings, our Principal sets out his broad vision and his expectations from the faculty, Longshore outlines. Afterwards, Longshore makes time to meet with teachers individually. My role is to translate the Principal’s vision for them, he says, adding, I may not change the vision, but I have more intimate knowledge about what’s going on with the 20 teachers I manage, and can tailor my explanation of what the Principal is seeking for them.?
Teachers in their first or second year of teaching get more attention from me than my principal, because I know they need extra support, he explains. I’m engaged in building their morale and self-confidence, and I can do it at a more granular level than the Principal. One way I can do this is when a new teacher asks for assistance or advice, say, on classroom management, I teach one of their lessons to give them a practical demonstration on how to structure a class. I give them a tool kit of four or five teaching strategies while also encouraging them to develop their own style.
How does your experience as a teacher play a role here?????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Some of our teachers come from different backgrounds than our students, Longshore replies, continuing, We are in a lower-income school with several homes that have single parents or grandparents raising the kids. We’ve got unique situations that require these new teachers to be empathetic. A lot of these teachers were raised by teachers or had good school experiences. And now, they teach in an urban setting with higher rates of poverty.
So, when it comes to behaviour issues, first- or second-year teachers may want to come down hard on students nip it in the bud, but that’s not how it works with this generation, Longshore reflects. The kids will test how much you care as an educator. Are the teachers going to simply throw them out of class or deal with their individual situation empathetically? These are the kind of conversations I can help with because I share a similar background to these teachers. My first job as an assistant principal was also at a rural school, so moving to Dothan has been a huge learning experience.
The AP is sandwiched between the principal and the rest of the school. How do you resolve disagreements with both parties? ????????????????????????????????
Longshore recounts how they have divided teachers into smaller “pods.” The teachers within these pods teach the same subject and usually have classrooms across the hall from each other. If there are disagreements, the pod usually brings it up to me. I gauge how serious this disagreement is: Is it just one person’s frustration, or is the whole pod disagreeing with a school policy or a mandate laid out by the Principal? We try to resolve it within the pod. If I’m not able to resolve things, then I become the go-to between them and the Principal. If I disagree with my Principal, I don’t say so at first. I wait to first implement the measure he has agreed to. I give it my 100 percent. If things don’t work out, then the Principal and I ?have an honest conversation about what happened and what we will try next.
What made you choose education as a career? What made you go into leadership?
I come from rural Alabama, Longshore smiles, and goes on, I always joke that there are more cows than people there. My dad was a heavy machinery mechanic, and he would drive into the city to work. He didn’t want that life for me … he wanted me to do something where my body wouldn’t be hurt. He never had the opportunity to continue his formal education, but it’s something he saw as important for me.
At that stage, Longshore says he hadn’t really thought about a leadership role. But once I did start my training, he tells Banerji, it instantly clicked with me. When I went to school, leaders had a very traditional role of enforcing hard discipline. Now, Principals and APs are more instructional leaders and people managers. I was passionate about things like good quality instruction, how to structure a lesson, set up a classroom … so the leadership role made sense to me.
If you’re everything to everyone all the time – and you seem to be trying to be - ?do you worry about burning out?
Running out of battery is a concern for me, Longshore concedes. I try and set boundaries and not carry work home. I have three boys, and we’re on the baseball field from 7 to 9 p.m. That’s stress relief for me. You have to balance work and life, home and family with school. You have to be able to leave school behind at the end of the day.
When you become a Principal, what advice will you give your own AP?
I think I will be looking for somebody that can run with me, Longshore acknowledges, continuing by saying I know what it takes, so I’ll also need someone who can support me when I get tired.
The assistant principalship is a wonderful position, Longshore concludes, because you get the opportunity to be close to students and teachers. You do have to be everything to everyone, that’s true, but being an AP is the best preparation for Principalship, because it actually builds character while you are learning everything on the job.
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Deputy Principal
7 个月Thanks for sharing Rod - I connect with many ideas in this article, DP is a rewarding role, not without challenges!