Words from a Failed School Administrator

Photo by Mwesigwa Joel on Unsplash

You know what’s funny? In a contemporary climate where so many schools are failing to meet the needs of their students, it is increasingly easy for school leaders to keep moving the goal-setting bar lower and lower in our own minds. After all, the National Assessment of Educational Progress tells us that less than 40% of high school graduates in the WHOLE UNITED STATES are prepared for college and careers.

There are so many of us — failed school administrators, that is — that we have skewed our self-judgment in favor of sympathy for our collective disappointment. We now allow ourselves to fault any number of “extenuating circumstances” when we fail.

Let’s start a new trend. Let’s just be honest about what we mean to do (or meant to do) and talk about how and why it didn’t happen. Let’s just tell the truth when we fail to meet our SMART goals, fail to inspire our employees, fail to inspire our student bodies, fail to gain the support of our communities.

I’ll start with me.

My Administrative Responsibility

Photo by Isaac Smith on Unsplash

For two school years, 2015–2017, I had the privilege of serving in two different…