Aspiring School Leaders Face the Fires of a Typical School Day
Simulations are designed to develop agents of school excellence
As Brian Moore — a new principal intern at Beltsville Adventist School — reflects on the first week in his aspiring school leadership development “summer intensive,” he exudes energy and enthusiasm.
After graduating from college in 2009, Moore taught and led a department at the elementary school level. His most recent teaching experience was in a school serving Washington, DC students whose families experience the city’s highest poverty rates. He was getting experience, but knew it would take more to be the kind of school leader that creates the change needed to improve students’ opportunities.
Establishing the conditions and expectations that provide students with the opportunities to be successful starts at the top.
The decisions that school leaders make and actions they take permeate every aspect of a school — from the belief systems, resource allocation, teacher caliber, to interactions with students, parents, guardians and community.
To ensure Moore and his fellow aspiring leaders have the skills to give all students opportunities to succeed, the NYC Leadership Academy (NYCLA) is working with the Commonweal Foundation to adapt NYCLA’s Aspiring Principal Program (APP) to create a rigorous standards-based leadership development fellowship program called the Advancement for Christian Education (ACE) Academy.
NYCLA tailors its APP model for organizations and school districts throughout the country to reflect their unique local contexts. This approach uses hands-on and research-based learning methods to develop the practical skills that school leaders need.
This demanding school leader development work supports Commonweal Foundation‘s vision for “children living in poverty to have the opportunity to break the bonds of their circumstance.” Commonweal is committed to helping youth gain access to quality educational opportunities and services, often through faith-based schools and community services.
“I wanted to gain the leadership ability needed to lead a group of teachers to better our community,” Moore said. “My whole purpose is developing a whole child. We need to develop knowledge and skills so they know how to think on their own. These students are our future leaders.”
Moore is young, smart and not one to shrink from a challenge — even the kinds of challenges delivered during his four-week summer intensive.
“If there was a stronger word than ‘intensive,’ we should coin it,” laughed Liliana Polo McKenna, NYCLA’s Vice President, School Leadership Support.
One of the most intense assignments for Moore’s group of 11 aspiring leaders is a staple of NYCLA’s flagship APP program — an exercise sprung on the group to simulate the series of competing demands that school leaders juggle daily.
As an integral component of the NYCLA summer intensive, a simulated school is used for Brian and his group to practice the role of school leader — making decisions and receiving feedback about the intended and unintended consequences of those decisions. NYCLA facilitators give the group a set of assignments that include classroom observations, teacher evaluations, reviewing student data, communicating with parents, preparing professional development and more. But then reality sets in when serial interruptions hit that simulate a typical day: a tap on the shoulder to report a television news crew filming outside the school, a distressed parent demanding a meeting, a teacher suspecting a student is being abused at home and more.
“You’re trying to keep your cool and complete all the tasks and they just keep coming,” Moore explained. “I know that is what is expected in a real-life setting, but putting myself in that position and being able to then reflect on how I performed and to learn from it provides real professional growth.”
Mistakes made now mean fewer later
The experiences in the summer intensive reflect the high stakes of a school leader’s job. The principal’s first day or even first weeks in the role is the time to set and articulate clear expectations that will underpin the entire academic year.
Moore doesn’t get flustered when his response to a simulation isn’t spot on. He reflects on where he could have done better and soaks up the lessons.
For example, Moore learns from NYCLA facilitators and the example of other participants how to effectively communicate with an angry parent — experiences like these are an important component of NYCLA’s curriculum.
“They are upset and irate and there is nothing I can say to calm them down. You almost freeze up. But I can’t freeze up. I have to develop skills so it’s second nature to know what to do and stay focused on what’s most important for students in the midst of competing priorities,” Moore said.
The group learns that validating a parent’s concerns is just as important as trying to resolve the issue, particularly if they don’t have all the information.
“It’s a different way that you’re phrasing what you say to parents,” Moore said. “You need to be able to put yourself in their position. This is my child and I need this issue fixed for my child.”
Moore said the aspiring leaders who were best at communicating with a distressed parent used the child’s name frequently and did not make assumptions about what happened. They acknowledged not having all the answers, but were willing and able to get answers and host a meeting to address the problem. They were also able to see how their actions and proposed solutions aligned to their vision for school improvement.
Reflexive muscles of leadership
Because school leaders face situations that require appropriate decisions to be made quickly, aspiring principals and leaders learn to develop reflexive muscles of leadership. The hours of practice, preparation and planning pay off in helping APP participants effectively negotiate competing priorities and make decisions that advance student learning and achievement.
“As a school leader, you are creating a culture and environment where teachers, students, families feed off of your energy and direction,” Moore said. “When you’re in the trenches and have to make decisions and you’re getting pressures from so many directions, leaders often don’t want to upset the stakeholders and sometimes forget about most important ones– the students. These simulation experiences keep the focus on our sole purpose: developing prepared students.”
NYCLA’s Aspiring Principals Program (APP) has distinct yet interconnected components (see graphic). The multi-week summer intensive engages participants in comprehensive simulations grounded in authentic school experiences. The intensive is followed by a 10-month blended residency that is similar to a medical residency programs, including face-to-face training sessions, school residencies/internships, an assigned mentor principal to provide residency guidance, and online curriculum to complement the residency. The blended residency consists of asynchronous and synchronous online work on NYCLA’s new Virtual Learning Platform and face-to-face facilitated learning sessions. Upon being hired into a school leadership position, participants can receive continued coaching.
In the first weeks of the “summer intensive,” a significant amount of time is spent examining how aspiring principals and leaders see themselves and their purpose.
“What is it that drives you? What is the touchstone that you can come back to when the work is really hard?” asks Polo McKenna. “This is important, because the pace at which the work is expected to be done is grueling.
“The idea is that if you are going to lead a school that really needs change, you need to work effectively with other people. That work starts with knowing yourself: how you perceive others and communicate with others,” said McKenna
Aspiring leaders are asked to create a personal narrative, which tells a compelling story about their leadership and their vision to others. This sense of purpose is necessary to chart a course for change. School leaders must communicate a persuasive vision for how the school must improve to help all students learn and succeed.
Long view
The design of the program helps the group of aspiring principals and leaders come to realize that much of what occurs in their “hot seat” simulated school day covers a host of leadership skills and behaviors needed to manage distractions and stay focused on a vision for excellence.
“We learned that you need to intentionally develop your staff so the principal’s role can be more focused,” Moore said. “For example, if the secretary in the simulation exercise had been more empowered, she could have asked what the news crew outside the building was doing to determine whether it was really necessary to interrupt the principal. Everyone must be invested and play a role in the school’s vision.”
“As a graduate of the program and now working to design the program, it’s been fascinating to see how much goes into actually designing the programs we deliver from how the curriculum is put together to the connection to leadership standards and behaviors. The work behind the scenes is incredibly comprehensive, deep and nuanced,” Polo McKenna said.
Danika Rux, a New York City APP graduate and current Field Support Liaison at the New York City Department of Education, advises aspiring leaders in the “summer intensive” to be resilient. “Things don’t always make sense when you are just starting the program. But in the end it will all come together,” Rux said. “A lot of the simulated situations we were put into didn’t seem relevant or to make sense at first, but when I started the job as a school leader I realized that is the work. Every single day you are prioritizing what is important and what isn’t.”
Coming up … As Moore and other aspiring principal program participants continue to prepare to succeed under challenging conditions, they learn how equity and opportunity for all students is delivered.
