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Best Practices in Instructional Leadership (March 2009)
Gary Anger, principal
Red Pine Elementary School, Eagan "...the most important key to being a successful school principal: you must know your students."
There is interesting news for school principals from the MN State Board of School Administrators as they have reduced the number of leadership competencies in which we are expected to “demonstrate knowledge, skill and disposition.” Most of us are familiar with the 21 competencies in which we completed our licensure for becoming school principals. This number has been reduced to 13 Core Leadership Competencies and three Principal Competencies. For those who are excited about this change and see it as a simplification, make sure to read the fine print as the number of sub-competencies has actually increased from 97 to 101.
Missing within either list of competencies is perhaps the most important key to being a successful school principal: you must know your students. Knowing your students may be a daunting task considering all of the other roles of an instructional leader, but no other competency can lead to greater school success. Here are six ways to ensure you know your students that will lead to greater success as a school leader.
- Be present as your students enter your school. Being present as students enter school means to be physically there as students get off the bus, enter the building or head to their classes. No other activity during the day gives a principal better insight as to what may lie ahead for the day. Students who had something bad happen at home or on the bus wear that experience on their sleeves or at the least, their friends will let you know that something is up. Likewise, students who experienced recent joy need the opportunity to share that happiness with someone they admire -- you.
- Listen to what teachers say about their students. Regardless of what we may think, our teachers most often know their students better than we do. Teachers have the best interest of kids in mind and even if they bring personal emotions into discussions about their students, teachers are usually just trying to express to us, “Here is what is going on, what do you think?” It is very important that we listen carefully to what teachers have to say in these instances because it lets us gain more knowledge for serving these students not just immediately, but for the long term.
- Listen to what parents/guardians say about their children. Regardless of how upset a parent is when they bring up an issue to you, principals must listen to them carefully. The insights given by a parent or guardian give you a picture into life at home for this student and gives a principal important background in helping the student. Much like teachers, when a parent comes to you about their child, their focus eventually is on helping their child. The best way to calm an upset parent is to offer the statement, “Let’s figure out a way to help your child.” By listening carefully to what is shared, oftentimes tensions are released and everyone can keep their focus on serving the student.
- Listen to what students say about each other and themselves. Kids know pretty much everything that is going on in school. If your students are happy, they will let you know about it. If something is wrong, they will let you know by their words or actions. If you need to solve a problem, your students will often give you the details needed to come up with the best solution. Also, by listening to students a principal builds trust and mutual respect with them, which in turn creates a better learning environment.
- Be present as students exit the school. If you want to know how the day went, this is an important action to take. Again, as students exit classrooms, leave the building, or board buses they show their emotions clearly, sharing highs and lows. One warning in this practice however is to be careful with a student who is showing the signs of a difficult day. Rather than engaging in a confrontation, this is the time to give the student space and follow up with a conversation later with their teacher and/or parent/guardian.
- Make sure every student has a “Formula for Thriving.” To borrow terminology from Dr. Peter Benson (keynote speaker at MESPA Institute 2009), to thrive we all need to live life with joy and energy. Every child has the need to have someone identify their “sparks-part of us that is good, beautiful and useful to the world.” As principals we need to ensure that every single child has champions for them within the school and at home. If students lack champions at home, we need to provide even more champions for them at school. These champions need to recognize the “sparks” of students and can be anyone at your school. It is vital that we do not miss appreciating a single child.
The terms “student” and “learner” are listed no more than five times in the entire enormous list of competencies and sub-competencies required by the MN State Board of School Administrators. The word “listen” is listed once and terms such as “being present for your students” are never referred to at all. Yet no single competency as an instructional leader will help you more and make your school more successful than knowing your students.
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