The Administrator's Role

I don't know if I'll ever consider being an administrator, but today I took on her lens. I was invited to an all day PD with 4 others and my Vice Principal. The PD's goal: get schools to establish properly ran PLCs & interventions in their schools. The data is there. California districts who've shown the greatest gains collaborate at a level we do not. To get those same gains, why not take a leaf from their book.

The issue is finding the structure, the time, and the buy-in. If your school says yes to the following questions, you probably have a pretty good school:

1. Teachers know exactly what they need to teach and when.

2. Teachers collaborate on a consistent basis to:

• Create common assessments.

• Analyze results of common assessments.

• Address common student struggles by adjusting instruction.

3. The school has an intervention system in place to help students who are not learning.

4. If a student needs intervention, teachers know PRECISELY what skills the student needs and what needs to be done to assist him.

As an administrator, YOU find a way to make that happen without hiring more staff, pulling out more money from the budget, overstepping veteran teachers who're set in their ways. All the while, managing your duties in the day-to-day, not to mention being the last-resort disciplinarian for the toughest of kids.

It was nice to spend some time w/ my Vice Principal for the day. I asked him if, as an administrator, he felt swamped. He laughed.