A Reader Asks... Campus Administration Survival Skills

A LYS Assistant Principal asks the following:

SC,

What knowledge or skills help a campus leader move through a range of demands and decisions required to efficiently and effectively manage operations and resources?

SC Response

Great question that has a two-part answer.

Part 1 – Experience.  The principalship represents the greatest learning curve in education.  To go from having a little input in decisions or limited decision-making authority to being responsible for the performance and behavior of students and staff, 24 / 7, is at first overwhelming.  For the first-year principal, everything is new, everything must be reviewed, and the pace is relentless. Which is why, all things being equal, the experienced principal gets hired over the inexperienced assistant principal in most districts.

Part 2 – After experience, here are the basic skills, understanding and characteristics that any decent principal must have. 

1. The ability to deal with people. Especially, difficult people.

2. The ability to manage up.

3. A solid understanding of pedagogy.

4. A solid understanding of effective literacy practice.

5. A solid understanding of basic data analysis and adjustment practices.

6. A solid understanding of how to build and manage a flexible budget.

7. A burning desire to recruit staff and build successful teams.

8. The discipline and fortitude to fire.

9. A fundamental need to compete.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Top LYS Tweets from the Week of September 24, 2017

If you are not following @LYSNation on Twitter, then you missed the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of September 24, 2017 when they were first posted.  And if you are on Twitter, you might want to check out the Tweeters who made this week’s list.

1. Excited and proud to announce our partnership with the University of West Alabama. LYS will provide advanced training to outstanding teachers! (By @LYSNation)

2. "Public education is the bedrock of our American democracy, other than that it's not important at all." (By @bruce_gearing)

3. "Public education sheds light into darkness. It combats ignorance with knowledge." (By @pastors4txkids)

4. "Privatization is the making of a commodity out of our kids and markets of our classrooms." -Rev. Charles Foster Johnson (By @TACSnet)

5. My job as a school leader is to get teachers to teach better than I ever thought about teaching...Every day, every period. (By @aggiebianca01)

6. People don't follow titles. They follow those with courage and integrity. (By @TinneyTroy)

7. Adult practice drives student performance! (By @aggiebianca01)

8. Better teaching and learning is "not about perfection, but right direction." (By @SouthpawEDU)

9. Data doesn't become information until you link it to a decision. (By @aggiebianca01)

10. Joy multiplies when you share it! (By @Pontifex)

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote) 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Common Bad Practice - Finals Exemptions

Though I find it mind boggling, exempting students from finals is now more common, than not. If you are doing this, STOP. It is bad practice.  And don’t give me the “It’s a student motivator or it gets kids to come to school” excuses. That is lazy and weak.  You are better than that.

So why is this bad practice? Because at the end of the Fall Semester, you need the data and you need to disguise your mid-year benchmark test.  The Fall Semester Final should be common (for the content area) and cumulative. When all students take the final, the performance data will inform the instructional staff on pacing issues and will aid in the identification of successful and unsuccessful instructional practices.  Additionally, if the campus/district embeds Spring Semester content questions in the Fall Final (do not count these questions towards the student’s grade) then there is no need to administer an early Spring benchmark test. This simple act will recapture 2 to 4 instructional days in the January.

There is a little leeway for the Spring Semester Final.  For state tested and /or AP courses that provide performance data reports, we suggest not having a final. Simply have an end of unit test. For all other courses there needs to be a common and cumulative (for the Spring Semester) Final. As is the case for the Fall, the performance data will inform the instructional staff on pacing issues and will aid in the identification of successful and unsuccessful instructional practices. Additionally, the teachers in the receiving grade are able to use the Spring Final data to make better intervention and re-teaching decisions. This will also negate the need to administer an early Fall benchmark test. This simple act will recapture 2 to 4 instructional days in September.

Exemptions only made sense in the pre-data era. That era is getting smaller and smaller in our rear-view mirror.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote) 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook