Learning to Lead?

In Preparing Principals, Content Matters

By Frederick M. Hess & Andrew P. Kelly

This February it was reported that a number of New York City public school teachers had been written up by their principals for violating the district’s “workshop model” of instruction, which stipulates precise time limits on teacher lectures and requires group work in each class. As a result, some teachers apparently have taken to “sneak-in teaching” when their principals aren’t looking. New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein made clear that the principals’ heavy-handed execution wasn’t consistent with his wishes, and that the “workshop model” should be a guide rather than a rigid mandate.

Perhaps the principals in question didn’t get Klein’s memo. Perhaps they thought he wanted them to micromanage, rather than use sensible discretion. Or maybe the principals simply don’t know how to manage differently. After all, as Public Agenda reported in 2003, just one in 10 superintendents in its survey deemed his or her principals excellent at “holding teachers accountable for instruction and student achievement.” In states like Virginia and Texas, we have witnessed a number of cases where principals confront accountability not by focusing on outcomes and employing data but by demanding more paperwork and lock-step instruction.

In an era of results-driven school reform, in which principals are asked to take responsibility for student achievement and use data to drive decisions, their skill and knowledge matter more than ever. In a world of charter schooling and merit pay, performance standards and entrepreneurial management, school principals are the team leaders who are asked to rise to the challenge...