When Nicole Paxton was training to be a principal almost two decades ago, she spent a lot of her internship supervising school dances and basketball games. She was supposed to shadow an existing principal but could only see brief snippets of what it was like to run a school.
“I wish I would’ve learned more about budgeting, how to build relationships with students, or give teachers feedback,” said Paxton, who’s now principal of Mount Vista Community School in Colorado Springs, Colo. “I wish I’d learned how to have difficult conversations.”
While Paxton has since acquired these skills over her 20-year leadership journey, she wants the new generation of aspiring school leaders to have a fuller picture of the highs and lows of the principalship.
For an hour every two weeks, Paxton meets with three principal interns to coach them through both traditional principal duties—like budgeting or teacher feedback—and emerging areas of responsibility, like parent and community engagement.
It’s not all talk, though. The interns shadow Paxton as she goes about her day, calling parents, working on the master schedule, or observing a teacher’s lesson. “It’s helpful for them to see that there’s truly no downtime,” she said.
The demands on a school principal have multiplied in the last few years. As building managers, principals are charged with acting as disciplinarians, leading instructional change, retaining good teachers, and creating a school environment where every student feels safe and included, among other duties. In addition, principals are now also dealing with spikes in chronic absenteeism, challenges with student behavior, and implementing cellphone bans.
A principal internship gives teachers, instructional coaches, and assistant principals the opportunity to see these duties in action. At least 39 states require that principal preparation programs have a practical component—an internship, residency, or job experience—as part of the course, according to the Education Commission of the States.
Typically, principal interns continue working full time as educators, while they shadow a principal for 10-12 hours a week as part of their training. Nationwide, the number of hours that principal interns need to clock can vary between 100 and 300, depending on what their master’s programs require.
At least six states have also introduced registered principal apprenticeships into the mix, allowing aspiring principals to learn and train on the job. They work full-time in school leadership positions as they also work toward a subsidized or free master’s degree or an administrator’s license, all while receiving mentorship and support.
This type of comprehensive training is rare, though, and not all principal-candidates get the kind of on-the-job exposure they need.
Candidates need to be exposed to real-life challenges or decisions that crop up in a school, said Paxton.
As a mentor, Paxton tries to turn every task into a learning opportunity.
“If I’m going to have a mentee supervise a basketball game, I’m going to go with them, and we’re going to talk about, why do we have the supervision that we do? How do we invite other teams? What happens when you have issues with referees or concerns with the visiting team?” she said. “[The task of supervision] has to be meaningful.”
Mentorship means hands-on experience
When principals take on interns, they have to ensure that they know how to meet the demands of the job.
For Amanda Austin, the director of Iberville Math, Science, and Arts Academy-East in St. Gabriel, La., coaching on how to be an effective instructional leader is important.
Austin currently mentors three aspiring and new principals across Louisiana. She leads a K-12 campus, which helps her share instructional challenges at every level—from early childhood right up to when students are picking colleges or careers.
“Knowing your standards, knowing your curriculum, so you can have conversations about student growth and achievement with your teachers is really important,” said Austin, adding that she invites her interns to join her when she’s giving feedback to a teacher or hosting a parent conference.
For Paxton, if there are no meetings on the calendar when an intern is on campus, she uses that time to coach her interns on their interest areas, like how to set up a multi-tiered system of support for the school, or planning a big event.
Paxton likes to get her interns involved in the day-to-day decisions she makes for her school. “Thinking aloud” about her choices gives the interns an opportunity to weigh in.
“That can transfer some ownership to them. You don’t just give them tasks to do,” she added.
Currently, one of Paxton’s three interns is helping lead a committee focused on improving students’ grasp on math concepts.
Principal coaches can also help guide projects led at the schools where their interns currently work as assistant principals, instructional leaders, or lead teachers.
For example, Austin worked with one of her interns to collect demographic information and student achievement data for their school. When the intern eventually takes over as principal, they will have evidence available for personnel decisions, like hiring, Austin said.
Real-life situations can help prepare new leaders
Principal coaches also dig into their own experience to guide their interns through tough situations.
For example, Austin is coaching a new principal on how to connect with teachers. The intern, in her new role, made rapid changes but was soon met with stiff resistance from the teachers who had been at the school for a number of years.
“It was a very raw conversation with her because she came in ready to rip the Band-Aid off, and she ripped it off, and then she was bleeding out,” Austin said. “She was stressed, and she was kind of rethinking, is this [job] for me?”
To give meaningful advice, Austin leaned on her own experience of inheriting a pre-existing school culture and staff. She carved out time in her calendar for a 30-minute chat with a different staff member every day. Teachers used that time to talk about their challenges, but it was also an opportunity for them to get to know Austin better.
“I had to sit back and make incremental changes,” she said. “I had to listen more. … These are the experiences I share with them.”
There will still be limits to how much a current principal can share with their interns. When it comes to teacher- or student-related issues, privacy laws might prevent an intern from getting too involved, said Paxton.
It’s also difficult to sync an internship with the exact periods when a principal is preparing their school’s budget or making hiring decisions.
But new or aspiring principals can learn how to establish good relationships with their school community, so that when issues crop up, they have already built trust. Austin advises her interns to show up at community events or locations, like the farmer’s market over the weekend. She also advises her interns to overcommunicate with parents about school rules or upcoming programs.
“As soon as there’s confusion, that’s when you have people who go to social media” to complain, said Austin. “The last thing any school leader wants is to have to deal with the social media comments of parents who are just negative because they feel like they don’t know.”
