Clarification: This story has been updated to more accurately describe Todd Dain’s “go-between” team.
A few months ago, a new teacher at the FAIR High School in Minneapolis walked into her principal’s office, distraught.
“She said she was ‘just done with this student. Just done!,’” said Mary Pat Cumming, the principal. “I told her we can’t be done. But we can figure out what’s bothering you, and what can help.”
As a veteran principal, Cumming is used to having tense conversations with teachers, especially when it comes to student behavior. She advocates getting in touch with parents sooner rather than later if the student continues to misbehave. But it isn’t always easy to get her message across to teachers to take actions she thinks are important, but could seem tedious, paperwork-heavy, or challenging.
Enter the go-between—an assistant principal, instructional coach, or a teacher-leader, who has the pulse on what’s bothering teachers, what’s hurting their morale, and what strategies work best to make teachers feel heard and appreciated.
For Cumming, it’s Sara Ullmer, the instructional coach and health teacher, who plays that role.
If a teacher feels upset or ignored, Ullmer is there to listen and provide solutions. She’s also a conduit of information for Cumming, who, despite her open-door policy, isn’t able to hear the concerns of every teacher.
It’s helpful for teachers “to have positions like mine where they have somebody who’s not an administrator but is a go-to for questions and support in a non-evaluative sort of way,” said Ullmer.
A go-between’s role is essential now more than ever, school leaders said. Persistent teacher shortages in high-need fields and areas, a raucous and unpredictable political climate, and the threat of financial cuts loom large. New teachers joining the workforce with preliminary or emergency certification may not have the necessary skills or experience required to deal with the complexities of the job.
These pressures take a toll, especially if principals thinks teacher morale is better than it truly is. In a nationwide survey as part of Education Week’s The State of Teaching report, almost half of teachers indicated that their morale would be better if principals advocated for their needs; 45 percent said better communication from their leaders would also improve morale.
But schools don’t always have the resources for a full-time go-between role. Instructional coaches or assistant principals who fulfill that role have their own plates full.
Go-betweens need support from the principal to find the time to support teachers. Without that, Ullmer said, teachers can feel “isolated and just spiral.”
Go-betweens tend to focus on new teachers
The go-between role isn’t specifically meant to help just new teachers, but those are the staff members whom people like Ullmer find need the most support. Classroom management, for instance, is one key area. Dealing with cellphones is another.
A lot of newer teachers don’t know how to “deescalate” behavioral situations with students, Ullmer added. Other teachers haven’t yet picked up techniques that help them gauge whether students are engrossed in learning.
Karla Bell, who plays the triple role of the go-between instructional coach, music teacher, and students activities coordinator at the Early College School at Delaware State University, a public charter high school, said new teachers haven’t yet developed a “teacher sense.”
“[If] you think standing at the front of the classroom is the ideal place, you might miss that student who has their cellphone under the desk,” she said. “You might miss that student whose head is down or something else that may be happening in the room simply because you will not move from the front.”
Bell also prepares new teachers to deal with interruptions during a class. Teachers can build the best lesson flow, but may have to constantly pause because of an announcement over the intercom, a sick kid, or even a couple of computers suddenly dying, said Bell.
Bell coaches teachers to anticipate these interruptions, stock their classrooms with extra supplies, and know the protocols for what to do when a student is sick or absent.
Ullmer, in Minneapolis, plays the role of an emotional anchor when teachers feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks on their plates. For instance, finding the time to contact a parent about a student’s poor behavior is an additional task on top of a full day of teaching.
“I don’t know a single teacher who loves calling parents and then recording that work, and then maybe writing a referral,” said Ullmer. “But the phone call has to be made.”
Ullmer helps teachers untangle the long to-do list into digestible bits. Teachers can get into a cyclical trap of juggling too many priorities, she said, and feel overburdened.
“I tell them, ‘OK, I hear you. What do you want to do about it? What’s your next step, and then what’s your next step after that?’” Ullmer said.
Go-betweens are an essential conduit
With their ears close to the ground, go-betweens are a conduit of useful information between teachers and the administration. For instance, Bell noticed that newer teachers in her school—which make up most of the staff—needed different types of support from veteran ones.
She convinced the administration to host customized professional development in November that catered to teachers with different levels of experience.
“We got great feedback from it, and we saw changes in instruction,” Bell said.
The school hasn’t organized a similar PD session since, because its training priorities keep shifting. But Bell is planning to push for the customized PD again with her school leaders.
For the go-between to be effective in their role, said Bell, school leaders also must be open to suggestions, or to the possibility that the status quo isn’t working for some teachers when it comes to things like curriculum or classroom management policies.
Todd Dain, the principal of Shawnee Mission South High School in Overland Park, Kan., said when his district switched to a new math curriculum last year, he heard from his four associate principals and instructional coach—his go-between crew—that teachers were having a tough time adhering to it.
In this case, Dain used his go-between team of leaders to pass on the message that teachers had his permission to do “what was right for the kids.”
“They could slow [the curriculum] down, reteach portions, and make adjustments,” he said. “Teachers are rule followers so they were feeling some pressure from the district.”
As the principal of a large high school, with more than 1,500 students and 140 teachers, both certified and non-certified, Dain can’t manage all crisis situations alone.
“A lot of principals get caught up in micromanaging. I tried to be everything to everyone,” he said. “I can’t do it all myself, so I teach my team to do their part.”
In both large and small schools, it’s crucial that principals build trusting relationships with their go-betweens. This hasn’t always been easy for Dain, who has had 14 different associate principals in his 10-year stint as principal.
“This was the first time in six years that I don’t have to onboard an associate,” he said.
Cumming’s school in Minneapolis is smaller, with about two dozen teachers, but she still depends on Ullmer to make sure that her newer teachers are looked after. Veteran teachers, said Cummins, are familiar with her leadership style and can pop into her office with questions. Younger teachers aren’t as comfortable.
“Am I doing a good job of creating relationships with newer teachers? I would say probably not at this moment,” said Cumming.
“But I can count on Sara to say, ‘You guys are messing this up, or that this person is struggling, and I think you should help them first.’”
