Assistant Principal Assistant Principle Scenario

Assistant Principal

Assistant Principle Scenario

What will be your first job here?

As the only Assistant Principal assigned to Misery high school by the district, as opposed to having been selected by the new head principal, I can assume entering into this new environment that I am the senior serving AP. This means that my very first job is to establish a role as a leader, mentor and organizer for other assistant principles. Collectively, it will be upon us to guide a new school with a high-risk student population to a place of cohesion and stability. A coordinated vision of leadership will be critical to achieving. I would consider it my first job to reach out to my fellow APs and get the process of collaboration moving forward.

How will you proceed?

I would proceed by calling for an informal gathering of the APs in a comfortable social setting. It will be important for our group to establish a sense of familiarity with one another and to find ourselves on the same page where leadership approach is concerned. Evidence suggests that the leadership and cohesion we show as a unit will be observed and assimilate by the teachers as well. According to Spillane (2003), "over the past few decades researchers have consistently reported that school leadership, principal leadership in particular, is critical in developing and sustaining those school-level conditions believed essential for instructional improvement." (Spillane, 2003; p. 343)

This means that our ability to achieve a sense of unity will translate to a similar ability for our entire faculty. Given the considerable challenges ahead, it seems absolutely critical that we find a way to serve that example.

What information will you need?

Critical information from this point forward would regard the faculty of teachers. Our leadership must take a distributive form, within which teachers are also part of a leadership structure. Because there will be so many practical and educational challenges in this new environment, and likely some sense of resentment or resistance amongst transferred teachers, it will be necessary to let educators feel that they have a direct stake in the leadership structure at Misery. We must therefore identify based on experience and reputation those instructors who should be tapped for internal leadership

What will your first actions be?

Thereafter, the first action will be to appoint department heads and others who can be dispatched as leaders and positive examples to the many young teachers and the share of resentful transfers that will make up the staff. This approach is justified by Lumby (2003), who asserts that "leadership is embedded in the activities of staff and students, including delegated management, and can be understood to be both distributed and systemic." (Lumby, 2003; p. 283)