Abstract:

Principals are important, says Bill Ferriter. He describes how important his principal's inclusion of teachers as leaders is in making him want to stay at his school.

Ferriter, B. (2005). Principals matter. Teacher Leaders Network diaries. Retrieved from the Teacher Leaders Network 8 Apr 2008. Link: http://www.teacherleaders.org/old_site/diaries04_05/other/BF10.html 

Full Text:

Principals Matter
I was talking to my principal the other day and he asked me what my future plans are. "Where are you going to be in five years, Bill? Clearly you could do most anything that you wanted to," he said.

My instant reply was, "That depends on where you're going to be in five years. I'll be teaching sixth graders in room 2415 at least until you leave."

If you were to ask the majority of teachers in our school, I suspect that their replies would be pretty similar. We've discovered a simple truth that often goes overlooked in conversations about school reform: Good Principals Matter.

So what makes our principal so remarkable? For starters, he empowers teachers to make critical decisions about teaching and learning. There is no decision that teachers aren't centrally involved in. In today's accountability culture where a school administrator's reputation—and sometimes career—is dependent on producing results, there is a great temptation to make all decisions from the principal's office. Control becomes important because the professional risks of releasing control seem too great.

Empowering teachers, however, produces results in our school that centralized decision-making could never produce. Most significantly, our teachers feel a sense of professionalism and engagement that many teachers don't feel. There is an atmosphere of collective curiosity at Salem. We see ourselves as problem-solvers because that is what our principal expects us to be, and we are incredibly motivated to identify the instructional approaches that work best for our students. Our principal has unleashed an often-untapped resource in schools—the intellectual energies of our teaching staff.

Teachers are not the only beneficiaries of our principal's efforts to create a professional culture within our building. Our students benefit because our school has become a magnet for highly accomplished teachers. I stand in awe of the skill and ability of my colleagues. There are several who I believe are far better teachers than I am, and many of them sought positions at Salem because of the reputation of our principal. What's more, our teachers are constantly learning and growing from one another because our principal encourages constant professional growth. His efforts bring some of the best and the brightest to our classrooms—and make them better!

Is our principal "one-of-a-kind?"

No. America has many like-minded school leaders who are making a difference.

But not unlike teachers, it is becoming harder and harder to keep our most accomplished administrators in the schoolhouse.

School leadership demands long hours, constant scrutiny (from parents, from teachers, from district level supervisors, from the community at large), and almost overwhelming attention to detail. School leaders must manage complicated budgets, understand federal, state and local legislation, recognize changing trends in education, set direction, monitor progress, manipulate data, interact effectively with the community and develop the human capacity of staff members.

Our best administrators possess skills that are greatly valued—and compensated for—in the private sector. As a result, it is becoming more and more difficult for our schools to fill leadership positions with principals like mine.

As a country, let's recognize the importance of school leadership and make a concerted effort to identify, develop and reward our best principals. Keeping them in the profession is a reform strategy that will impact teacher retention and student achievement in positive ways.

My principal is living proof!

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