The Assistant Principal 50

Critical Questions for Meaningful Leadership and Professional Growth

Baruti K. Kafele

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781416629474
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Leadership in Education

ASCD bestseller! Baruti Kafele turns his attention to assistant principals in a book designed to spark reflection and clarify the influence of this often misunderstood role.

You're an Assistant Principal. Whatever your status—the sole AP in your school, one of two or more APs in your school, a career AP, an AP aspiring to the principalship—yours is one of the most misunderstood and underutilized positions in education. Positioned between teachers and the principal, you are an instructional leader. However, you are not the leader of the school. Therefore, you must carefully navigate your way to ensure that you thrive in your role without "stepping on the toes" of your principal.

In The Assistant Principal 50, award-winning, four-time principal Baruti Kafele presents reflective questions that encompass the breadth and depth of the assistant principalship—from finding your leadership "lane" to thriving and being an asset to your principal. Kafele infuses the book (which also includes guidance and insights for principals and aspiring assistant principals) from beginning to end with personal anecdotes and accounts of both failures and successes from his years as an assistant principal. He arms you with tools and insights that will drive you to view the assistant principalship as critical to the climate and culture of your school as well as to student achievement.

You, assistant principal, play a critical role in your school's success. The questions that Kafele asks you to consider will aid you as you hone your leadership skills toward becoming an effective leader in your school.

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Chapter 1

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The Assistant Principalship: What Is It?

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The title of this chapter is The Assistant Principalship: What Is It? I have pondered this question for the past 21 years. I have a solid grasp of what the assistant principalship is, what it isn't, and what it should never be. Because my work as a consultant takes me into hundreds of schools, I get to witness the various ways that APs are utilized, underutilized, and misutilized. This leaves me to conclude that there simply isn't a clear definition nationwide (or even statewide in any given state) of the title Assistant Principal. It is my strong belief that, toward maximizing the role of the AP, there must be a clear and consistent definition of Assistant Principal.

That is not to say that all APs must be utilized in the same manner across the United States, because different schools and districts have different needs. But when I see APs relegated to being full-time school disciplinarians, it becomes patently clear to me that there is confusion about the role of the AP, which takes me to our first question.

Q1. How do I define the assistant principalship?

When I ask you how you define the assistant principalship, I'm asking, "What does the assistant principalship mean to you?" In the Fall of 1994, I enrolled in graduate school to earn my M.A. in Education Administration to secure the position of Principal, not Assistant Principal. The graduate school courses that I took over the course of two years trained and prepared me to think as a principal. Although I was clear on the sequence of becoming an assistant principal first, quite frankly, the assistant principalship was not on my radar because it wasn't discussed in my graduate school courses. The focus of the graduate school program was the principalship. The assistant principalship didn't fully make it onto my radar until I began to apply for positions. Even in the interviews, I vividly recall thinking as a principal, although I had the correct responses for the assistant principalship. Ultimately, I landed the position of Assistant Principal at a middle school and mid-year transitioned from my 5th grade classroom to the assistant principalship. My first day as an AP was January 2, 1998.

I went into the AP position completely "blind." Having since 1988 served as an elementary teacher, my only frame of reference of an AP was the four APs under whom I served in the two schools in which I taught. They were so different from one another and none of them practiced true instructional leadership. From my standpoint, what they had in common was that they were disciplinarians. Therefore, my definition of the assistant principalship was rooted in the leadership demonstrated by those four individuals. As a result, I entered the assistant principalship without a solid model of effective AP leadership.

How do you define assistant principal leadership? What does effective assistant principal leadership look like to you? When you think of the title Assistant Principal, what thoughts does it generate? A good starting place toward effective AP leadership is a clear and consistent definition of Assistant Principal based on what the position means to you.

Q2. Is my assistant principalship all that I conceptualized it would be?

Let me answer this question for myself first: No! In fact, I would answer with an emphatic no! I have articulated and written extensively over the years that the worst experience that I had in education was my very short tenure as an AP. Although I had no clear and consistent definition of the title Assistant Principal, I developed during my tenure as an AP a definition of what an AP was not.

During my tenure as an AP, my primary responsibility was student discipline. I was a full-time disciplinarian. That consumed my entire day, rooted in the climate and culture of the school. (I typically liken discipline to a micro issue and climate/culture to a macro issue.) In my school, we were so focused on the micro via me as school disciplinarian that we completely "missed the bus" on the macro—the climate and culture of the school. Consequently, from the time students entered the building until dismissal, my days were spent reading disciplinary referrals, lecturing and counseling students who were sent to me, and making decisions relative to the consequences of the actions outlined in the disciplinary referrals. During lunch period, I served as the supervisor of the cafeteria. After lunch period, I resumed my role as disciplinarian.

I also served as the teacher supply inventory clerk. (As I write this early in the morning on my balcony in Montego Bay, Jamaica, I have a wide smile on my face. However, the smile is one of disgust—a "smh," if you will. I'm reminiscing about the system that was put in place in my school where, in my capacity as AP, I maintained the supplies and photocopy paper inventory in a storage room. Teachers sent me requisitions daily and, when I wasn't disciplining students, I pushed a cart around the school delivering supplies and copy paper to teachers' classrooms—the second of my three core responsibilities as a AP.)

My third core responsibility was bus duty. Because our district was a magnet school district, our students came in from all over the city. My job was to greet the students in the morning (a good thing), get them settled, and see them off in the afternoon (also a good thing). (I will elaborate further on each of these in Chapter 7.)

The foregoing encapsulates how my days as an AP were spent, which was a far cry from what I'd envisioned based on what I'd learned in graduate school. Although I had no clear and consistent definition of what an Assistant Principal was, I never could have imagined that it was going to be like what I'd experienced. As I have looked back on the experience over the past two decades, it continues to pain me that because of the way that my role as AP was defined, the 30 teachers that I was to have supervised received little to no supervision from me. That translated to disaster for the students because both effective and ineffective teachers were being rewarded because as the teachers' evaluator of record, I was not in position to assist teachers with professional growth and development.

Is your assistant principalship all that you conceptualized it would be? Does your school culture enable you to do the things as a leader that your graduate school courses prepared you for? Are you being utilized optimally? Is your presence an asset to the teachers you supervise? Is your presence an asset to the students you lead? Are you being exposed to all facets of school leadership? The answers to these questions are vitally important because your position—Assistant Principal—is a vital one toward the overall success of any school.

Q3. Do I understand that the core of the assistant principalship is to assist the principal, not lead the school?

As I reflect on the inquiries I've received from APs over the years about the role of the AP, many of them are rooted in this question. A question I receive may be, for example, "Principal Kafele, I have so many ideas about how the school can be better for the children, but the principal is set in ways that are, in my mind, outdated. What can I do?" My answer to such a question is

As one of the administrative leaders of your school, you have the ear of your principal. It is crucial that you earn the trust of your principal. In other words, in addition to your work ethic, following directions effectively, demonstrating loyalty, and taking the initiative in those areas that fall within your "lane," you must have strong people skills. I repeat: You must have strong people skills! To convince your principal that your ideas will benefit your school, your people skills must be solid enough for you to be able to develop a cohesive bond/productive working relationship with your principal—which is absolutely crucial. How you communicate with your principal matters. You must make developing a strong relationship with your principal one of your top priorities within your overall leadership. You'll want to strive to develop an unbreakable trust between yourself and your principal so that you put the principal in a position to believe in you and the ideas that you bring to the table.

Regarding the question at hand—Do I understand that at the core of the assistant principalship is to assist the principal, not lead the school—I hear numerous concerns, complaints, and criticisms from APs about their principals. What the APs are essentially saying is that they can't get done the things that they'd like to get done because of what they describe as the ineffectiveness of their principal. This is a very delicate and sensitive situation to be in, particularly when there is a semblance of truth to it. As a starting point, my reminder to APs is

You are not the principal of the school! Again: You are not the principal! You are the Assistant Principal and the line between you and the principal can never get blurred. You are there to assist the principal, not lead the school. Your time to lead your own school as principal (should you wish to do so) will come. In the meantime, as the Assistant Principal, your job is to learn, grow, develop as a school leader, and assist the principal in all ways possible.

All principal–assistant principal relationships are different. In an ideal principal–assistant principal relationship, as an AP, you are given the latitude and flexibility to grow and all of your ideas and suggestions for change and improvement are welcomed. However, not all principal–assistant principal relationships are ideal. Some can be quite complex, difficult, or even toxic. (We will dig much deeper into the principal–assistant principal dynamic in Chapter 3.) For now, the point of this question is to remind you to always keep at the forefront of your mind that, despite the challenges you may face in a less-than-favorable relationship with your principal, you are not the leader of the school. Your job is to assist the principal. You are the Assistant Principal.

Q4. Am I a career assistant principal or am I an aspiring principal?

This is an important question for any AP because it has direct implications for one's outlook on the current role. One who is content with being a career AP (or at least not desirous of the principalship) will more than likely approach the assistant principalship very differently from one who views the assistant principalship as a steppingstone to the principalship.

As an AP, despite my very limited exposure to the larger picture of school leadership, I was "hungry." Nothing about me was career-AP oriented. I was hungry and wanted the principalship … badly. I wanted the role of Principal like nobody's business! Although I was relegated to being a full-time disciplinarian, I didn't allow myself to be or feel defeated. I went above and beyond in everything I did and learned everything I could about principal leadership. I was not exposed to the school budget, so I sought information about school budgeting outside of my school. I was not exposed to master scheduling, so I taught myself how to develop a master schedule. I went the extra mile and learned on my own any aspect of school leadership to which I hadn't been exposed. Why? Because I was "hungry!" I wanted to be a building principal. I wanted nothing more professionally than to lead a school of my own.

Looking back, had I been content being an AP and spent my tenure assisting the principal, I imagine that I would have approached my assistant principalship quite differently and viewed it through a different set of lenses than I did. I may even have been content being a school disciplinarian. But because of my leadership aspirations, I wanted everything that school leadership had to offer.

Who are you as an assistant principal? How long have you been an assistant principal? What are your aspirations as a school leader? Do you aspire to become a principal? Are you "hungry" to become a principal? Do you want the principalship, like, yesterday? Are you content in your current role as Assistant Principal? Is the assistant principalship satisfying and fulfilling for you?

If you're hungry to become a principal, you must think as a principal … now. You must see yourself in that position … now. You must interpret all the stimuli around you within the building as though you are the principal. You must do these things without trying to function as the principal. Look at all situations as if you were the principal and consider how you would respond/react to everything imaginable if, in fact, you were the principal of your school.

If you are a career AP or simply content in your current role, my advice to you is to simply do your job to the best of your ability. Be the best version of yourself every time you walk into your school. Not everyone desires to become a principal. Everyone isn't built to be a principal. Everyone doesn't have the temperament to be a principal. Everyone doesn't have the time to be a principal given the high number of hours, during the week and on weekends, that principals must devote to their work to be effective. Everyone has a life outside of school and, for some, the balance between life outside of school and life as a principal could be challenging if not impossible. The bottom line is this: you must determine whether you're an aspiring principal or a career assistant principal/content in your role (because of the implications for your work, preparation, goals, aspirations, and your overall peace of mind).

Q5. Do I regularly engage in my own professional learning toward being an effective assistant principal?

Closely associated with the previous question, I'm now asking you about your ongoing preparation toward being an effective AP, regardless of whether you are an aspiring principal or a career AP. How much of yourself do you pour into your preparation toward effective assistant principal leadership? How much time do you devote to reading and studying school leadership? How effective are you as an assistant principal? How beneficial are you to the staff you supervise? How beneficial are you to the students that you lead? How beneficial are you to your principal? Also, how beneficial are you to the parents of your students? These questions are critical for anyone in school leadership. I want you to consider how beneficial you are to your entire school community.

The qualities that you bring to the assistant principalship as a human being—the characteristics that make up who you are—are vital. Toward developing solid relationships and being an asset to all of the stakeholders in your school, you must be one of great character who genuinely cares and wants students and staff to soar to the best of their abilities. The aspect of your character that I want to focus on here is your preparation for leadership success and your work ethic—not how hard you work, but how smart you work. The quality of your work. We've both observed many who work extremely hard but make very little progress—those who put in long hours and perhaps work seven days a week. However, putting in countless hours does not always result in progress. Hard work must be coupled with working smart.

Earlier in this chapter, I stated that all principals are different and that the differences will have implications for you regarding what you are exposed to as an AP. Having superior people skills can be beneficial as regards what you are exposed to as an AP. But let's say that you are in a very difficult, challenging, undesirable, and tension-filled relationship with your principal and that you have determined, unequivocally, that it is not of your making and that there's nothing you can do about it. If that is the case, for the sake of staff, students, and parents, you must, nevertheless, continually grow and be effective as an AP. Your staff and students are relying on you, so you can't afford to throw up your hands in disgust. You must continue to strive to be amazing in your capacity as an AP, despite any obstacles you may encounter. You must be an open book with eyes and ears wide open as you strive to take in and learn all that you can. You must approach your position as one who desires to be a guru in school leadership in general and AP leadership in particular. You must purposefully observe everything you can about your principal's leadership. You must study your principal and determine which of her act...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. The Assistant Principalship: What Is It?
• Chapter 2. "I'm an Instructional Leader, Too!"
• Chapter 3. The Principal—Assistant Principal Relationship
• Chapter 4. "I'm More Than a Disciplinarian"
• Chapter 5. There's Much to Know as an Assistant Principal
• Chapter 6. Engagement Comes Before Achievement!
• Chapter 7. Procedures Equal Progress
• Chapter 8. Planning, Organization, and Time Management Matter, Too
• Conclusion
• Addendum: Leading During A Global Pandemic
• Bibliography
• About the Author
• Related ASCD Resources
• Copyright