Ineffective Principals is the real reason our schools are failing...What can I do as a parent ?

Much has been written or talked about in the news of late about what the classroom teacher is/not doing to educate our children. But very little has been said about the ineffective principals that remain in failing schools year after year with no improvement in test scores. For too long…ineffective principals have been blaming their staff/faculty for their lack of leadership, goals, vision, and failure to improve test scores. The classroom teacher is the most visible person in your child's life at school, but it is the principal who is responsible for providing a high- quality education for all students there.

 

An ineffective principal is very detrimental to a school’s progress. Instead of leading, many try to bully classroom teachers by threatening to place them on a PDP (Professional Development Plan) or write them up about something that’s frivolous in mature. What is so ironic about being placed on a PDP by an ineffective principal is that they are…many times, are on a PDP also. Teachers don’t respond to this type of maltreatment well because it leads to low morale, high teacher turnovers, transfers, or teachers leaving the profession altogether. And when the school’s environment is dysfunctional…the children suffer, parents suffer, teachers suffer, and community suffers.

 

How do you know if your child’s principal is providing the kind of leadership that it takes to make a great school? There are seven warning signs parents need to look for when visiting their child’s school.

 

1. The principal has no overall vision for the school. She doesn't have a sense of what kind of school community she and the staff are trying to establish or what values the whole school should uphold.

 

2. There is no plan to address academic achievement and the schools' test scores continue to decline. Although principals can't take all the blame for declining test scores, they should have clear goals for school-wide academic improvement that they communicate to staff and students, and ways to measure improvement against the goals. They should include staff and parents in the goal-setting process.

 

3. The principal spends all her time in her office pushing papers. He/she delegates discipline decisions and dealing with parents to the school secretary. You never see him/her in classrooms, hallways, and lunchroom or on the playground. He/she doesn't know students' names and doesn't interact with them.

 

4. The principal is seldom there. He/she spends much of his time away from the school in meetings or at conferences.

 

5. The principal does not return your phone calls. If you have tried to contact her several times and he/she does not respond, you should be concerned. If you do make contact, but he/she doesn't provide you with any possible solution, you have a problem.

 

6. The principal tells everyone what he or she wants to hear. He/she says "yes" to everyone but doesn't take action.

 

7. The principal shows favoritism. It is obvious that certain teachers, students or parents have the ear of the principal but others do not.

 

Parents have the right to contact the principal when there is a concern about their child's academic achievement or discipline within the classroom. But, you should first contact your child's teacher. If you are not satisfied with the teacher's response, you should contact the principal. It is always better to try to work out problems with the teacher first. If you have a concern about a school-wide discipline problem or the school's philosophy, you should contact the principal.

 

Parents should contact the superintendent if the principal does not return your phone calls or if you are dissatisfied with the response of the principal. If you have concerns about the principal's leadership abilities and you can clearly document those concerns, you should contact the superintendent. If several parents feel the same way, make an appointment as a group to visit the superintendent. There is always greater power in numbers!

In closing, effective principals don't make excuses for why their schools can't succeed. Instead they make it their top priority to figure out how their schools can excel, and do everything they can to make that happen.