Lee Fleming

“Our school district always talks about instructional leadership, but 95% of my job is management.” -Assistant Principal after one year on the job

I recently met with some colleagues from my Educational Leadership program. A year after graduation, many are now working in schools as administrators in local schools and we reflected on the gap between what we learned in the program and the skills needed on the ground in schools.

The dialogue at our table reflected the gap between the content of our preparatory coursework and the managerial work of an assistant principal. The message from the field is clear—principalship comes after proving yourself as an assistant principal. One of my fellow classmates commented that he hoped he would be an assistant principal for a short period of time so he wouldn’t forget all of that good stuff – “You know, before you get trained.” The one voice of hope at the table is working in a small innovative school who sees herself as a partner in hiring, guiding, and building the school and valued the program for her own practice.

Read this complete post on Getting Smart where it was originally published.