Being the principal of a campus means building capacity in your assistant principals. This can be one of the most crucial pieces of a successful campus, but sometimes we get so caught up with daily tasks we forget to coach. As the campus leader, it is our responsibility to build our assistant principals to lead. Assistant principals get tied to testing, discipline, LPAC, ARDs, and the list goes on. Instruction by fault gets put at the end of the list because of the time-consuming daily duties. Being a first-year assistant principal can be nerve wrecking because you have tons of things to learn but instruction and time management are always at the top of the list. There is no test that prepares you to manage your time and make instruction a priority. Principals must always have the mindset that our team is a reflection of us. Coaching does not have to be time-consuming. There are multiple lessons that can be taught throughout the day.
For example, if the assistant principal’s area of growth is special education and incidents occur during the week with concerns to the special education program, consistently involve the assistant principal. Let the assistant principal make decisions and give immediate feedback and, if needed, discuss what could have been done differently. Every day is a learning moment. It can be challenging to set up meetings and discuss goals, so it is better to learn in real time and receive immediate feedback. It is our duty to make sure our assistant principals are growing and are not getting bogged down with discipline and operational duties.
Being a strong instructional leader is the goal of any administrator. If an assistant principal is not strong in instruction, it is the responsibility of the principal to coach them. It is important to have calibrated walkthroughs throughout the year to align instructional feedback on T-TESS. Immediate, bite-sized feedback to our instructional team can be pivotal. Consistent leadership meetings with a focused agenda can be beneficial to assistant principals. The agenda should list the campus goals and how each meeting is focused on how we are going to reach our goals. Reviewing lesson plans, data trackers, and walkthrough feedback can be instrumental to the team. When reviewing T-TESS walkthroughs, providing specific examples of how it could improve could benefit assistant principals who are struggling with feedback. I have noticed that giving instructional feedback can be challenging because you are given a rubric and you decide examples of what distinguished looks like in the classroom.
Our assistant principals should feel valued and appreciated. Being a principal has many challenges, but the most rewarding is building capacity in others. In our busy days that seem to go a million miles a minute we must make time to coach every chance possible. It can be as simple as involving an assistant principal in a difficult parent meeting, a teacher’s concern, updating data trackers or reviewing lesson plans. Assistant principals must be coached to become effective principals. One day your assistant principal will be interviewing for a principal role, and they will reflect you. Remember, “Good leadership is not about advancing yourself; it’s about advancing your team” (Maxwell, John).
TEPSA member Dr. Nancy Atkinson is a principal in Irving ISD. A 16-year educator, she started her career as a paraprofessional in 2008 and fell in love with education. Prior to administration, she served in multiple roles including math teacher, resource teacher, inclusion teacher and family behavior specialist.
