the right stuff

Leadership, Jan, 2001 by Michael Madrid

An effective principal selection procedure should include an assessment of a candidate's ability to handle situations that will be encountered on the job.

When school district personnel try to fill a vacant principal position, they frequently find themselves trawling for viable candidates in rather shallow talent pools. Undoubtedly, keeping a competent principal is difficult, but "there's the rub" in finding a good one in the first place. That is, school districts need a process for selecting candidates that will be successful on the job.

Most selection procedures are adequate in terms of assessing a candidate's ability to withstand the rigors of an interview, but an interview is not a job. "But she was so good in the interview," seems to be the typical lament uttered by dismayed superintendents and personnel administrators who discover the apparent weak correlation between interview performance and job performance.

The interview is not the job, but the selection process should gauge a candidate's ability (or, at a minimum, one's potential) to perform well. That is, an effective selection procedure should include an assessment of a candidate's ability to deal with situations that likely will be encountered on the job. Little Lake City School District has such a selection procedure.

The Little Lake selection process

The Little Lake process for selecting school principals includes a variety of steps or elements. The steps consist of the application, a writing exercise, a portfolio presentation, a staff development presentation, a "traditional" interview and a final interview with the superintendent. The majority of the steps in the selection process require the candidate to address problems and situations she presumably will encounter if selected for the position.

When an applicant submits a completed application, she also submits a response to a writing prompt. As an illustration, a new vacancy recently occurred at an elementary school whose reading comprehension scores were less than satisfactory, and candidates were required to respond to the following:

"Standardized test data indicate that student achievement in the area of reading comprehension in grades one through three has declined significantly during the past three years. Describe the action or steps you would take to improve ... reading comprehension, thereby improving test scores."

The quality of the writing prompt response coupled with the individual's qualifications determine whether or not the applicant is invited to interview for the position. The interview experience is a two-day event. The first day finds the candidate making the portfolio and staff development presentations. The second day's activity consists of the traditional interview. At this stage of the selection process, confidential rating forms are mailed to the individuals whom the candidate has listed as references.

Showcasing achievements

The portfolio presentation provides a forum in which the candidate is able to "showcase" her achievements and noteworthy accomplishments. Although candidates may use any portfolio format they desire, Little Lake does recommend a specific method for organizing portfolio content. Candidates are advised to employ a portfolio format recommended by Curtis L. Guaglianone and Diane M. Yerkes, who penned "The Administrative Portfolio," an article that appeared in this magazine (May/June 1998).

Guaglianone and Yerkes suggest a portfolio configuration consisting of the following topics or chapters:

* individual development;

* competencies and experiences in administration;

* professional development; and

* service to education and community.

The portfolio presentations are made to a panel that usually comprises a central office administrator, a principal, a teacher and an instructional assistant.

As in the writing exercise, during the staff development presentation the candidate is required to deal with an issue she likely will encounter on the job. For example, recent principal candidates were required to address the following staff development problem:

"As you prepare for the presentation, bear in mind the ... district ... requires ... a literacy program that will: (a) make every child a successful reader; (b) enable each child to read at grade level; (c) provide coordinated interventions; (d) incorporate the assistance of ... staff, parents and community ... The objective of your presentation is to provide a rationale as well as a `safety net strategy' that, if implemented, will improve and strengthen the student's ability to comprehend what he or she reads."

In addition to the staff development problem statement, candidates are given information regarding the length of the presentation, materials they may bring and the general composition of the panel that will be rating the presentation.

Panel members rate the effectiveness of the presentation according to a staff development presentation scoring rubric. The panel usually includes a central office administrator, a principal, a teacher, a literacy specialist and an instructional assistant.