Interview Tips For Attracting Site Leaders

School Administrator, Feb, 1995 by John L. Keedy, Bettye Macphail-Wilcox

Central-office leaders now seek a different breed of principal--one who will transform schools from factories to learning communities where students are self-directed, lifetime learners.

Interview protocols designed to recruit such a principal can help if they are based on three critical skills that principals need today.

Decentralization, student-centered learning, and increased demand for parent choice require principals and teachers to craft distinct educational choices for consumers. As market analysts, principals must scan community demands accurately, and communicate persuasively how their schools differ from others.

Savvy Leadership

As organizational engineers, principals must lead and empower others to use the marketing information in redesigning school structures and in adopting new practices. Student-centered structures include vertical (grades 1-3) grouping, block scheduling, collegial supervision, and high-technology learning labs. Principals need mental images of successful schools to facilitate discussion with communities and teachers about how to redesign schools to meet student learning needs.

It's one thing to have the ideas for student-centered schools. It's quite another to have the organizational change skills, such as team-building skills and the power sharing needed to work with others in revamping schools. Principals will rely on teacher expertise in redesigning instructional delivery systems that will give their schools unique identities.

Interview Protocol

The interview protocol we are suggesting can be modified to meet different district and school contexts. Principal candidates can provide written responses to questions that require sustained reflection. Superintendents and search committees might use these responses to develop additional interview questions. Teachers might serve as reaction groups to assess candidate responses.

* How will you identify the educational needs and values of this community? Does the candidate have in mind specific strategies, such as surveys or informal meetings with identified community leaders? If this candidate is from your district, does she demonstrate through choice of strategies an understanding of a particular community's values and priorities?

* How will you market the distinct instructional qualities of your school to this community? Strategies might include use of parent organizations, advisory groups, news media, or vocational training that links school needs with those of business.

* What have you done as a teacher or community leader to demonstrate your strong belief in different kinds of school structures? Has the candidate been successful in convincing colleagues and administrators to implement new school structures like teacher collegial groups, student work groups, and alternatives to tracking and ability grouping?

* What specific structures would you and your teachers implement to make students the problem solvers and information analysts, with teachers the learning facilitators? Cooperative learning groups (with rules for both individual student and group accountability), vertical grade grouping, schools-within-a-school, team teaching, and teacher collaborative planning are examples of such structures.

* What factors are critical considerations regarding how you and your staff would evaluate student scheduling decisions? Follow-up questions could assess strategies by which the candidate would request waivers from the local board to implement such a schedule.

* In what areas should teachers be empowered to share decisions with you as their principal? What areas are reserved for administrative prerogative? Most teachers want empowerment in curriculum and instruction decisions, since changing classroom learning conditions improves student achievement and attitudes. Teachers generally do not want involvement in duty assignment or summative teacher evaluation (the latter usually falls within the legal purview of state-certified administrators).

* How would you develop a strong instructional team? What are the candidate's self-assessed strengths and areas-in-need-of-improvement in team-building skills such as clear communication, resolving differences, and developing group consensus?

* What plans do you have to provide time and incentives for teachers to help you redesign and market your school? Does this candidate demonstrate thoughtful and creative ways to provide these critical resources for teacher involvement?

* To redesign schools, good leaders base decisions on performance information. What action research projects might be useful in your data collection efforts? Principals and teachers together will identify what students know and not know and diagnose how school structures and practices such as tracking and scheduling hinder or improve student performance.

* What is student-centered instruction? How would you work with teachers to make classrooms more student-centered? Does the candidate understand this concept and does she have ideas about how to change traditional classroom teacher-student relationships (teacher-as-teller; student as receiver-of-information)?