Dealing with the Tough Stuff: Practical Solutions for School Administrators

FOREWORD

This is the book I needed when I started teaching almost forty years ago. In order to be a good math teacher, I thought, I needed to know the Pythagorean Theorem somewhat better than my students. I needed to reward good performance and punish bad performance. I needed to keep parents happy and, most of all, keep the principal out of my classroom. What could possibly go wrong with this theory of teaching?

As Gabriel and Farmer incisively remind us, I was dead wrong in my early theories. While I was worrying about parents and principals, I was forgetting about students—the daily dramas of their lives and the real work of teaching and leadership that presented challenges far beyond ensuring that my students understood that the square of the hypotenuse was equal to the square of the two sides of a right triangle. In fact, as the authors forcefully write, the triangle most important to students is not that of Pythagoras but rather of friend, foe, and teacher in the drama of school. Although I continue to think that the Pythagorean Theorem is important, this book helps me understand that administrators and teachers would be well advised to pay as much attention to the friends and rivals of Pythagoras as to his theorem.

What can school leaders do to improve the school environment for students, teachers, and administrators? Prevailing opinions suggest a range of contradictory solutions, from improving teacher efficacy by employing greater levels of data analysis to relieving teachers’ stress and anxiety by eliminating data analysis. Perhaps we should give students more freedom? No—let’s restrict their choices so that they gain proficiency and defer their preferences until later. Shall we give school principals the discretion to respond to local needs, or create a consistent system of curriculum and assessment in the hopes that this will provide equity for all students within the system? Although strong arguments can be made for a variety of educational options, Gabriel and Farmer appeal to the more immediate needs of school administrators. The authors remind us that the imperative of improving schools in the real world is not always accomplished through strategic plans or gauzy vision statements. What school leaders need are practical solutions to address their most persistent challenge: How can we engage students, teachers, and leaders today with maximum learning and minimum disruption?

The answers, the authors suggest, include a consistent and practical set of protocols for responding to students, in which adults in the school model respectful responses to challenges. Their lessons extend far beyond classroom conflicts. (Indeed, their advice would be sound for many boardroom brawls I have witnessed.) Superintendents’ cabinets, board meetings, and parent organizations would all benefit from these thoughtful protocols for dealing with disagreement and dissent.

This is an immensely practical book, providing a vital resource to new school administrators while at the same time helping veteran educators recognize that the remedies we used decades ago may not be as effective as we thought. I particularly appreciate the blend of twenty-first-century strategies, sensitive to digital natives, with tried-and-true methods for dealing with student disruptions, which respond to age-old motivational dynamics between students and teachers.

Although some of the advice in the book may strike the reader as common sense, most educators know that common sense is decidedly uncommon. Just listen, the authors suggest, when my initial inclination is to lecture. Don’t bluff, these pages advise, when my instinct is that of the blowhard, full of bluster and blame. I wish I could say that I’ve learned every lesson that Gabriel and Farmer have to offer, but the simple truth is that all of us who work with adolescents and preadolescents must look in the mirror and acknowledge the chasm between what we know to be effective practice and our daily reality. That is precisely the reason that this book is so effective: it is born of practitioners. Although some readers may sigh and say, What a blinding flash of the obvious! other observers will wonder why such seemingly obvious findings are not more commonly reflected in our collective professional practices.

Finally, the authors remind us that the essential communication is not only with students but also with colleagues. These are not easy conversations, but they are critically important. Respect, challenge, and recognition of the reality that our colleagues face on a daily basis will be the hallmarks of communication that is meaningful and effective. Leaders will be challenged to acknowledge their own roles in improving staff effectiveness, and staff members will be challenged with the certainty that their actions and commitments are vital to improved student learning. This balance will be unsettling to some readers, as blame is far more comfortable than acceptance of responsibility. Nevertheless, the following pages will challenge educators at every level, from the board room to the classroom, to embrace responsibility for improved relationships and results.

Douglas Reeves

Founder, The Leadership and Learning Center

Author of more than thirty books and many articles

2010 recipient of the National Staff Development Council’s Contribution to the Field award

Boston, Massachusetts

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

John Gabriel

Numerous people have had an impact on me. I am a culmination of each person’s advice, suggestions, and guidance, and for that I am grateful, but also at a loss as to how to begin thanking people in such a short amount of space. With that said, I am blessed to have a wonderful and supportive family, as well as extended family; I am appreciative of their encouragement and support. I am especially grateful to and indebted to my wife, Caroline, for her understanding, patience, and vigorous support of me, my goals, and, quite plainly, what needs to be done. Similarly, I thank my parents not only for their patience but also for instilling in me a love for reading and writing at such a young age.

There are many colleagues whom I would like to thank. I have mentioned many of these individuals in previous books, so I would rather not repeat them all here, but suffice it to say that you have helped me grow and learn in a great many ways, and I would not be where I am today without your help. Here I thank Dr. Edgar Hatrick, Sharon Ackerman, and Mary Ann Hardebeck for their support and inspiring leadership; David Spage, whose perspective, insight, and opinions I value; Jennifer Piccolomini, a talented rising administrator who has seen and grown so much in a short period of time; Joseph Breinig Jr. for being so knowledgeable; Jeffrey Rounsley for making it look easy with his sharp insight and ideas and especially for his help with unpacking the World History SOL; and Allison Boyle, Jessica Pendleton, and Charles Barrett for helping me along and teaching me so much in such a short period of time. I am also thankful for having such a supportive network of principals both within and outside Loudoun County. Special thanks also to the review panel who previewed this text: your guidance and suggestions helped turn the manuscript around. Also, both Paul and I are grateful to Marjorie McAneny and Tracy Gallagher of Jossey-Bass for their support and patience during this process. In addition, we appreciate and applaud Michele Jones’s sharp eye and deft handle on the written word. Finally, I continue to be impressed and inspired by Paul Farmer, whose perspective and approach still shape me.

Paul Farmer

I owe gratitude to so many people in my life: certainly my family, who have always been there through better and worse with belief, support, and encouragement no matter what my next adventure or project has been. They are patient as I allow my work and research to be placed before their needs, but they are skillful in making sure that I maintain a balance. In addition, I have been blessed with several opportunities to partner with hundreds of talented educators in Montgomery County, Maryland, and Fairfax County, Virginia. We worked together side by side while reaching the highest levels of learning possible, not just for students but for us as well.

Since leaving the school system as a full-time employee, I have been humbled over and again by opportunities to work and to share experiences with thousands of educators. So often they say how good I am, and I try to consistently reply that my work today is a reflection of those with whom I have worked: they—not I—are the ones who are so good.

I would be remiss if I didn’t recognize my most current team of education partners at Solution Tree. My time as an associate with them is unmatched: I am surrounded by incredible people, support, and ideas that continue to challenge how we will grow as a national icon for professional development. I also acknowledge Jessica Lewis from Fairfax County Public Schools for her perspective as an elementary school administrator. And in regard to my closest education partner, John Gabriel, a person with the patience and the persistence to keep me focused long enough to complete a project like this: a thank you to John just doesn’t say enough.

With so much support from so many, I can’t name them all, but what tremendous assets they have all been in so many ways. For if they were not willing to challenge their practices and simultaneously challenge mine, I wouldn’t have the skills to be where I am today.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

John Gabriel is author of the best-selling book How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader (ASCD, 2005), which has also experienced success as a Chinese-translated text, What It Takes to Make a Teacher Leader (EQ, 2005); and coauthored How to Help Your School Thrive Without Breaking the Bank (ASCD, 2009) with Paul Farmer. A nationally and internationally known presenter, Gabriel recently opened and is the principal of John Champe High School in Loudoun County, Virginia. Prior to holding this position, he had been an assistant principal for seven years at Park View High School (Loudoun, Virginia), a minority-majority school that achieved the distinction of being a NASSP/MetLife Breaking Ranks School in 2010, an award given to only ten schools nationwide that year.

Gabriel’s previous experience includes working as a department chair at Falls Church High School (Fairfax, Virginia), an extremely diverse school both ethnically and economically, where his dynamic leadership and transformation of the culture and climate of the department helped it reach levels of achievement on high-stakes assessments that had previously been unattainable. He can be reached at [email protected].

Paul Farmer, a nationally recognized expert consultant on professional learning communities (PLCs), is the coauthor of How to Help Your School Thrive Without Breaking the Bank (ASCD, 2009) and has thirty years of education experience. Currently Farmer works as an associate with Solution Tree, Inc., where he has provided consulting services on PLCs in more than forty states, three provinces, and the Northwest Territory in Canada. He provides professional development to create and sustain PLCs for teachers, school administrators, and district administrators, as well as gives keynote speeches and conducts training sessions through interactive videoconferencing.

Before becoming a consultant, Farmer worked for Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia and Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland. Before working as a director of instructional technology integration, Farmer was the principal of Joyce Kilmer Middle School (Fairfax), one of the first schools in the county to build a PLC and which was also recognized by Standard and Poor’s School Evaluation Services for narrowing the achievement gap for economically disadvantaged students. As an educator in Montgomery County, Farmer served as classroom teacher, team leader, department chair, teacher specialist, and assistant principal. He can be reached at [email protected], and readers can follow him on Twitter (@pcfarmersr).

INTRODUCTION

No different from effective teachers, skillful administrators are ones who regularly seek ways to continue their growth. They are savvy enough, resourceful enough, and humble enough to understand that school administration is fraught with many challenges, complexities, and demands that are rarely addressed in preparatory programs and some that are even unknown to the administrator until he or she spends time in that position. If you are reading this book, then you are one such school leader who values tapping additional resources, finding and sharing ideas, techniques, and strategies to complement your repertoire to make some of the more difficult aspects of school administration seem less challenging.

If you are an aspiring administrator taking the requisite courses or even if you have completed the necessary credits to be an administrator, we commend you for exploring this professional path: your tentative first steps will help mitigate the impending shortage of school administrators. If you are a novice administrator, which we qualify as being in your first few years of service, we welcome you to a fulfilling and rewarding career of endless possibilities; it is a demanding one, but we have both found it to be richly satisfying. And if you are an experienced administrator, then we applaud your continued leadership in the service of others—the impact, both direct and indirect, that you have had on others’ lives certainly exceeds the scope and impact you could have had as a classroom teacher. And your years of service have taught you that there is more to school administration than the mechanics of performing observations, writing evaluations, being knowledgeable about legal issues, and understanding leadership and management theory. All these topics certainly have an important place in preparatory programs and form a foundation for your leadership capacity, but you also understand that there is a larger-than-life reality to working in a school. Simply said, you often deal with the tough stuff: the nuts and bolts, the ins and outs of issues for which guidance isn’t or wasn’t always available.

The drive behind this book springs from that idea: that there was just so much we didn’t realize as aspiring administrators, didn’t learn upon completion of our preparatory programs, and wouldn’t have known even as veteran administrators unless a mentor or colleague shared it with us. Although we graduated from excellent preparatory programs, the practical solutions to help us navigate the reality of daily challenges were acquired from practitioners in the field and learned on the job, not in the classroom. We therefore feel a kinship with you regardless of the stage of your career, and offer this book as another resource to aid you in managing and leading your school through the tough stuff.

With that in mind, this book is not a fix-all book, nor does it cover every aspect of administration. We’ve made a conscious decision not to cover those areas traditionally addressed in preparatory programs; rather, we have compiled a list of some of the more frequently occurring challenging aspects we’ve encountered as school administrators as well as those based on our experiences working with other administrators around the world.

Dealing with the Tough Stuff is divided into two sections: working with students and working with adults. You do not need to go through the book sequentially; the chapters and sections are not rigidly ordered, so feel free to move from one part of the book to the other to best meet your needs. It is our hope that upon reading it, you will share the ideas that we have culled from colleagues, from years of experience, and from trial and error with your colleagues, sparking a dialogue and enabling you to receive ideas in return from them—giving you more solutions for dealing with the tough stuff.

PART ONE

Working with Students

chapter ONE

Responding to Student Conflicts

You had heard some rumblings a couple of weeks ago about two best friends who’d had a falling out. Once sworn friends, the two girls could no longer pass each other in the hall without their iciness having a polarizing effect across the school. The tension between the two was evident in classes, among cliques, and online. Even extracurricular activities weren’t immune to the fallout; sides were taken and lines were drawn around the school, unbeknownst to you. You hadn’t paid much attention to the initial conflict because you naïvely mistook the quiet for calm; how were you to know that the quiet was just the harbinger of the coming storm?

And so when two shrill voices rose above the din of the class change one Monday morning while you were on hall duty, you really didn’t understand what was occurring. When you arrived at the scene of the disturbance, you discovered the two girls pointing angrily in each other’s faces, obscenities flying, and a crowd of onlookers rapidly getting sucked into the black hole the opponents were creating. Thankfully, no punches were thrown—there wasn’t even a shove—but there was no mistaking the potential for violence or the disruption to the learning environment. Nor was there any mistaking the serious consequences that would have been handed out if there had been a physical conflict, or how two young adults unable to control wild and deep emotions would have jeopardized their otherwise well-respected academic records.

_______________________________ c01uf002 _______________________________

Life is marked by conflict. Whether it is between spouses, siblings, friends, or coworkers, conflict is a staple of the human condition. Of course, life is no different for your students than it is for you or for us. And given students’ youth and inexperience, especially when coupled with the social environment of school and technology, student conflicts can easily, quickly, and frequently erupt. Their aftershocks can have a profound impact on social circles and the atmosphere in the school; and just when you think everything is quiet, tremors rippling beneath the surface initiate a whole new dramatic event. So it is only natural that many times over the course of a marking period, conflicts of all types and kinds eventually find their way to your office. And although these conflicts are a normal and necessary part of learning and growing up, their potential to cause such upheaval cannot be ignored.

RECOGNIZE STUDENT CONFLICTS

Student conflicts take a variety of shapes and forms. Some start innocently enough as simple disagreements and end there, never escalating into anything more significant. On the other end of the spectrum, though, are those that foment and culminate in verbal altercations (or worse), and they usually seem to occur anywhere and whenever there is an audience present—in the hallways, in the cafeteria, or while boarding buses, where the screaming, yelling, and cursing are heard by a significant portion of the school’s population. Following are examples of the different types of conflicts you are bound to encounter in a secondary school setting.

Conflicts Caused by Rumor and Gossip

We find