Melding Principal Pools in the North Country

Attracting high-caliber educators in a sparsely populated, rural area to work as building administrators can be a stressful

In the rural upstate New York region known as the North Country, leadership succession in K-12 education is a matter of serious concern. Attracting high-caliber educators in a sparsely populated, rural area to work as building administrators can be a stressful and sometimes unsatisfying pursuit.

The region is blessed with some outstanding higher education institutions that draw talented students and professionals. This major asset enabled us to devise a distinctive solution — a Principals’ Academy formed through a joint venture between the St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES and the graduate program in educational leadership at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y.

By sharing funding and resources, the Principals’ Academy can accomplish what the mostly small, rural school districts, the BOCES and the university would be unable to accomplish independently.

The program brings together current and aspiring school leaders from throughout the North Country to discuss the role of the school leader and explore current trends in public education. Academy participants attend a summer retreat and meet once a month for additional professional development.

The academy uses a cohort model, which greatly decreases the silo effect among building principals and principal candidates and generates a broader perspective about school leadership and collaboration. It also has created a regional mindset, expanding the career pipeline opportunities as participants consider positions beyond their own school building or district.

Replenishing Pools

This year’s cohort identified instructional rounds as its major area of focus, so several participants attended training on the topic at Harvard University. The cohort of instructional leaders recognizes that school improvement is a collaborative effort not restricted by school district boundaries or job titles.

Supported by Strengthening Teacher Leadership and Effectiveness program grants from the New York State Education Department, the partnership between BOCES, its 18 component school districts and St. Lawrence University has enabled the Principals’ Academy to recruit a broader pool of candidates for site leadership positions. Within a year’s time, academy participants had begun seriously considering, and in some cases pursuing, leadership opportunities.

The Principals’ Academy will require several more years to replenish the candidate pools to sufficient levels to satisfy schools’ needs for building leaders. This is due partly to the fact that when the academy was born in 2015, candidate pools were nearly nonexistent.

Furthermore, in recent years the negative political rhetoric tied to the anti-reform, anti-testing movement, parents opting their children out of standardized testing and the Common Core standards has alienated and discouraged some teachers from considering leadership options.

Shared Opportunities

We now see a huge opportunity to move the needle in a positive direction. Many reform initiatives in New York require schools to collaborate on a regional level, often through the BOCES. These shared opportunities are encouraging teachers to become teacher leaders, workshop presenters and turnkey trainers in their own schools and districts and to see themselves as confident instructional leaders.

Through regional programs such as the Principals’ Academy, the growing leadership succession crisis can be addressed, and schools can secure positive futures by cultivating high-quality, highly motivated school leaders.