Better Together: A Lesson for School Leaders

July 2, 2021

Before I became a principal, I was a hard-working teacher in an isolated classroom with a growing sense of frustration with barriers in the way of student learning. I was tired of unrealistic improvement initiatives, professional development that missed the point, and widely varied outcomes for students across classrooms down the very same hallways. I had a track record of success in the classroom, the confidence of my colleagues, and the belief that I could do better. I believed we needed a knowledgeable teacher turned highly skilled leader, who could focus on what was important, clarify a plan, and create the conditions needed to achieve success. And so it was, that I approached my journey to the principal’s office like a hero called to rescue broken people.

Unfortunately, I would learn quickly that high performance in the classroom does not translate to the principal’s office, and that my orientation to solving the problem, was the problem.

In my first year as an administrator, my chance to make meaningful change for student learning arrived. My school data showed that expectations for independent reading varied widely across classrooms, and that the volume of reading was decreasing across grade levels. I was energized by this opportunity to apply my expertise and position to solve the problem. I knew that my teachers would need to develop a common understanding of the purpose, expectations, and research-based strategies for independent reading, and that they would need to be supported through aligned professional development all year.

With the support of my literacy coach, consultant, and a few trusted colleagues, I developed a thoughtful school-wide reading initiative including a detailed plan outlining the needed high-quality professional development.  By the end of the year my school had a set of clear expectations for independent reading and students across grade levels demonstrated increased reading volume. I could hardly wait to learn how the hero’s story would end, and how the initiative would prove to positively impact student achievement. When our state achievement data showed a 2% increase in our student’s reading proficiency that year, I was unimpressed, and a bit bewildered.

While my instructional knowledge and skills would remain important, success for my school would not be based on my individual performance or planning.

Outside of the classroom was a new and larger environment governed by multiple adult stakeholders, beliefs, values, and perspectives. This new environment revealed a significant gap in my skillset.  A 360-degree leadership survey that year would help me to identify it. Only 25% of my staff reported feeling involved in the vision for our improvement initiative. I had left stakeholders out of the thinking, out of the decision-making process, and out of the new solutions that the team could have created together. I would need to learn how to create a culture for the continual improvement of learning, and to collaborate with adults to develop shared vision, and shared leadership. I would need to develop a whole new story, with a whole new hero.

In School Leadership That Works, Marzano, Waters, & Mcnulty describe the results of a meta-analysis involving 69 studies which examined the relationship between principal actions and student achievement. Of the 21 responsibilities of school leaders identified to positively affect student achievement, “Culture” had a .24 correlation to student achievement, which was within the top 5 largest correlations in the meta-analysis. Culture refers to the common values, beliefs, and feelings held by a group that can positively or negatively impact the school’s effectiveness. According to these studies, principals who were perceived to foster shared beliefs and a sense of community and cooperation among staff, had on average a 24% higher student passing rate compared to schools whose principals were not perceived to foster shared beliefs, community, and cooperation.

If building positive school culture matters to student achievement, then why is it not more prevalent in the practice of school leaders?

The pre-requisite to effectively building shared leadership is the belief that we are better together.

This belief flows from the lived experience and perspective of the leader. Experiences with isolation from a team, perfectionism, distrust, or working within a dysfunctional team may make the new leader more likely to reach inward instead of outward to solve problems.

By my second year as an administrator, I had learned a valuable lesson about the importance of involving others and fostering collaborative decision making. I had learned the hard way that doing the thinking, planning, and problem solving without involving teachers was ineffective at best. It would be five more years and a professional development on dismantling racism later, before I would be able to link my early leadership practice to something much worse.

While, it may seem harmless on the surface, the belief that we are better off on our own may have insidious roots in white supremacy culture. In Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups by Tema Okun, the author describes the 13 characteristics of white supremacy culture, or the beliefs and ways of behaving that assume the superiority of white ideas and ideals over those of people of color. While I had never before linked my lack of collaboration to racist practice, I could not deny that the list of White supremacy characteristics sounded a lot like my early leadership. The text painted of picture of a leader in control of decisions, with limited understanding and little regard for the collective.

Of the 13 characteristics of white supremacy culture outlined, 6 stand directly in the way of the school leader’s ability to foster shared beliefs and a sense of community and cooperation among staff. These 6 cultural blocking characteristics include Perfectionism, Paternalism, Power Hoarding, Individualism, Fear of Open Conflict, and Worship of the Written Word (Figure 1).

On the surface, perfectionism may appear benign or even beneficial, however its function serves to cut off collaboration. Perfectionistic principals may believe that if the job is going to be done right, they will have to do it on their own. This belief may decrease the likelihood that they will delegate or involve others with different perspectives.

Paternalism connotes the endearing idea of a parent who cares for and knows what is best for their child. This idea is extended to the people in charge, who are expected to know what is best for their subordinates. The function of this mindset however, is to control. Believing that they know best, paternalistic principals may make decisions without fully understanding or involving the stakeholders needed to achieve success.

Power hoarding, like perfectionism and paternalism, functions to maintain control. Power hoarding principals may feel threatened when stakeholders suggest changes to the way things are done, or feel entitled to be in charge, limiting power sharing opportunities with their learning communities.  

At first glance, individualism which is characterized by independence and self-reliance could present as all American. However, at its root, individualism places value on the individual, effectively cutting them off from the group. Individualistic principals may inadvertently value their own recognition or competition over collaboration, limiting opportunities to involve and learn from others.  

Principals who fear open conflict, may be more likely to ignore it and avoid bringing people with diverse perspectives together. Finally, principals who worship the written word may assume that there is one right way, they already know what it is, and if crafted correctly into a cohesive document, others will be able to see if for themselves.

A positive school culture matters to student achievement, and cannot be achieved as a single operator, working within a system that perpetuates white supremacy. The good news is, there is something school leaders can do about it. According to author Tema Okin, each characteristic of white supremacy culture has an anti-racist antidote (Figure 2).

The antidote to perfectionism, is appreciation and expecting mistakes. We have the choice to move between one action and the other. We can move from paternalism to transparency and collaboration. We can move from power hoarding to power sharing and power building in others. We can move from individualism to teamwork toward shared goals. We can move from the fear of open conflict to proactively preparing for how to handle conflict when it occurs. Finally, we can move from worship of the written word to acceptance of the many voices and many ways to achieve goals and reach decisions.

I used to be a hard-working administrator in an isolated office with a growing sense of self-importance and the belief that I could solve problems on my own. But now I believe that we are better together. We need knowledgeable teams turned highly skilled leaders, who can focus on what is important, clarify a plan and create the conditions needed to achieve success.

And so it was, that I developed a whole new story from the principal’s office, not with a hero called to fix broken people, but with league of whole people called to fix broken systems.