"Reading the Field: Understanding the DNA of Your School for a Home Run Culture"

Keeping or Ditching the School's Traditions

The LEAD-17 Project is designed to guide assistant principals in developing their leadership style, beliefs, and values. Aligning yourself with an institution that values your ideas is paramount to a successful career. It recognizes what is worth fighting for when it comes to the traditions that exist within our schools.

What's Worth Fighting For?

Traditions: Keep, Ditch, or Shift

As an assistant principal, you will have the opportunity to assess one or more schools' cultures before assuming the principal's role. While your day is filled with putting out fires, supporting teachers, students, and staff, and visiting classrooms, take the time to examine the traditions of the culture and make a list. If this were your school which traditions would you keep, ditch, or shift?

Traditions to Keep, Ditch, or Shift

Schools are filled with traditions sometimes known as the -- "this is the way we have always done it syndrome." Some are valuable, some cause no harm, and others are best left in the past. In your role as an assistant principal, create a list of school traditions marking each as a making a (+) positive, (-) negative, or (n) neutral impact on the school's vision, mission, and goals.

When you assume the role of the principalship, this simple task will present a starting point for the change process. Begin your tenure by meeting with each staff member or, at a minimum, each department or grade level chairperson to identify the school's traditions. To take a deeper look at the school's cultural beliefs, conduct a brief hallway survey to ask students what is happening at our school that we should keep, ditch, or shift and why? It would be valuable to conduct this same informal survey with parents at an open house or other school events. (#SchoolCulture #AssistantPrincipal #LeadershipEngineering)

DNA Drives Cultural Shift

Rewiring for a Shift May Gain More Buy-In

Armed with the viewpoints of your stakeholders, you are now charged with embedding your leadership style, values, and beliefs into their culture. That's right--you are the guest leader. Many of the people in the school will have been there for years or decades and in all likelihood have had many "guest principals," some who stayed for long stints and others who were merely there for a few years. The tenure of principals in schools is short-lived in many instances due to the nature of the career ---some move to other schools, some leave the profession, and others advance to positions at the central office level. Rewiring the DNA of a school to make it better than it was when you arrived is the ultimate goal upon which your legacy is built. Start the process by examining the school's strengths and growth areas noted by the stakeholders, supported by data, or provided to you by the superintendent's office.

The Plan: Anchor, Abandon, or Alter the Traditions

Anchor

Examine the traditions list and identify those you can support based on their alignment with the school's vision, mission, goals, school improvement plan, and the school district's strategic plan. Create a plan of action to illustrate this support to your stakeholders. Remember, what you do, not what you say, demonstrates support for the traditions held near and dear to a community. Anchoring your leadership within these critical traditions will gain you buy-in as a member of the school's culture --moving you from an outsider to a valued and trusted leader.

Abandon

Make a plan for abandoning the school's traditions that negatively impact the culture. Are these traditions ill-aligned with the school's improvement plan or district-level strategic plan? Did students, staff, parents, and community members identify the practice as antiquated, negatively impacting the school culture, or simply wasting time? For example, is the tradition of giving a zero for an assignment not submitted by a student of value to the learning process? Is there value to not allowing the student to do re-takes on tests/quizzes? Is there value in charging students a fee for an overdue library book?

Alter

When school traditions and practices "could" be good "if" ---school administrators need to work to alter the practices to anchor them to the core values of the institution. First, note the five core values identified as the core of the school. Second, note where these traditions fit within the plate of non-negotiables. Third, note the change required to anchor this value in the culture of the school.

Too often, new principals make the mistake of adopting the notion "this is my school, they will do it my way" when in reality it is their school, and as the "guest leader," we need to identify how we best fit into the culture to ensure forward progress. Take the time to remember the positive, negative, and neutral traditions creating the DNA of the school. Any attempt for wholesale change to all processes or strategic change without recognizing firmly held traditions is merely a recipe for failure ---for you and the school. Anchor, Abandon, and Aler---for a successful transition to the principalship.