Gordon A. Donaldson

The worklife of the assistant principal

Literature and research have substantiated a noticeable trend in the recognition of the important role the assistant principal plays in schools. Despite this awareness, the knowledge base remains inadequate to meet the needs in understanding this vital role in educational administration. Given this void, this article reviews literature on multiple dimensions of the worklives of assistant principals and analyzes survey data from 125 assistant principals in Maine to ascertain how assistant principals allocate their time, at what roles and activities they feel successful, and the relationship between perceived success and quality of worklife ratings. The findings highlight the importance of understanding functions of the role and adequate teaching experience before assuming the role. They also raise concerns about the minimal amount of time assistant principals allocate to instructional leadership and professional development, and the extent to which serving as an assistant principal prepares one for the principalship.

What Makes Principals Feel Successful

The question, “Who feels successful as a principal?” and its partner, “What makes some principals feel more successful than others?” beg for answers. This study of 434 Maine school principals provides a prime opportunity to examine the questions.

A Promising Future for Every Student: Maine Invests in Secondary School Reform:

Maines vision for a system of secondary learning challenges schools and communities to rethink how they assess, organize, and deliver learning opportunities for adolescents. It strongly asserts that the current meth ods of many schools encourage disengagement from learning and impede the development of learning skills among both students and educators.

School Climate Assessment Encourages Collaboration

An approach to school cli mate assessment that involves staff members, stu dents, and parents can result in greater levels of collaboration and improved climate. These authors describe their six-step plan.

The Maine Principals' Academy.

now required to complete 12 additional hours each year. Each new group of administrators will be required to participate in the initial 36-hour training. In the future, all administrators will also be required to participate in a 36-hour management training program. The Baylor Principals’ Center offers the instructional leadership training now, and will offer the management training when the time comes.

Leadership Learning That Makes a Difference in Schools: Pushing the Frontier at the University of Maine

This chapter describes the model of leadership knowledge and the approach to leadership development employed in the University of Maine’s graduate program in Educational Leadership. The model and learning framework described here emerged from the Educational Leadership Area Faculty’s developmental work over the past 15 years with a broad array of educators in Maine and beyond. The model has been through many refinements as faculty have used it to shape learning experiences and their own andragogical roles in the service of leadership development. The program follows a model of leadership development based on three complementary dimensions of leadership knowledge: cognitive, ideas, and research about the “technology” of schooling; interpersonal, the relationships, and human dynamics of leadership; and intrapersonal, the “internal” dynamics of the leader’s philosophical and personal world. Leader learning generates the capacity to self-manage (intrapersonal) and to form productive relationships (interpersonal) so that people are mobilized to action that benefits student learning (cognitive). The chapter describes the model of leadership knowledge and shares some of the learning methods faculty have developed to match the particularities of the cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal knowledge bases that make up leadership performance.