Accountability and Authority

What Principals Need in a Performance-Based System

By Brian Barker

The national standards movement has made dramatic changes in teaching and learning.

This new performance-based system is profoundly transforming the principal's role and responsibilities.

The Association of Washington School Principals (AWSP) formed a task force to examine issues of responsibility, accountability, and authority in a system increasingly driven by student performance. The task force-made up of administrators from all levels of schooling, from Eastern and Western Washington, and from the smallest rural districts to the biggest urban ones -is grappling with defining the principal's role in improving academic achievement; determining the skills, knowledge, support, and authority needed for that task; and defining the principal's responsibilities in this mission.

Student achievement in a performance-based school is a shared responsibility involving the student, family, educators, and the community. The principal's leadership is essential to this process. As leader, the principal is accountable for the continuous growth of students and increased school performance as measured over time by state standards and locally determined indicators. In this performance-based school, the principal has a complex set of responsibilities, including: (1) develop, implement, and monitor procedures and practices that promote a safe and orderly school environment; (2) influence, establish, and sustain a school culture conducive to continuous improvement for students and staff; (3) lead the development, implementation, and evaluation of data-driven plans for improvement of student achievement; (4) assist instructional staff in aligning curriculum, instruction, and assessment with state and local learning goals; (5) monitor, assist, and evaluate staff implementation of school improvement plans and effective instructional and assessment practices; (6) manage human and financial resources to accomplish student achievement goals; (7) communicate and partner with colleagues, parents, and community members to promote student learning. The responsibilities outlined in 3, 4, and 5 above are at the heart of the principal's new role.

After spirited discussions and debates on the many issues surrounding the principal's changing role, the task force has hammered out the following list of the essential support and authority principals must have in order to succeed in the current reform climate. In a performance-based system with student achievement as the main focus of principal accountability, principals need:

• Principal Professional Development. Principals express a need to receive ongoing professional development, especially in the areas of assessment and evaluation in a performance-based system. There is strong support for training before holding the principal accountable for knowing, in much the same way that principals guide and assist staff members with knowledge and skill before holding them accountable for knowing.
• Authority to Select and Accept Transfers of Teachers Based Upon Proven Positive Performance with Student Achievement. Principals clearly understand their accountability for student achievement. To truly cause that to happen, principals must be diligent and vigilant in recruiting and selecting the very best staff. Simply accepting a transferring teacher because he or she is the most senior, as is the case with many current contractual agreements, does not ensure that the best quality teachers are teaching our children. A revision of contract and conferring of authority to staff the building without seniority as the main means of placement is a critical factor in principal, teacher, and student success.
• Authority to Appropriately Respond to Building Data. Just as authentic classroom assessment informs future instruction and may require the teacher to make important and necessary adjustments to the lesson plan, so the principal wants the authority to respond to the realities identified in the building data. Developing the school improvement plan and adjusting the plan as a result of yearly data analysis provides a clear focus on activities that improve student performance. Learning becomes the heart of school programs.
• Authority to Direct Finances Toward Student Achievement Goals. The principal needs the authority to work with staff in determining how building budgets will be spent to improve student achievement. That could include, for example, materials purchase, supplemental materials or experiences for staff development, hardware, or software. The concern voiced here is that the building staff be able to use school resources to do the work they believe to be most important based upon building need and operative data.
• Authority to Direct Building Staff Development Efforts. The general consensus is that the principal, working with the building team, would be in the position to know staff needs and to guide staff development efforts accordingly. As building leader, the principal is responsible for diagnosis of staff need in professional development and in assisting staff members in having the resources and knowledge base needed to maintain high academic standards.
• Availability and Authority to Make Alternative Placements for High-Risk and Disruptive Students. Principals have to balance individual student needs with the safety and welfare of all students in the school. Students who show a pattern of violent or disruptive behavior cause serious problems in the learning process. The availability of alternative programs and the authority to place students in such programs are essential elements for a safe and orderly school environment.

A principal's key task is to build a structure of relationships in the school so that all children have the opportunity to learn. To do this, principals must have and use professional knowledge and skills to create a school environment in which children can achieve their potential.

The task force continues its work, focusing on designing a set of indicators and authentic assessments for the specific tasks and responsibilities facing today's principal. These indicators and assessments will allow principals to better evaluate themselves and conduct meaningful dialogue with supervisors as part of the goal-setting and evaluation process.

For more information on the AWSP Accountability Task Force and a wealth of other issues related to the principalship, contact the Association of Washington School Principals in Olympia at (360) 357-7951, or visit the Web site at www.awsp.org.

Brian Barker is Executive Director of the Association of Washington School Principals.