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It was not just Stanford's words and example, however, that influenced Testa-Cross. She credits a Stanford-initiated training program with changing and shaping her view of the job. The Principal Leadership Institute, launched by the Alliance for Education in 1996 at Stanford's behest, aims to help Seattle's principals tackle the new demands of an increasingly complex role. One key change affecting principals in Seattle and beyond is the decentralization of authority. Site-based management — which gives schools more latitude to make decisions — puts more power in the hands of principals (in theory, anyway). But power has its price: added responsibilities, new aggravations, more accountability. John Stanford wanted to fashion a whole new identity for these newly liberated (and newly burdened) administrators. One of his first moves was to give them the title of CEO. In borrowing language from the corporate world, Stanford was sending a signal about the enlarged role he envisioned for his building leaders. "When we talk about the principal as CEO," says Pat Kile of the Alliance, "what we mean is that he or she is responsible for strategic planning, for budgeting, for creating an academic achievement plan, for hiring and firing staff, for making decisions about how to use the resources that come in." The Alliance, a nonprofit charitable foundation dedicated to helping Seattle schools succeed, was the logical place to locate a districtwide leadership training program, says Kile, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives. One of the Alliance's three goals — excellent leadership at all levels — made the Principal Leadership Institute a perfect fit. (The other two goals are increased academic achievement and a stable pool of private dollars to supplement tax dollars.) After doing a national search for a suitable program, the Alliance adopted the research-based model developed by the Mayerson Academy. Every Seattle principal received training from the Cincinnati-based firm around five strands of leadership:
"The beauty of Mayerson is that it takes best practices from business, but the trainers are educators," says Testa-Cross. "It covers everything from the conceptual to the everyday. It gets right down to nuts and bolts — even to doing some simulations. It was very beneficial. I apply it all." For Testa-Cross, the training dovetailed perfectly with her role as the new principal at John Hay Elementary. "I learned how to create a vision, how to make it a living, breathing way of life in the school," she says. "I'd had classes on vision, ad nauseam. What I hadn't learned was how to make the vision really substantive, alive, and exciting."
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The New Principal Special Report:
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Date of Last Update: 9/28/01 
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