21 Competencies for School Administrators
1. Communication: Effectively listens to others; clearly and effectively presents and understands information orally and in writing; acquires, organizes, analyzes, interprets, maintains information needed to achieve school or team 21st century objectives.
As schools are dynamic environments, school leaders must utilize multiple methods of communication to ensure all stakeholders are informed of current events and school/district happenings. During my principal residency, I created and maintained a digital list of important dates for all staff. As new events, such as testing dates, teacher trainings, field trips, and student competitions, were added to our master calendar, I highlighted the items in yellow to make staff aware of updates and/or changes. Teachers and staff utilized this resource on a weekly basis to plan and prepare for the various events taking place in our building and school district.
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2. Change Management: Effectively engages staff and community in the change process in a manner that ensures their support of the change and its successful implementation.
School leaders must be able to manage change effectively and implement processes and procedures to ensure staff feel supported as change occurs. During our bi-monthly School Improvement Team meetings, we discussed how to adjust our instruction and remediation practices to benefit our student population. We talked about the barriers our students face and how we might use specific strategies to overcome them. School Improvement Team representatives were tasked with taking the strategies back to their PLC teams to be implemented in their lesson plans.
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3. Conflict Management: Anticipates or seeks to resolve confrontations, disagreements, or complaints in a constructive manner.
School leaders must possess the ability to manage conflict; sometimes conflict management involves working with staff members to reach a compromise. When creating our K-2 clubs based on students' interests, I had to ask some of our teachers to host clubs that were not necessarily their first choice. I tried to work with teachers who were dissatisfied with their club topic to create a schedule that met the needs and interests of all stakeholders. Exercising flexibility and considering the perspectives of others goes a long way in terms of handling conflicts in a constructive manner.
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4. Creative Thinking: Engages in and fosters an environment for others to engage in innovative thinking.
School leaders must be creative in their efforts to improve student achievement. In order to help our teachers learn more about their students as both learners and individuals, the Curriculum Coach and I developed a digital Learner Profile Survey for all students to complete. By analyzing students' responses, teachers gained insight into their students' needs and preferences in relation to instructional practices and the classroom environment. Teachers used this innovative approach to allow students' voices to be heard and then adapted the teaching and learning in their classrooms accordingly.
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5. Customer Focus: Understands the students as customers of the work of schooling and the servant nature of leadership and acts accordingly.
Servant leaders recognize the value of teamwork and putting the needs of students and staff at the forefront. During my principal residency, my principal mentor and I served on the cafeteria line several days when two of our cafeteria staff members were out sick. Both students and staff enjoyed and appreciated seeing us in different roles.
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6. Delegation: Effectively assigns work tasks to others in ways that provide learning experiences for them and in ways that ensure the efficient operation of the school.
In order for schools to operate effectively, school leaders must delegate tasks to others. With the implementation of our new Into Reading curriculum this year, our administrative team asked two teachers to serve as "teacher leaders" to assist grade levels in learning about and understanding the new curriculum resources. We selected one teacher to support grades K-2 and one teacher to support grades 3-4. The two teacher leaders received ongoing training from the county and then shared the information during PLC meetings.
7. Dialogue/Inquiry: Is skilled in creating a risk free environment for engaging people in conversations that explore issues, challenges or bad relationships that are hindering school performance.
School leaders must create environments where all stakeholders feel comfortable in sharing issues or challenges hindering school performance. During my principal residency, my administrative team met weekly to engage in dialogue about pressing issues and possible solutions for each. These ongoing conversations ensured that problems and challenges were addressed in a timely manner. In addition, our monthly PTA Board meetings gave our parent representatives opportunities to share feedback regarding school communication and events. Hearing from parents regularly allowed us to have a realistic idea of parents' perceptions, and gave us the opportunity to make adjustments as needed.
8. Emotional Intelligence: Is able to manage oneself through self awareness and self management and is able to manage relationships through empathy, social awareness and relationship management. This competency is critical to building strong, transparent, trusting relationships throughout the school community
Building strong, trusting relationships with the school community is essential for creating a healthy, positive school culture. In an effort to start the relationship building process prior to meeting the staff at Benson Elementary, I crafted and sent out a letter of introduction to share my excitement about meeting and working with each of them. I shared my vision and commitment to the school to help staff gain a sense of what I value as a school leader.
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9. Environmental Awareness: Becomes aware and remains informed of external and internal trends, interests and issues with potential impacts on school policies, practices, procedures and positions.
Being aware of the needs of your school community is essential to being an effective school leader. The town of Benson held a "Back to School" event at the beginning of the year that allowed families to get free book bags and school supplies for their students. School leaders from the South Johnston High School feeder pattern were encouraged to attend this event to distribute supplies and greet families prior to the start of school.
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10. Global Perspective: Understands the competitive nature of the new global economy and is clear about the knowledge and skills students will need to be successful in this economy.
School leaders, at all levels of education, should be clear about the knowledge and skills students will need to be successful in a global economy. At Benson Elementary, teaching character education and twenty-first century skills is a school-wide expectation. We focus on specific character traits, which translate into real-world skills, each month. Teachers and staff distribute "character kids" awards to students who exemplify good character. We display our featured character traits on the bulletin board in our front entrance so all parents and visitors can see our monthly focus.
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11. Judgment: Effectively reaching logical conclusions and making high quality decisions based on available information. Giving priority and caution to significant issues. Analyzing and interpreting complex information.
School leaders are called upon to make rational judgments several times each day. Early in my principal residency, my principal mentor asked me to conduct interviews with her for both teacher and teacher assistant positions. We used a combination of school and county created questions to determine which candidates possessed the skills and dispositions necessary to be successful at Benson Elementary School. After each interview, my principal mentor and I would debrief; she would give me the opportunity to share my thoughts first in order to see if we were on the same page. Making judgments about potential employees who best meet the needs of your school is one of the most important aspects of school leadership.
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12. Organizational Ability: Effectively plans and schedules one’s own and the work of others so that resources are sued appropriately, such as scheduling the flow of activities and establishing procedures to monitor projects.
School leaders must have the ability to plan, organize, and schedule activities effectively. During my principal residency, I was tasked with organizing all 640 of our students into clubs based on their interests. I started the process by asking teachers to determine what clubs they would like to sponsor. I then created Google forms for students to indicate their top three interests/choices, and I placed them in clubs according to their responses. Almost every student was given one of their top choices. I purposefully tried to keep most of the kindergarten students on the kindergarten hallway to make the transition of moving to and from clubs smoother and more efficient. I also created a spreadsheet for the office to use in locating students quickly and easily. Clubs were held once each month on a Friday afternoon.
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13. Personal Ethics and Values: Consistently exhibits high standards in the areas of honesty, integrity, fairness, stewardship, trust, respect, and confidentiality.
School leaders who consistently demonstrate high standards in terms of ethics and values build a solid foundation of trust and rapport among staff. During my principal residency, there were many times when I had to keep specific information confidential in dealing with both students and adults. Our administrative team met weekly to discuss issues and concerns regarding how students' home lives were impacting their academic performance and/or behavior. In addition, when dealing with private personnel matters, we had to approach situations with fairness and respect.
14. Personal Responsibility for Performance: Proactively and continuously improves performance by focusing on needed areas of improvement and enhancement of strengths; actively seeks and effectively applies feedback from others; takes full responsibility for one’s own achievements.
School leaders must continuously seek feedback from others in an effort to improve both as a professional and an individual. As the Mentor Coordinator, I surveyed my mentors and beginning teachers in the middle of the year to seek their feedback on the effectiveness of our meetings. I used their input to plan our final three Mentor-Mentee meetings for the year.
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15. Responsiveness: Does not leave issues, inquiries or requirements for information go unattended. Creates a clearly delineated structure for responding to requests/ situations in an expedient manner.
One way to ensure staff members feel valued is to respond to their questions or concerns in a timely manner. As a Principal Resident, I served as the point of contact for teacher assistants. One week prior to each of our TA PLC meetings, I emailed all of our teacher assistants to ask for current questions or concerns. I made it a point to seek answers to their inquiries or address issues they raised before our meetings in an effort to make the most of our time together each month.
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16. Results Orientation: Effectively assumes responsibility. Recognizes when a decision is required. Takes prompt action as issues emerge. Resolves short-term issues while balancing them against long-term goals.
School leaders must be results-oriented, which involves taking responsibility for and acting upon both academic and perception based data. In the middle of the school year, the Benson Elementary administrative team asked all staff members to complete a digital survey to determine strengths and areas for improvement. The team analyzed the feedback and acted upon the data after Christmas break. Mrs. Dunston addressed commonly noted issues in the January staff meeting, and we implemented Employee of the Month awards to offer recognition opportunities.
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17. Sensitivity: Effectively perceives the needs and concerns of others; deal tactfully with others in emotionally stressful situations or in conflict. Knows what information to communicate and to whom. Relates to people of varying ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds.
School leaders must be able to assist people in stressful situations by helping them manage their emotions. During my principal residency, a teacher experienced a cardiac event and had to be taken to the hospital. I called 911 and then tried to call the teacher's husband several times. I was unable to reach him and did not want the teacher to be alone, as she was very scared, so I followed the ambulance to the hospital and sat with her in the emergency room for several hours. School leaders should always treat their staff members how they would want their own family members to be treated. Being sensitive to the needs and concerns of others builds trust and rapport among stakeholders.
18. Systems Thinking: Understands the interrelationships and impacts of school and district influences, systems and external stakeholders, and applies that understanding to advancing the achievement of the school or team.
School leaders must understand the interconnections of the school, district, and greater community. During a special board meeting in November, all restart schools in Johnston County were asked to present on the current state of their schools. My principal mentor, curriculum coach, assistant principal, and I worked together to create our presentation for this event. We all attended the meeting to support my principal mentor as she shared the information with the board members and answered their questions. The meeting was streamed on social media in an effort to share our restart schools' progress with all stakeholders.
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19. Technology: Effectively utilizes the latest technologies to continuously improve the management of the school and enhance student instruction.
School leaders must utilize technology to enhance teaching and learning. Part of my role as the Mentor Coordinator involved sharing best practices with beginning teachers and providing them with resources for implementation. I created a "Best Practices" document where I linked a plethora of resources organized by topics. Each mentor and beginning teacher was encouraged to share a best practice during one of our monthly meetings and I added their ideas and materials to the document as well. In this case, technology is making it easier to organize and access resources to enhance student learning.
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20. Time Management: Effectively uses available time to complete work tasks and activities that lead to the achievement of desired work or school results. Runs effective meetings.
School leaders must make the most of each day in order to complete tasks and activities that lead to school improvement. During my principal residency, I had to find a new system to schedule and manage my time more effectively. I purchased an agenda with appointment times to help me stay organized and keep track of the many obligations associated with being a school administrator.
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21. Visionary: Encourages imagineering by creating an environment and structure to capture stakeholders dreams of what the school could become for all the students.
School administrators must be visionaries who aim to make the school the best place it can be for all students. As a Principal Resident, I participated in a book study with my administrative team focused on improving instruction across all grade levels. Our ultimate goal was to help our teachers utilize data effectively to make dramatic gains in student achievement. We implemented the foundational practices discussed in the text in our Professional Learning Communities.
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