by Edna Varner Associate, Leadership Development

If I ever write a book, I think I will title it, Everything I know about Leading, I learned from the Cornerstone Framework. I'll admit that is not totally true, but as I read through the framework to better understand our literacy initiative, I see so many parallels between what good readers do and what good leaders do. Notice what happens to the following teaching intentions and learning outcomes when I add the word principal:

Principals reflect with peers on their use of ... strategies to solve reading problems and identify areas for further practice and attention.

Principals ask questions and use them to better understand what children
are learning and how they are learning.

Principals decide what is most important when they read—
and when they lead.

That last one is really the focus of this article. Principals who provide strong leadership are principals who constantly make good decisions about what is important.

Everyone agrees the principal's job is challenging. Regardless of the school's size, every day is full of unexpected incidents and mandates to add to an already ambitious "To Do” list for the day. Email from the district office, faculty requests, late buses, substitutes who don't show, reports due, and a stack of referrals on the usual suspects can shatter any hopes of getting into classrooms, even if you do have an assistant principal. That's the "stuff” that principals do. Sometimes we think if we work fast, work very late, or come early, we can dig ourselves out from under the avalanche of administrative stuff. There's little chance of that because there will always be more to do, and just as we clear away one stack of work, the next set of emergencies and mandates are dumped on top of the ones we didn't get to the day before. Sound familiar?

Time is the big issue for principals. There just isn't enough. Here is a late breaking news flash: There won't ever be enough time to do all we want to do and there will always be more challenges. Effective principals, then, make decisions about what is important and use the time available to focus on that. Ask yourself this question, "What will our school look like when we are succeeding?” Describe it, be specific, and think big! At the end of each day, a principal might review that picture with two additional questions in mind: "How did I use my time with adults and students today to move the school closer to that picture? What will I do tomorrow?”

Principals who lead know that it is important to devote quality time to building the capacity of the faculty. If high levels of student achievement for all students is the goal—and isn't that what we always say?—then the most important thing a principal can do is dedicate time to developing teachers who are highly effective and confident in their work.

Every day, that should be a priority agenda item. Every day should have time dedicated to creating the conditions for high levels of faculty effectiveness—a work environment that provides teachers the tools to do their best work, knowledge and skill building opportunities to help them become more familiar with research, and time to put research into practice with feedback from a principal and coaches who understand research and best practice.

A principal who leads uses her time to create time by developing innovative schedules to make time during the school day and by negotiating for time beyond the day. Leading also means constantly monitoring how time is wasted with control strategies like 30 minutes for lining up to go to the restroom. It means making decisions about whether the meetings over which you have control occur during the day when you could be working with teachers and students or after school. Only principals feel guilty about asking others to make appointments. When they show up, we meet!

Leading is also helping a faculty look at itself and the work in progress. Without saying the "d” word (data) and the "a” word (accountability), a principal who intends to have all children reading by 3rd grade (and reading better in 4th, 5th and beyond), must make time to lead the faculty in asking important questions: What should students be learning? Who is not learning in this school? In what classrooms are they not learning? Why? What interventions are in place to target the students and the classrooms where students are not learning? What is working? What isn't? How do we know? What do we do about it? These are not just questions for the beginning of the year and the end of the year when the test scores are published. These questions are the stuff of weekly leadership team meetings, faculty meetings, and grade level planning sessions. Principals who lead are present when the questions are asked, present to hear and contribute to the responses, and present when interventions are suggested . "Drive by” principal participation at leadership meetings is not leadership.

Our perceptions of the circumstances in which we find ourselves can be the greatest obstacles to choosing and making time for what is important. When our perception tells us, "If I don't do it, it won't get done,” we try to do everybody's job, leaving no time to do what only we can do—provide principal leadership for the school. If our perception tells us, "These teachers do not know how to teach and they don't care,” we cloud the thinking that made us successful teachers.

When we got students who didn't know and didn't care, we taught them and engaged them. What we did made the difference. Just as good teaching makes the difference with children, so does good leadership with a faculty. If our perceptions tells us, "I can't do this because...,” we shut down. Leadership means finding a way to meet the needs. It means talking with other principals, working with the community to know what other resources can be tapped, or even being the nuisance that gets folks in the district office to give you what you need just to shut you up. Leadership means seeing obstacles as opportunities. Some leaders even get an adrenalin high from the excitement of tackling the next big obstacle, knowing that strength and wisdom come from doing battle to get what you need for your students.

Running around, reacting to the crises of the day is not leading a school toward an acceptable standard of literacy. Modeling good bus duty, cafeteria monitoring, and clerical skills is not leading a school toward an acceptable standard of literacy. Burning the midnight oil to complete reports is not leading a school toward an acceptable standard of literacy. Being so busy that you're inaccessible to faculty, other principals, your colleagues in the Cornerstone network; too busy for opportunities for your own growth and development; and too busy to build professional, productive relationships with your faculty will not lead a school toward an acceptable standard of literacy. Working hard gets stuff done, but if it is not the right stuff—the really important stuff—it is not leadership.