Where is the Village? Part 6 -- School Administrators

School administrators, the principal and assistant principals, are the leaders of the school. They work as a team to tend to the business of the school house and bring all of the stakeholders together support the school and educate its students. Nowadays, thanks to NCLB, school administrators are being pushed to the limit as they are being pressed by the LEA and the public to ensure their school is progressing successfully. Consequently, they are treated more like bureaucratic subordinates than leaders.

Don't get me wrong; there are some administrators who are dynamic risk-takers, natural-born leaders, and unconditionally supportive of their students and their school personnel. As of lately, especially in public schools, these types of administrators comes a dime a dozen. There are several things that irk me about some school administrators (based on my professional experiences):

• Being an administrator is more like an advancement than an opportunity to lead. There are teachers who desires to become an administrator to solely leave the classroom. With the move, they will have less paperwork and limited interaction with students while getting a bigger paycheck. According to some of my close colleagues who are administrators, you will work for every dime you earn; in addition, your workload will increase and job security will decrease.
• Administrators are becoming younger and younger, in age and in teaching experiences. In most states, to become an administrators, one will need 3-5 satisfactory years of teaching experiences. Are they serious? How are you going to appreciate the teaching profession when you are still learning your craft? I don't care how good you are; that's too short of a time period to build a career. Hell, in most states, you have to have 3 satisfactory years to get teacher tenure. In my opinion, the rules should be changed; to become an administrator requires 10+ satisfactory years of teaching experiences. Veteran teachers will have more respect for an administrator who has been in the trenches for a long while, not just for a few years.
• Administrators are central office's puppets. They have become bureaucratic micro-managers than leaders. They do what they are told by central office, instead of doing what they can to better serve their students and teachers under legal parameters.
• Administrators do not have their teachers' backs. Like some parents, administrators will take the immediate word of a child much quicker than they will of the teacher; they won't give their teachers the benefit of a doubt. In addition, administrators give in to the whims of the parents too easily to avoid lawsuits. Where is the administrative backbone? What happen to the principle of doing the right thing? What message are you sending to your students, faculty, and staff?
• Administrators lack people skills. With leadership position comes power and authority over others. And some administrators can be vindictive, verbally harsh, difficult, sneaky, back-stabbing, abrasive, non-supportive, and rude.  Some feel like they can be that way. Their power-tripping shenanigans can diminished positive school culture and destroy work morale.
• Administrators are half-stepping in their duties. One of my graduate professors, now a central office administrator, is a former school principal. In class, she always tell us this: If a school has a bad teacher and that teacher is still in the classroom, I will look first at the administrator. In other words, via ample class observations, evidence of professional support, and proper documentation, the administrators should have a strong case to have the teacher removed from the classroom, even with due process.
• Administrators are always at meetings, especially off campus. They are not as visible and accessible anymore like they need to be. Their presence in the school house is needed. It reassures the students, faculty, and staff that they are not alone in the trenches, as well as reaffirms their leadership status in the school.
• Administrators dismiss their humble roots. They forget where they come from. They forget how it feels to be in teachers' shoes. Thus, they become apathetic to the needs of teachers, which may affect the academic well-being of the students. Speaking of which, a good friend of mine who was also my administrative evaluator one school year shared his perspective on moving up the education ladder: You know how teachers always say "administrators forget where they came from"? Well, that's how we feel about those in central office; they forgot how it feels to work in the school house. Interesting observation...

Personally, I don't have the desire to become a school administrator; I am more afraid I will forget where I come from. Also, to become an administrator requires a teacher to obtain additional credentials which is time-consuming, expensive, and requires much work. The expertise gained should be used in leadership capacity. When will they be able to use their expertise when they are held accountable for school success? If the school fails, it is more of a reflection of the school administration. That's much pressure they can keep.