Systemic assistant principal/dean of students supports for Cecil County Public Schools

Abstract

This Education Leadership Portfolio (ELP) will address the problem of too few systemic supports for newly appointed Elementary Assistant Principals (APs) and Deans of Students (DsoS) in Cecil County Public Schools (CCPS) to prepare and train for effectiveness. In CCPS, some schools employ a DoS to support the principal and this difference will be explained in further detail. Newly appointed APs and DsoS often struggle to fully grasp the AP/DoS role because its job description varies among schools and changes daily (Goldring et al, 2021; Kwan & Walker, 2012; Williams et al., 2020). The improvement goal to address this problem focuses on collecting data to understand the degree of AP and DoS preparedness and training for effectiveness and providing recommendations to support areas of need. To accomplish this goal, I gained an understanding of current strengths and weaknesses of newly appointed APs/DsoS through a survey of current APs/DsoS and current principals, conducted a literature review, and reviewed feedback from CCPS Leadership Academy participants. Next, I developed some resources aligned to the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL) standards. Lastly, I communicated my findings to principals and the CCPS leadership team to better support newly appointed APs and DsoS. ☐ I learned that newly appointed APs/DsoS reported a variety of needs from their perspective as did current principals—both of these sets of perceptions became clear through surveys, an analysis of CCPS Leadership Academy feedback, and were then substantiated by a host of scholarly literature in the review I conducted. Aspiring leaders who participated in the CCPS Leadership Academy wanted to learn from current leaders in various departments because they perceived themselves as having limited knowledge about human resources, business services, and various departments which support schools. The principal and AP/DoS survey provided insight to areas of strengths and weaknesses connected to PSEL standards. This provided an idea of areas in which CCPS may provide additional professional learning. When identifying effective methods of support, all APs/DoS wanted to collaborate with or problem solve with their principal to learn more about the position. The literature review affirmed that the AP role is the most ill-defined role of all school administrative positions, primarily because it is directed by the principal and varies among school communities (Barnett et al., 2012; Goldring et al., 2021; Kwan & Walker, 2012; Williams et al., 2023). ☐ The second improvement strategy focused on creating resources that could systemically support newly appointed APs/DsoS to CCPS. First, I created a self-assessment (Artifact 5) that would guide discussion between APs/DsoS and their supervisors to identify strengths and weaknesses. When beginning a new job, it can be hard to know what to ask when one has increased responsibility or the nature of the job is ambiguous (Cohen & Schechter, 2019) Next, I created a Fieldbook (Artifact7), organized by PSEL standards, to provide resources that are easy to locate. Lastly, I created a Mentorship Initiative Toolkit (Artifact 8) that will support the conversation to have regular check-ins throughout the year. ☐ The third strategy included creating a white paper to share with current principals and the CCPS leadership team to share highlights of data collection, areas of needed professional development, and strategies to support newly appointed APs/DsoS. These improvement strategies were developed to align to the problem statement of this ELP. Each improvement strategy addresses the problem of too few systemic support for newly appointed APs/DsoS in CCPS.