The school year is well underway. Opening day is a memory, and everyone has settled into the routine. Regardless of the kind of school you lead, where it's located, or how long you've been in charge, there are some constants that come with leading a school. It's an intense, highly interactive position, and you spend a lot of the day reacting to people and situations. No matter how well you plan or how hard you work, your to-do list doesn't get any shorter. You leave work each day a bit later than you'd like, but you take solace in knowing that your teachers are effective and students are learning. Your efforts are paying off, and so far it's a good school year.
There are problems, of course; no school is perfect (not even mine!). The major problems are visible to everyone. Perhaps student achievement must rise, there need to be fewer disciplinary actions, and we need to make our cafeteria a less threatening place. These concerns may have been the topic of the August inservice training, discussed at faculty or board meetings, or even noted in the local newspaper or social media. They are part of the community consciousness.
In a nonintuitive way, major problems are the easy ones. Because they're so significant, a team effort is required for their solution; they require collaboration, and getting everyone aligned to work together becomes integral to success. That doesn't happen without a lot of work—determining solutions is much harder than identifying the problem—but the severity and visibility of major problems set the stage for coordinated and forceful efforts. By now, you've framed the issue and formed the team, and a lot of activity has already taken place. Full speed ahead! Everything is good, right? Not so fast.
When you're making progress on major problems, it's easy to overlook the minor problems. But that would be a major mistake. Because teachers are the most important variable in determining the quality of a child's education, those minor problems are frequently personnel problems. These aren't the quasi-public personnel problems, those that are discussed by parents at soccer games or by colleagues in the teachers' lounge. They're the personnel problems that you can see but that aren't obvious to everyone.
There's Diana, a teacher who usually does what's expected but not much more. She's been around forever, and everyone shrugs and says, "That's Diana." Larry is a good teacher but a terrible team member. He's not interested in sharing ideas, and his under-the-breath remarks impair any group or committee with which he works. For Krissy, the glass is always 90 percent empty. She finds the flaws in every student and never fails to express her disappointment and translate this into low expectations.
What to do? Start working on these hidden problems by identifying three teachers whose attitude could benefit from your attention. Be realistic about what you can accomplish: Your goal isn't to make them stars (although that would be nice); rather, it's to confront them with the issues and start them on a trajectory to improvement. They probably won't have made as much progress as you'd like by the time contracts are renewed and evaluations are written, but they should have at least accepted the need to change and made positive steps.
Next, set one-on-one meetings with them. You'll always have too much to do, so schedule them now for a date in the next two weeks. Begin the meetings by acknowledging the good work they've done and let them know that you appreciate that teaching is not an easy job. Then tell them your concern; be specific and have two or three examples that illustrate your point. They will need time to absorb this, so set a time to meet again within a week to design a plan. This plan should contain specific steps, and it should indicate how you both will know that they are succeeding. The teachers need to understand that improvement is more than a suggestion; it's an expectation.
Chances are, you could create the plan and identify the measures of success. But teachers are far more likely to grow if they feel some ownership of the process. Thus, it's much better if they develop a plan and you approve it or if you develop the plan together. Be sure to set up periodic meetings so you can review progress and talk about what should happen next. This plan should be an important part of the teachers' summative evaluations, and continuing improvement efforts should be part of the goals that they set next September.
In the spring, you can enjoy the applause and sense of satisfaction from the progress that your school is making on the major problems. Student achievement will be up, student discipline cases will be down, and everyone will be smiling. Beyond that, the improvement in these three teachers' performance will be making a difference, too. Your willingness to focus on these less-public problems will change these teachers' lives and benefit their students. After all, those minor problems are major, too.
