Central Matters

HelpDesk for the Central Office Administrator

leadership

How To Implement A Growth Mindset In Schools

by

Introducing and Supporting Growth Mindset strategies

creeping phlox and grwoth mindset
Photo by author. Purple creeping Phlox on a bank.

Last fall I realized that if I wanted to continue to build this website and start a new site based on making and crafting, I would need to take my own photos and videos.  The prospect both excited and mildly distressed me.  And it gave me an opportunity to see how the growth mindset worked in my life.

In a show of support, my husband bought me a digital camera for Christmas.  I had never owned one.  In fact, I had no idea what all the buttons and screens would do!  How could I ever take photos good enough to put online?   (cue the distress)

I began immediately taking some online classes.  But I knew I needed more.  So I signed up for two beginning photography classes at the nearby Southwestern Community College.

One of the biggest lessons that I have learned is that I must take a lot of pictures in order to become proficient.  I’m dating myself here, but I am from the film era, where every click of the shutter meant money for processing.  

Taking lots of photos was exciting, but was hard to do because I had to constantly remind myself that it wasn’t costing me anything more to take all the photos!  

The classes are over, but I’m still taking photos.  I know my camera and the quality of my photos have increased.  There were many reasons – some good, some not so good – over those first few months to quit learning about photography.  But I knew that I could up my photography skills if I would just keep with it.  That’s the growth mindset.

Quick Review

In the What Is A Growth Mindset? article, which you can read here or here, I explain that a growth mindset is one where you believe that through effort and persistence you can improve your skills or performance.

A fixed mindset, however, is one where you believe that your skill or ability is ‘fixed’ and no amount of effort or practice can improve your situation.

How Does The Growth Mindset Look In Schools?

I believe that it is important that districts implement a growth mindset in schools.  Why?  Because if students are taught to approach learning with a growth mindset, then teachers will be supporting their students in developing their potential.

Implementation

So what does the professional development for a growth mindset initiative look like?  It’s important to establish a common foundation of knowledge around a growth mindset for all your teachers and administrators.  Your district or schools may already have a mechanism for how to do this.

One way is to provide basic training in a traditional way.  You can provide workshops or hire a consultant who can provide your educators with the fundamental concepts underlying the topic.

For your convenience, this post contains affiliate links which means I may make a commission, but it won’t cost you any more.  See my full disclosure policy here.

Another way – and perhaps a better vehicle for getting everyone on the same page – is to do a book study on Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset:  The New Psychology of Success (affiliate link).  Many schools utilize their existing professional learning communities (PLCs) or teams for book studies.  

An important question to ask is what do you really expect teachers (and principals) to do with their new knowledge of growth mindset?  When you visit classrooms, what would you expect to see?  

Solutions to these questions should be developed in conjunction with teachers and administrators.  This information should be communicated clearly to all educators.  Teachers also need resources and support for strong implementation.

Strategies for teachers

I think it would be difficult, if not impossible, for a teacher to truly implement a growth mindset in the classroom without having adopted a growth mindset.  As Dweck says, “…a good teacher is one who continues to learn along with the students (205).”

Don’t get me wrong.  Teaching is difficult work, and we can’t approach every minute with a growth mindset.  Mindset is fluid, and while most people tend to lean toward one more than the other, they sometimes move between a growth and a fixed mindset.

But it is important for teachers to model a growth mindset.  And when things aren’t going well, students really need to see their teachers and administrators persisting despite the difficulties.

(Honestly, I think students witnessed educators struggling, persisting, and growing this school year, 2020-2021, more than any other).

Train educators to be explicit about what they are doing.  Educators should show their thinking and teach students to do the same. 

In her book, Dweck writes about praise.  Teachers praise students every day, but Dweck discusses particular ways to praise.  Educators may need to re-learn how to praise.  

In a growth mindset, we should praise students’ processes, not their intelligence or talent (fixed mindset).  On page 178, Dweck writes that the praising of process encourages motivation, but praising intelligence or talent discourages motivation.

Don’t fall into the trap of praising effort, especially when the effort wasn’t particularly successful.  Dweck talks about this ‘false growth mindset’ in a 2016 interview with Christine Gross-Loh in The Atlantic (affiliate link).

Strategies for students

Teachers can help students develop a ‘not yet’ attitude about their learning.  Rather than feeling like they have failed when they didn’t meet a standard or complete a project appropriately, students will know they just need a little more time to develop the skills or improve the project.

This strategy is closely related to the idea of failing forward.  Each attempt builds on the knowledge and skills gained from the previous attempt.  It is this successive building that leads to acquiring new skills and knowledge.  

Support for Growth Mindset Initiatives

Districts should provide educators with the parameters and expectations for a growth mindset iniaties.  But it is important to provide teachers with the appropriate support.  That support can be additional training, coaching, and resources.  

Similarly, teachers and administrators should provide students with appropriate support.  We should have high standards for students, but we must show students the path to them.  

Summary and Next Steps

To implement a growth mindset in schools requires a well-developed plan.  The plan should include these components:

  • Provide preliminary or introductory training (e.g., book study in PLCs)
  • Provide teachers with strategies
  • Provide students with specific strategies
  • Provide teachers and students with specific support.

So what’s next?  Central Office leaders can continue to support schools in their implementation of a growth mindset initiative.  And through modeling it themselves!

growth mindset and flower picture

Although my beginner photography classes are over, I have not YET mastered all I want and need to know about taking photos for my website.  But I know my growth mindset will help to get me there, as I am looking at other training opportunities.  And of course, I am still taking lots of photos!

Have you started a growth mindset initiative in your school or district?  If so, I would love to hear about it.  Drop me a comment below.

If you are just starting your growth mindset initiative, an infographic can be helpful.  Check out my growth vs. fixed mindset infographic in my Resource Library.  

Effective Educational Leadership Amid a Pandemic

by

Educational Leaders Should Double-down on Key Skills

educational leadership
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Educational leadership is tough.  I have always had a lot of respect for leaders of school districts and other organizations that are willing to step in and do whatever work needs to be done for their organization.  

I’m talking about a superintendent demonstrating effective educational leadership by picking up trash that escaped from a garbage can as she walks a campus.  Or a leader who pitches in at a company concession stand or fills in on the mail run when a staff member is absent.

Or this –  during blustery early spring days in a pandemic, a superintendent works beside other district staff including school food service workers, greeting parents, providing breakfast and hot lunches, and giving additional learning activities, as parents drive through a pick-up line.

Educational Leadership Playbook?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, uncertainty has been king.  While district leaders handle some ambiguity daily in education, certain things have always seemed inviolate.  


Until this past spring, most educational leaders would have said that the school calendar remained relatively stable throughout the year without long-term closures.  And state and federal testing?  No way would a district be able to eliminate that piece of accountability.

But both of those things happened for most school districts in spring 2020.  

And through the summer months, most principals and central office administrators worked feverishly to develop reopening plans that covered various scenarios.

educational leadership

While we wrestle with the puzzle of pandemic reopening plans, we can take a tiny bit of consolation knowing that every district leader is experiencing the same challenges and uncertainties.

While we don’t have a tried and true educational leadership playbook to help us (though we will have some by the time we work our way through this pandemic), our North stars can help us lead through these challenges.

So how do we provide the leadership that our districts need right now?

I wrote about leading during a pandemic in Navigating Our Work in the Age of Coronavirus.  You can also find the article on Medium.

Educational Leadership and Safety Above All

School is about education, right?  But even in pre-pandemic times, before teaching and learning, a district’s primary goal is to keep its students, faculty, and staff safe.  

During a pandemic, district leaders must double-down on health and safety.  If you have at-risk staff members, find a way to minimize exposure.  Remote working, while not ideal, maybe the best option.

Work with local health officials to determine what is best for students.  Should you plan to bring all students to school with certain safety protocols in place?  Will you need to reduce the numbers present each day by implementing a hybrid (A group day/B group day)?  Are the local indicators pointing to a remote-only option?

Determine your metrics and protocols.  Share widely, and do not be afraid to revise as new information is made available.  We are learning organizations, after all, so educational leaders should model how new information can refine a district’s perspective.

Don’t forget the psychological safety of your staff and students, too. Be upfront about the decisions being made.

Do everything you can to keep your campuses safe, ensuring the well-being of students and staff.  This doesn’t mean that no one will contract COVID-19, but we must take what steps we can to keep everyone safe.

Many districts are about a month or so into the new school year, and some of them are already transitioning between plans.  For example, some districts that began the year as remote-only are now moving toward a hybrid plan.  

Educational Leaders Maintain Focus

Keep your attention targeted on your true North.  

  • What is the district vision?  How has it changed because of the pandemic (if it did)?
  • What is the next milestone? (closing year, developing summer programs, re-opening schools)

As a district leader, you still have the responsibility to work toward your district’s vision.  The pandemic probably hasn’t changed the vision, though your mission may have altered slightly.

Effective educational leadership mans maintaining focus on the district’s vision and mission even during difficult times.  Especially during tough times.

The key is to determine if your mission (how you are going to achieve the vision) needs to be adapted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Do that by reviewing your milestones and tasks.

What do you need to accomplish next to keep your vision real?

For example, at the messy end of the school year, what does the district need to have in place to keep the vision of the district in focus?  Perhaps you need to look at your summer programming.  

What needs to remain?  What needs to be tossed?  Where can you pivot?  What can you do now to help with reopening in the fall?

In my district, we pivoted one program to a virtual environment, we postponed one program, and we added a new virtual program.  

These decisions have helped position my district to have a stronger remote reopening plan for the fall.  And we were able to maintain the district’s focus – even if how we worked toward the vision changed.

Form a Response Team

Tough times often cause the best leaders to forget a basic tenet of effective educational leadership.  One thing that has been obvious to me through the pandemic is that we can’t do it alone.

The COVID-19 situation is a complex one.  Complex problems need a team.

A complex problem means that there are many moving parts.  One person can’t corral all the parts.  

Districts have had to work through foodservice and distribution issues, pivoting to remote learning, developing hybrid plans (A/B days), working with local health departments, participating in emergency management meetings, purchasing sanitizing supplies, adding temperature stations and kiosks, creating signage and direction markers, closing areas of buildings, and the list goes on.

To lead effectively during a crisis with these different aspects of a situation, a leader needs a good team.  And members of the team will have their own leadership skills tested during this time.

From this team designate a point person to stay on top of official updates.  This person might be an Assistant or Associate Superintendent or she might be a PIO (Public Information Officer) if the district is lucky enough to have one.

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, information was flowing quickly from some sources.  A point person to attend to official communications from the CDC, local health departments, emergency management teams, and departments of public instruction are critical to a district’s successful response to the situation.

New and Junior Educational Leaders

If you are a new or junior central office administrator, then you are likely to be a member of the response team.  While you will undoubtedly have specific tasks assigned to you, remember three things to help the district through the crisis.

  • Support the team.  You support the team by doing your part AND helping others when you can.  

Most of us have found ourselves out of our regular lanes during the past several months.  It’s fine if you are now hopping on a bus to deliver meals, even if you normally would be working on the academic side of things.

  • Volunteer.   This item goes along with working outside your normal lane as I mentioned above.  Undoubtedly, the COVID-19 pandemic has created new and interesting tasks for districts – activities that had never been assigned to a department or staff member.  

Volunteer to write the report or the protocol.  Volunteer to tape up the water fountains or hang signage.  

Take the initiative and volunteer for whatever needs to be done.

  • Encourage others.  At the beginning of the pandemic, I saw many people who were frightened and confused.  And rightly so.  

Life turned upside down overnight, and we had no answers to most of our questions. We need to take care of our people by encouraging them and extending grace.

Now that we are several months into the pandemic, we have acclimated to some degree to all the changes.  But we are still wrestling with questions that have no good answers, we are still nervous and unsure, but most of all, we are tired!

We must be encouraging to others in our district, even when we don’t feel so upbeat ourselves.  This is a great time to lead by example. 

For more information on educational leadership, see 3 Educational Leadership Lessons for Beginners.

Communication and Educational Leadership

All organizations should communicate with their employees about major events and shifts.  School districts are no different; we should be communicating with our faculty and staff on a regular basis.

Where we do differ from many organizations is that we have more stakeholder groups, namely parents, students, and the community.  Effective educational leadership means that district leaders communicate regularly with all these groups, especially in a time of crisis.

Districts that communicate often and with clarity build trust with their stakeholders.  During the early days of the pandemic, it was helpful to our community to share district information AND other pertinent information from local emergency management, health department, and the CDC.   

During the spring closure, one district’s Public Information Officer took to Facebook Live EVERY day to keep in touch with its students and families.  Some days he might have lots of information to share.  Other days, he might only have the drive-through lunch menu to relate.

But he shared consistently.  And the community learned to expect his announcements.  It kept them in touch with the school during a time when most people felt cut off from their communities.

Use your lines of communication (e.g., social media, texts, newspaper) to support district policies and procedures.  Many districts developed new procedures during the pandemic in the spring and these lines of communication kept everyone informed.

Don’t get too reliant on one means.  For example, don’t push your communication only on the district’s Facebook page.  While most people have Facebook, many do not use it.  Older grandparents who may be a student’s guardian sometimes prefer a phone call.  

Know how your stakeholders would prefer to receive information from the district and push it through those communication channels.

Practice Two-Way Communication

It is also important to remember that communication needs to be two-way.  Districts are usually excellent at pushing information out, but do you have the means to receive communication and feedback?

Don’t waste a good opportunity.

Remember the example above of the superintendent who carried meals to parents in a drive-through pick-up line?  He did not waste this opportunity.

No.  Instead he used it to gather information from parents about how they were doing as a family, how students were doing with remote work, and if there were any issues facing the families where the school might be poised to help.

It was also a time for the superintendent to learn whether any new procedures were unclear and how to improve messaging.  

effective educational leadership

Educational Leadership Amid a Pandemic Recap

Leading during a pandemic or other crisis is not easy.  Leaders keep moving forward, chipping away at what must be done for students and staff.

There isn’t a new skill set that has to be learned (Okay, maybe Facebook Live isn’t your thing….yet).  Rather it is time to double-down on those skills that will allow you to navigate the crisis and build trust and goodwill with your community.

  • Health and safety first
  • Focus on the vision (the what) and how the mission (the how) may have changed
  • Form a response team
    • Know your role on the team
  • Communicate consistently
Want More Resources?
Would you like more resources to help you with your district leadership journey?  Check out my resource library of checklists, infographics, ebooks, and more. 

3 Lessons on Educational Leadership for Beginners

by

An Introduction to Educational Leadership

Thankfully, when I first came to the central office, it was during the summer.  Those couple of summer months provided me with valuable time to grapple with the idea that I was now in a district leadership role and to begin my educational leadership journey.

educational leadership development
Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash

But first a simple definition.  A leader is someone who provides direction and support for a group or organization.  A leader often shares a vision of could be and marshals support for it.  

Educational leadership is providing these skills in an educational setting such as a K-12 district.  

Educational Leadership or Management?

One of the first lessons I learned was the difference between managing and leading.  Yes, I knew this already, and you probably do, too.  But until I put it into practice, the differences did not seem that big.

I was hired into my central office position to manage a couple of programs, specifically state testing and grant writing.  But leadership was also expected.

As a coordinator, I needed to manage my program, so that it ran smoothly.  Determine what had to be done and how it should be done.  I had to communicate that to our schools.  

I managed all aspects of the program so that it would continue to move forward.  As a coordinator and manager, it was my responsibility to ensure that the daily work – whatever that entails – continued.  

For more on creating collaborative agendas, read 2 Productivity and Collaboration Tips.

All of this is management.  You can be great at it, but still not be a leader.

However, leaders must have managerial skills to move a department or district forward.

Visionary

Taking the step from manager to leader often involves a change in vision.  Solid managers often focus on what’s in front of them or what it takes to keep the train on the tracks.  The leader looks beyond what’s here to scour all the locations that the train could go.

 

A leader must see what’s possible for the district and be able to communicate that possible future.

In addition, a central office leader must have situational awareness to know whether the destination is a good fit for the district.  Is the staff poised to move in this direction?  Will the community embrace the move or resist it?  How will it work financially?

Now that we have a working definition of educational leadership, what lessons do central office administrators need to learn early in their careers?

Educational Leadership Changes Perspective

A change in vision for a leader may also mean a change in perspective.  

District Leadership Perspective

When you are a teacher, your perspective and responsibility are to your classroom or classes.  You lobby and advocate for what you believe to be best for your students.  

When you become a principal, your perspective changes to what you believe to be best for the school.  Your perspective widens to include all students in the school.

Would you like more resources to help you with your district leadership journey?  Check out my resource library of checklists, infographics, ebooks, and more. 

When you move to the central office, your perspective widens to take in all the schools, all the students in the district.  

A teacher may want to purchase a specific book for her students because she believes it would best meet their needs at the moment.  A principal might be considering a different book because she believes it will meet the needs of an entire grade level, and thus strengthen the overall school.

What will a district leader be thinking?  If we choose option 1, then that will meet some of the needs for the elementary curriculum and will make some of the teachers there happy.  But if we choose that option, how will that support the secondary program in a few years?

 

As a central office administrator, your perspective must be broader than a classroom, grade level/department, or school.

District leaders must also develop a long-range perspective.  What are the implications in 5 years?  10 years?

Be cognizant of the fact that your objectivity might be compromised when you first come to the district office.  This is because you have a comprehensive understanding of the situation where you were.  You know it best.   

Don’t worry about it, just be aware of it.  Take the time to analyze situations from all directions.

Department or Program Leadership

If you are new to your role and the central office, take a little time to understand how your department or program was run before you arrived.  

What type of leadership did the previous director or coordinator have?  What are the strengths of the department?  Where do the challenges lie?

Don’t be afraid of how long this may take.  To get a true understanding of how a department runs, you may have to listen to a lot of folks and review a lot of work.  

Spend time with the staff in your department or program.  What are their thoughts on what’s working best (or worst) and why?

If you are in a small district, you may be a department of one.  But even if you are the entire central office testing department staff for the district, you can talk with the school level folks who carry out the district’s testing program in their respective schools.

If you are the entire curriculum department, you could talk to school-level instructional coaches or principals about the needs of the department.

And don’t forget to have these conversations with your director or Assistant Superintendent.  Your immediate supervisor can provide insight and provide guidance when you decide a change is needed.

Start Small

Many of us have watched new leaders come into a district and immediately begin making changes before they have taken the time to understand their departments or programs.  They didn’t take time to listen to their folks or review data.

3 Lessons on Educational Leadership

They felt the need to put their leadership stamp on the department and began making changes right away.

This does not usually end well for the new leader, and it is a struggle for all those affected.  Namely everyone in the district.

Start with small changes once you’ve done your homework on the department.  By then you will be able to articulate why the change is being made, and small changes are more palatable than sweeping change.

Start Building Educational Leadership Skills Now

Your graduate program should have covered some of the basics of leadership.  Now is the time to apply that book knowledge. 

If your master’s work did not cover leadership development, then you need to do some reading and listening.  I have a couple of names to get you started.

For your convenience, this post contains affiliate links which means I may make a commission, but it won’t cost you any more.

If you haven’t read any of Michael Fullan’s  (affiliate link) work, start there.  Fullan has written extensively on leadership.  

My friend and colleague, Dr. Lisa Younce at Perseverance Wins, especially likes Fullan because he shows you what to do and then gives you the theory.  Many books present theory first and provide little in the way of application.

Check out Simon Sinek’s work, too.  He is probably most popular for his TedTalk called How Great Leaders Inspire Action.  In addition to his books, including a new picture book, check out Sinek’s podcast.

Ongoing Education

Don’t think a cursory or basic understanding of how to lead programs, departments, or districts is enough.  The most effective leaders keep honing their leadership skills each year.  

Discover a way to continue your learning in Becoming Google Certified Educators.

Make leadership development a focus of your Professional Growth/Development Plan.  If it doesn’t fit with your district’s official framework, then make it a part of your personal growth plan.

Great leaders are continually learning and making changes based on their knowledge and experience.  Ongoing learning is one of the traits of authentic leaders explored in Amy Kan’s “4 Traits of Highly Authentic Leaders.”

Observe Other Leaders

You also need some practical education on leadership.  Start by observing other leaders in your district.  

How do other coordinators and directors provide leadership for the district?  How do they run meetings?  What communication skills work for them?  What is not working?

It is also important to observe leaders outside of your district.  Take time to notice how central office administrators interact with their teams when at regional meetings or at conferences.  How do they describe their processes?

Look outside of education, too.  What are some effective leadership skills from executives in other professions?  How are they leading their departments and organizations?

Don’t focus on the big-name organizations like Google or Berkshire Hathaway only, but look locally.  What organizations in your community have effective leaders?  What can you learn from them?

Takeaways

Central office leadership is multifaceted.  Three lessons that we all need to learn are

  • Knowing the difference between managing and leading
  • Broadening your perspective to include the whole district – all schools, all students, all staff
  • Developing leadership skills is on-going and includes observing leadership in action, inside and outside of education

Eight Best Interview Questions to ask prospective candidates

by

Eight Best Interview Questions for District Administrators

Interviewing prospective candidates

In education, as in other professions, one key to hiring the right person for a position is asking the best interview questions.  Are you using the same tired question list as you used ten years ago to hire the best people for your school district? I hope not.  But if so, I am sharing some of the best interview questions that I have found to help school district leaders determine the best candidate for a position.

I have to be honest.  I have a love/hate relationship with interviewing prospective candidates for a position.  Sometimes the process can be boring and tedious, and I begin thinking about all the other things I need to do.  

Some of these less than stellar interviews were with people who I knew were dynamic and smart people.  More importantly, I knew these people would be a good fit for the district. But after a lackluster interview, it is hard to convince others that this candidate is the best choice.

Other interviews, though, are lively and interesting.  In fact, a good interview can be quite enjoyable.

Ask the best interview questions

So how can you do your part as a district administrator to ensure that the interview provides the team with knowledge they need to make a good decision about the candidate AND is enjoyable to all involved?  Asking better interview questions is key!

Many districts have used the same list of questions for decades, or someone hastily scrawled some questions just before the interview begins.  Neither way is going to result in a productive and enjoyable interview.

New Roles Need New Questions

One reason that the same tired old question list won’t work any longer is because often the roles we are trying to fill have changed even if the titles have remained the same.  

The teacher role provides a good example.  The type of teacher I want to hire today is different from the type of teacher I needed ten or fifteen years ago.  Back then, if a teacher candidate liked technology, we felt like that was something extra that she was bringing to the district.  

Today, not only do we need teachers who are comfortable with technology, but they need to be adept at integrating it into their classrooms in authentic ways.

Think about how so many positions in K-12 education have changed over the past several years.  Technology is an area that has seen tremendous change – both on the instructional side and the infrastructure side.  The expertise and attitudes needed in these positions have changed as the demands in the field have changed. Expertise is certainly needed, but the right candidate also needs to be an innovative thinker and able to manage multiple projects.

Before developing better interview questions, you must determine exactly what you need this person to do, what knowledge and skills he should have.  Re-visiting the job description is a must. Once you’ve done that, then developing the questions from there should not be a huge challenge.

Freshen Up Your Interview Questions

I recently read Dona DeZube’s article, Are Your Interview Questions Soggy or Fresh?  I must admit that my team was guilty of asking some of the soggy and cliched questions that she identified.  DeZube provides some great alternatives to these tried, but not so true, questions. Use her suggestions to gather the information that will indicate how well the candidate might perform in the role.

I especially like how she tweaks the “tell me about a challenge you’ve overcome” question.  What we really want to know is how a person might handle the type of challenges that the she is likely to face in the position.  So we should give her an example of a challenge that she might face, and ask how she would handle it.

For example, you might ask a potential instructional coach how they would handle a teacher who refuses to utilize student data when planning.  

Or you might ask an IT Director candidate how they would handle requests from and provide support to teachers, especially those who are innovators with technology.

Authentic Questions

Both of these examples involve authentic situations that the candidate is likely to encounter in the position.  Pay close attention to the answers the candidates provide to these types of questions. Their answer can tell the interview team what their level of expertise is, how current they are on the research in the field, how creative they are, what their leadership style is, and how well they know the district – its culture as well as its initiatives.

Be careful of how you weight the various skills that a person brings to the table.  Again, this is a decision that is best made by the interview team BEFORE interviewing the first candidate.  For example, is expertise more important that collaboration skills for the position? If you choose someone with the best technical skill, but few collaboration skills, you are setting yourself up for disappointment if the position requires a great deal of teamwork.

Think about a teacher position.  Yes, as educators, we want teachers with a great deal of expertise in delivering curriculum and instruction.  However, teachers must also be good collaborators in order to be effective within their department or grade block PLC.  

Without collaboration skills, this teacher will hinder the school’s or district’s forward progress if they do not attend meetings or don’t contribute in a positive way when attending.

The same idea is true when hiring administrators, whether principals or central office administrators.  Much of my work in the central office involves and relies on teams. So when I am hiring a director, for example, I want someone with great skill in the area (e.g., knowledge of Special Education programs and law, technical expertise in Information Technologies) of responsibility, but I also need someone who knows how to work as a member of a team.  

I also find it helpful to know if a prospective hire can fulfil various roles on the team.  Not everyone is comfortable in the role of team leader, but can the candidate lead the team, if necessary?  

Eight Best Interview Questions for District Administrators
Eight (8) Fresh Interview Questions for District Administrators to Ask During Interviews.

Sample Questions For Best Interviews

I’ve listed a few questions below that could be useful in interviewing applicants.  These questions provide the candidate with the opportunity to discuss areas that will be important in fulfilling the responsibilities of the role.  More importantly, the applicant’s answers give you insight into whether or not the candidate will be a good fit for your district.

For central office administrators:

  1. Tell us about a collaborative project that you were involved in.  What was your role? What made it successful/unsuccessful?
  2. How would you go about pulling together a team for a new project (or use a specific district project like a 1:1 initiative)?
  3. Our school district’s vision is ___________.  How would you provide leadership for your department to support that vision?
  4. Our major initiative is ____________.  What do you know about it, and how will you support the initiative?  

For teachers:

  1. What is your experience with ____________ (district’s major initiative)?  How would you implement it in your classroom?
  2. Tell us about a time when you unsuccessfully integrated technology into a lesson.  What did you learn?
  3. What does a high functioning department/grade block look like?  How do you view your role in your department/grade block?
  4. What topic or area in education interests you most now?  How are you exploring it?

Better Interview Questions, Better Hiring Decisions

These are not the only questions to ask the candidate, of course.  You (or your Human Resources department) have your list of questions that cover specific job-related items that you need to ask during the interview.  But save some time during the interview to incorporate these four questions above and gain insight into how this candidate sees herself fitting into the district or school and to see if she has the attitudes that will mesh well with your district.  

And be sure to check the district list of questions against DeZube’s list of soggy vs. fresh list.  You might find that your list is soggy, but you might also discover that your list pretty dang fresh.

Eight Best Interview Questions for District Administrators

What questions have you found most useful (or least helpful) during interviews?  Let me know in the comments section.

If you enjoyed this post, please share!

Want to know about new resources I discover?  Join my email list below. I won’t spam you, but I will send you interesting items that I find and freebies that I create.

Welcome to Central Matters!

by

Have you noticed that teachers have quite a few online resources to support their work, and principals have resources and networks upon which they can call as well?  Central office administrators, however, have few.

But Central MATTERS, and as central office administrators we handle a lot of MATTERS.

Coordinators, directors, and assistant superintendents need more online resources to help them with their daily work, I think.  

Over the years that I have been a central office administrator, I have often been tasked with creating new programs or implementing new initiatives.  So where to start?  Often, I spent a lot of time in research, trying to learn all that I could and find best practices around my project.

Other times, I wasn’t starting a new project, but an existing one needed a re-start or overhaul.  I have often found myself looking for better ways of doing something that we typically have to do each year –  a better way to deliver test training or streamlining the school improvement process for example.

Sometimes a principal or instructional coach has asked for information on a specific topic or issue.  As CO administrators, our role is to support principals, teachers, and schools.  We are often their ‘on-the-spot’ resource center.

Few of us arrive in the central office with much experience in most of the areas that we will be called upon to provide support.  Really, how could we have expertise in all the areas we may be asked to support or provide leadership?  

But what about our graduate programs, you ask.  Did we not learn what we needed to know through those many months of toil?  My answer is no, not really.  

Don’t get me wrong.  I am not knocking our Higher Education partners, because I do believe that most graduate programs will prepare us for leadership roles from a big picture perspective.  For example, a Master’s in Education program will provide an educator with an understanding of the broader ideas in education, what is involved in being an educational leader, but the program will probably not yield explicit knowledge and skills for someone who must manage the day-to-day responsibilities of an accountability program or a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) program.

The real education begins once you are in the position, and you realize there are some nuts and bolts that must be assembled – every. single. day.

Those of us from small school districts often have the ‘multiple hats’ problem, too.  In larger districts, central office administrators tend to have one main area of responsibility.  Administrators in smaller districts might direct multiple program areas. Sometimes we must take off one hat (e.g., curriculum) and don another (e.g., testing).  

I call this the central office shuffle. Okay, maybe I only call it that in my head, but I bet a lot of you know exactly what I am talking about here.  Each day we must decide which department, program area, or project has the immediate need and prioritize our to-do list accordingly.  The struggle is real.  

Because of our varied responsibilities, we sometimes lack the time to research a topic, program, or process.  Staying on top of the periodicals and education newsletters that pertain to our areas of responsibility is daunting.  I know some of you out there have a messy stack of Education Week issues on your desk, touched only when you carried them from the mail room to your office.  No?  Maybe it is just me then.   

Often, it would help just to know what our colleagues in other districts do.  Central office administrators often work without the support of a learning network, especially in smaller districts.  

I have found that the best information often comes from others who have already tackled a similar project.

Listening to and learning from my colleagues in other districts is rewarding for me personally and extremely helpful to me professionally.  I enjoy local and regional job-alike meetings, as well as state and national conferences.

I do not purport to know much, but if the little that I have learned in the past thirteen years in the central office can help a colleague, then I am happy to share what I’ve learned, both successes and those pesky ‘opportunities.’    And I look forward to learning from you, too!