480 in the collection
Struggling principals targeted: Chicago schools plan gives them a year to improve or be fired
Ohanian Comment: There isn't enough information here for us to know what this means. I only know I identified with this lament--as I'm sure most educators in the country do: "There is enough pressure in schools today to kill all of us."
By Tracy Dell'Angela
The Chicago Public Schools system is proposing a new plan to help "deficient" principals, who will get about a year to improve their performance before facing the ax.
On Wednesday, the Board of Education is set to approve the policy, which creates a system of "support and remediation" for contract principals, who rarely are threatened with dismissal for performance because it is costly to break their four-year contracts.
The leader of the city's principal organization reacted with wary resignation, while school advocates said the proposal was another attempt to concentrate power in the central office while stripping authority from local school councils. Under state law, the councils are responsible for hiring and evaluating contract principals.
"There is enough pressure in schools today to kill all of us. I'm hoping this won't make it worse," said Clarice Berry, president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association.
"They have been cracking down for a while. We knew this policy was going to happen, so we got involved and tried to make it as palatable and fair as we could. We're concerned, and we're going to be watching."
The principals association worked with the district to create the policy because the association wanted to improve the growing practice of putting principals on "corrective action plans," which Berry believed did nothing to improve performance.
The principal crackdown started as a trickle in 2003, but by last school year, 18 principals faced corrective action, meaning they had about a year to improve. Last year, the district started publicizing in board reports which principals faced warnings. That's when the principals association cried foul.
Of the 18 principals disciplined in 2005-06, three were fired for performance reasons and one retired. Ten principals came off the list, and four still face possible sanctions this school year, district officials said. One new principal was placed on corrective action so far this year.
The principals currently facing corrective action are at Piccolo, Bass, Bond, Reed and Oglesby Elementary Schools, district officials said.
In practice, the policy will make principals even more beholden to the authority of their area supervisors, because these central administrators will determine whether the principal "needs improvement" or is "not meeting expectations" without input from the local governing boards.
"There's going to have to be a legal challenge," said Julie Woestehoff, executive director of PURE, a parent advocacy group that supports local councils. "They are making up a new process for breaking a contract, which isn't allowed under the law. The policy reads as if there is no [local school council] relationship with the principal."
District officials said the policy was created as part of a new evaluation process for principals and was not intended to be punitive. They acknowledge that previous attempts to discipline principals was not consistent across the district and did not always offer them a clear path toward improvement.
The new policy creates two levels of support. The principals who "need improvement" in one or more areas of management--from staff hiring and parent communication to special education requirements and budget planning--will have up to a year to work with their area supervisors to address their shortcomings.
Those who don't improve after this, or do not meet job expectations, will be placed on corrective action. Their names will be published in a public board report and they'll have four to six months to turn things around. If they don't, the principal would be dismissed, removed or face other actions.
"I don't see this as making it easier to remove [problem] principals. I see it as making it easier to support them," said Maggie Blinn, deputy chief officer of the district's principal preparation program. Blinn said the policy does not interfere with the authority of the local councils. She said the area instructional officers are a principal's primary supervisor, while the local councils provide general oversight on spending and school improvement.
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tdell'angela@tribune.com
— Tracy Dell'Angela
Chicago Tribune
2007-01-23
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