Asst. Principal Training Gaps

Hats off to APs and people who aspire to that particular position. Even more so, double hats off to those of you who want to be principals! My most sincere gratitude, appreciation, and respect go to you. If there’s one thing I’ve learned this year, it’s that the APs are truly the ones who are holding it down in the day-to-day operations of the building. A good principal is right there alongside the APs (or should be at least), but the main principal has a higher responsibility and cannot always get drug into the details of the daily grind.

Having said all of that, I am learning one thing very quickly (a costly lesson, though, in my opinion): some districts don’t have adequate training for APs. Nationwide, there seems to be a push for more training and mentorship-type of programs for aspiring principals, which is a great thing in my opinion! (See this article for an example of a good principal mentorship program.) However, I don’t see a lot of that training geared toward those who want to be assistant principals, i. e. classroom teacher to AP trajectory. By default, this means the learning curve is much steeper when one first becomes an AP versus a principal. While I acknowledge going through a program like this (an Ed. S. leadership program) is, in itself, training, the nuts and bolts of each district are different. THAT is the training I’m referring to, the “how do we do it here” question, the culture piece, as well as the “this job is going to be vastly different than anything you’ve done before” training!

Becoming an AP requires a lot more on-the-job-training than being a principal. Here’s why I make that statement. Going from classroom to AP is a huge step; the requirements and responsibilities are vastly different. Going from AP to principal is more of a natural flow, and you would have already had experience with things such as investigating fights or parents who want to sue the school or call the superintendent over their kid’s discipline tracker. 

Although I acknowledge that ANY job will require on-the-job-training, and there is NO possible way to train someone to know what to do in every scenario possible (especially in education, where each day is different and you couldn’t make up or fictionalize half the stuff you’ll deal with, even if you tried!). Still, I believe districts need to focus on training APs. It’s like telling high schoolers that we want them to have the skills to be a successful college student, but not training them to be so until they start freshman year of college and hoping it sticks.