TOW #22 - Want to Fix Schools? Go to the Principal's Office

Schools are composed of various positions and people that all play into the success of their students.  Whether it is teachers, board members, guidance counselors, or principals, they all play a role.  Yet these day teachers seem to be held more responsible for the success of students than other workers.  Although it is obvious teachers are essential to a school’s success, the role of a principal has been overlooked in comparison to a teacher’s.  That is why more schools are beginning to evaluate their principals in addition to other staff members.  By evaluating school principals, schools in states like Chicago have been seen to improve drastically.

In Chicago, a state where success in school has been historically low, new ways of improving schools have led to more success for students.  Chicago has done multiple things in order to improve schools, they have required parents and teachers to evaluate their principals with a survey and also allowed people with various backgrounds to take the position.  The surveys parents and teachers take help the school board “oversee each school and principal” (13).  By examining each principal, which is easier than examining every teacher, the board can hire, fire, or keep the principals of each school.  Through these surveys, a principal’s efficiency and impact on each school is seen.  A principal is one of the highest leaders in the school, they all hold the key to creating a school that teaches its students the curriculum, and also teaches them methods to success, rather than just passing.  Surveys are not the only ways Chicago ha improved their schools.  Principals with nontraditional backgrounds have also been hired.  For example, “Armando Rodriguez, who runs a gleaming new science high school” (22).  He used to be an engineer at Motorola.  Principals who may not have come from common background are not a downfall of schools.  Instead they are able to understand certain subjects better.  Since Rodriquez knows how places like factories work, he has a better understanding of what his students need in his science based school.  A combination of evaluating principals and hiring ones that have knowledge over other subjects have led to great success in Chicago schools.  Students have improved greatly in reading and math, and the graduation rate rose to 85 percent compared to last year’s 74 percent 2012.  When aiming to improve schools, it is important to evaluate the entirely of it, because all staff members intertwine to make students successful.  Overlooking principals has been a mistake too many schools make, and Chicago has been extremely successful in not making it.