By Greg Schmill

While this may sound like the plea of a frustrated American tax preparer and payer on April 15, I regularly hear of another group seeking more time. They are our WELS teaching principals —principals who also carry out significant teaching roles. These educators face the daily challenges of a myriad of urgent and important tasks, of role ambiguity and role conflict and its accompanying stress, and of trying to lead the school from the classroom. It is imperative in this time of great challenge and change for our schools that our congregations provide the time for administrators to administrate, for supervisors to supervise, for leaders to lead, and for the visionaries to cast a vision.

WELS principal facts:

• Of private school systems surveyed, WELS has the highest percentage of principals who are teaching in addition to serving as principals. Ninety-nine percent of WELS principals report being a teacher and a principal (National Center for Education Statistics, 2004).

• Of private school systems surveyed, WELS has the most average hours per week spent by principals on school-related activities at 61 hours per week (National Center for Education Statistics, 2004).

• 38% of WELS principals reported they would rather serve as a teacher only and no longer be a principal (Schmill, 2009).

• In the middle of April 2013, 19 WELS congregations were attempting to fill principal vacancies.

As research demonstrates and as discussed in previous blogs, the principal is central to a school’s success. The principal has a direct impact on a school’s climate, teacher quality, and instructional excellence, and accounts for up to 25% of the variance in student achievement (Clifford, Behrstock-Sherratt, & Fetters, 2012; Liethwood & Riehl, 2005).

But in order for principals to have a positive effect on the students and the school, we must provide them time outside the classroom to carry out their leadership roles. In our circles, we refer to this as Administrative Release Time (ART). In the latest research done on WELS Lutheran elementary school ART in 2009, WELS schools provide only 63% of the WELS School Accreditation standard of 10 hours per week for every 75 students. Ironically, as expectations for principals grow in our schools, the amount of time principals have to accomplish their leadership and management responsibilities has not.

A paragraph from Prof. John Meyer’s earlier blog on school leadership bears repeating:

At one time, the WELS principal’s primary role was to be a resource or task manager. His primary concerns were spiritual guidance and the efficient operation of the school. As such, he was responsible for disseminating information, rules, policies, and procedures in a top-down fashion (Shipman, Queen, & Peel, 2007). Societal pressures, parental expectations, the growing popularity of school alternatives, rapid advance of technology, increasing diversity of students’ abilities and backgrounds, and the complex legal and financial dynamics associated with modern education have created a need for principals with greater knowledge and skills than those of a generation ago. Today’s principals must be visionary leaders who empower others through collaboration and group decision-making. They are held accountable for teacher and student learning, professional development, data-driven decision making, and community relations. They provide instructional leadership, community leadership, and visionary leadership (Shipman et. al., 2007).

To expect all this of a teaching principal given little or no time to carry out this role is completely unrealistic. It is leading to exhaustion, frustration, burnout, and a lack of people willing and able to serve as principals.

What can we do? It is time for all congregations to review the purpose, mission, and vision of their schools and to identify clearly the role of the principal in carrying these out. Then, all involved must recognize the importance of the principal and the need for ART, and all must work together to provide sufficient ART. For starters, all schools should meet the minimum ART requirement of WELSSA accreditation – 10 hours per week for every 75 students. Hopefully, many schools will provide more than the minimum. In addition, let’s commit to providing the leadership and administrative training for our principals so they may best make use of this time.

The 2009 study asked principals how they would use additional ART time, if provided. Top responses included personal spiritual development, promotion of school in the community and congregation, strengthening school spiritual focus, strengthening the school’s culture and climate, curriculum development, supervision of instruction, and staff development (Schmill, 2009). This list focuses on key areas for the health of any Lutheran school.  Students, parents, teachers, and congregation members would be very pleased to have principals who have the time to strengthen any and all of these areas. And I am confident the Lord would bless those efforts. So, please . . . give ‘em more time!

Greg Schmill is the Administrator for the WELS Commission on Lutheran Schools. Greg completed a study of WELS principals and Administrative Release Time as his master’s thesis in 2009. He provides a link in the references below for those who wish to learn more.

References

Clifford, M., Behrstock-Sherratt, E., & Fetters, J. (2012). The ripple effect: A synthesis of research on principal influence to inform performance evaluation design. Naperville, IL: American Institutes for Research.

Liethwood, K., & Riehl, C. (2005). What do we already know about educational leadership? In W. A. Firestone, & C. Riehl, A new agenda for research in educational leadership (pp. 12-27). New York: Teachers College Press.

Meyer, J. (2013, December). WELS Leadership Crisis? Volume II. Issues in Lutheran Education blog

http://blogs.mlc-wels.edu/wels-educator/2013/02/

National Center for Education Statistics. (2004). School and Staffing Survery (SASS) 2003-2004. Retrieved March 18, 2009, from Institute of Education Sciences: http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sass/tables.asp

Schmill, G. (2009, April). Administrative Release Time (ART) for School Principals of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. https://connect.wels.net/AOM/ps/schools/cpsnews/eNEWS%20documents/ART%20for%20WELS%20Principals%20–%20Summary%2011%202012.pdf

Shipman, N. J., Queen, J. A., & Peel, H. A. (2007). Transforming school leadership with ISLLC and ELCC. Larchmont NY: Eye on Education, Inc.