Saving K12 | Reform #2: The Principal on Patrol

Wherein a veteran teacher calls on school leadership to enact five common-sense reforms to solve K12 schooling's problems.

Reform #2: One principal per school site must patrol campus to maintain the conditions necessary for all students to learn.

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Parents and Board members: you have the power to force the reshaping of K12 school practices for the betterment, not just of your own children, but every child served in your local public school district. As much as caring adults may want to help the small number of students who need intensive emotional and psychological help, that is not the main purpose of our schools, nor ought it be. Unfortunately, District bureaucracy and Superintendent training leads to a misallocation of scarce resources to this end.

You have the power to push for the allocation of resources to benefit the greatest number of students, rather than having expensive personnel ineffectively attempting to put out tiny fires everywhere while pretending that the main purpose of public schools, instruction, will run smoothly with limited oversight and support from those paid to oversee and support ALL teachers and ALL students.

This is my second in a series of common-sense reforms that could turn American K12 education around and make our schools the envy of the world rather than the morass of conditioned non-learning into which they have devolved. This can only be effected by parents who will fight to elect School Board members who have the brains and the intestinal fortitude to push District leadership, whom they directly control, to allocate personnel with a laser focus on the education of the great mass of children, Pareto principle be damned.

That focus must begin on the most expensive personnel on a school site: the Principal.

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The move to make the Principal's office a bright, airy, comfortable mini-conference room was a huge strategic error.

The principal's office should be narrow and cramped and dim. It should have a tangible air of doom. (I recommend a stuffed raven and a bust of Beethoven or a similarly grim and not-quite-stable-looking personage.) No sane human should want to be in the principal’s office for too long; it’s a set piece creating a particular "mood" to achieve a particular end, that being the protection of a climate conducive to learning in each classroom on campus, not a place where faculty and/or parents can rest comfortably and air their grievances while showing little interest in finding actionable solutions. I want wooden, cane-backed chairs and 15-minute meeting limits to keep everyone focused on the two relevant tasks at hand: (1) to inform and (2) collaborate on a solution. Principals do not have the time to indulge every feeling someone wants to express; their work is crucial and time-intensive.

Having said that, principals should not slave away alone in a dimly-lit office. Quite the contrary: one or two principals on each site should be paid a healthy stipend to cover two things: comfortable walking shoes plus two additional dollars for a clipboard from the Dollar Tree and a yellow legal pad. Why these tools? A principal's most important work is outside his office, spending significant hours per day (2-4) patrolling campus all year long. This time must be kept sacrosanct, defended against any impromptu meetings or other duties.

Gravitas is the key to authority and requires presence. Principals have a long row to hoe to re-establish their authority in the public school landscape. What I advocate here is the fastest way they can do it, plus it comes with the prodigious benefit of reining in a lot of the misconduct currently occurring on American middle and high school campuses.

The principal's consistent and visible presence where students are and where teachers teach is key. Students need to see the principal upholding the rules and standards of their school in order to trust that he will not only defend learning in the classrooms, but will protect the students themselves. They need to see him do what's right. Teachers need to know that their own authority will be strengthened by his presence, either because he backs them up consistently or offers teachers the support they need to control their classrooms. Otherwise, he undermines the authority of the entire administrative team in every student's eyes which has direct repercussions on teachers in their classrooms and, thus, all students who come to school hoping to learn.

Here are the things the Principal on Patrol should monitor, as well as what he should do when he recognizes their absence.

Students Must Be in Class During Instructional Time

One of the first things a principal should look to curb is the presence of students outside of class during instructional time. When the principal is on his walks and he sees students moving around campus, demonstrating little urgency, he should stop them and ask: "Where are you headed and from which class?" Once they answer, he should record it on the legal pad and tell them, "Get a move on. You shouldn't be missing your teacher's instruction or giving up work time when the teacher is available to help you."

He should IMMEDIATELY break up groups of students loitering outside the classroom and record their names and the classes from which they all came as well. If two students are out of the same classroom at the same time, he should have a brief, private, in-person talk with the teacher in her classroom at lunch or after school and ask that she not allow more than one student out of the class at a time to minimize disruption. (There should also be clear bathroom policies in the student and teacher handbooks to prevent a teacher from being taken advantage of by her students in the name of their bodily functions.)

If a student is out of class to "fill up a water bottle" the principal should walk the student back to class without filling up the bottle. Once he's in the room, if no direct instruction is occurring, he should ask the teacher for a moment to address the class and say, briefly, "Water bottles are filled at passing period or lunch. None of you are in imminent danger of death from dehydration. Filling your water bottle can wait." He should nod at the teacher -- who is the one that message was actually for but whom the principal artfully helped to maintain her authority -- and leave.

If a student is out of class to surreptitiously use her cell phone, he should do what must be done to support this student in breaking a likely dopamine addiction. He should walk up and address her, saying, "You are not to leave the classroom to use your cell phone. Hand it over. You may pick it up from the front office at the end of the school day. If I see you out of class with your phone in the future I will only return it to your parent when she picks you up from detention at 4:00 PM." If the student opines that it's an emergency, he should escort her up to the office to use the office landline. Her name and the class she left goes on the legal pad.

School Resource Officers (SROs, aka Security Personnel) should also have clipboards and legal pads and should do exactly what the principal does, reporting to him to turn in their records at the end of each shift. These should be collated on an excel spreadsheet to track students who frequently finagle their way out of class. While not all of these kids are bad actors with nefarious motives, many of them are avoiding work they believe they can't do; they should be on the radar of on-site academic interventionists. Either way, their butts should be in their seats receiving instruction or practicing what they're learning 98% of the time.

The data collected in this process will be used to improve instruction in conjunction with another set of data points the principal collects daily: classroom behavior.

School Norms Must Be Consistently Enforced by Classroom Teachers

At the outset of the year, all staff should be informed that a Principal will be on patrol, daily. The role should be clearly explained and guidelines around how administrators will be handling disciplinary interventions should be made clear in writing. A significant part of the pre-service meeting days should be spent on in-person training that not only explains the rules, but over-communicates the WHY. The purpose of the visitations are to support classroom instruction and to ensure that students who need additional behavioral or academic support get it. These are not evaluative visits, but data gleaned from them may be used to determine where resources for teacher training and support will be allocated.

The principal should look in on classrooms and be rigid in enforcement of a few key misbehaviors. These are the things that should trigger an administrative intervention:

• students out of their seats

• students congregating in groups but doing no discernible work

• Cell phone use

• dress code violations

• students talking while the teacher is delivering whole-class instruction

What should a principal do when he sees these things while making his rounds?

My advice comes courtesy of a legendary man who had a 20-year run as principal of my last high school worksite. I never met him; he retired two years before I was hired, but I heard wonderful stories about him from people who clearly admired and respected him. This is what he did, and I think his method deserves wide emulation. (Mr. A, if you're still kicking around: Thank you. For a couple of years, I benefited from the school culture you worked so hard to maintain.)

Mr. A's approach was very simple. When he saw something he didn't like from a window into the classroom, he'd pop into the class and stand in the back until he was acknowledged by the teacher and had the students' attention.

He'd address the teacher crisply and say something like, "Mr. Jones, did you notice that these two students were doing ____?"

The teacher would almost always say, "No, Mr. A. I didn't."

Mr. A would then point at the rule-breaking students and say, "You and you: collect your things and come with me." He would hold the door open and escort the students to his office, where they would be assigned a trash pick-up session at lunch at least and a day of on-campus suspension if he caught egregious behavior. He would contact the parents and inform the teacher of the disposition on the same day.

Was it possible more students than those two were violating dress code or talking or passing notes (today: showing each other their cell phones)? Sure, but what Mr. A understood was that his presence coupled with his clear expectation that the rules be followed coupled with the magical way he would pop in a room and see every violation (ala Robocop) coupled with immediate enforcement of the rules sent a clear message: Students are here for an important purpose and I am here to ensure that purpose is carried out.

This was also a subtle correction for the teacher. Once Mr. A had come into a room and removed kids, the teacher knew he would likely be back (like the Terminator). If he had to make another correction for something he'd already removed students from that same classroom for doing, he would stop by the teacher's classroom at lunch or after school when no students were present and remind the teacher of the importance of enforcing the rules and doling out consequences. During this conversation, he would reiterate his commitment to support any teacher enforcing school norms. If he came back and saw that the rules were still not being enforced after the friendly, informal conversation on the teacher's turf, he would invite the teacher to his office for a more serious conversation that could include a verbal warning.

In this way, he incentivized ALL teachers to enforce the rules all the time. This consistency across all classrooms meant that 95% of kids were good most of the time and, when they slipped, were easy to correct. It also meant that when that rare kid who met the legal definition for incorrigibility showed up, it was obvious that the problem started with the kid (and/or his family) which shifted the responsibility to Mr. A and the rest of the administrative team rather than leaving one bad apple's poor behavior to upend multiple classrooms.

Given the current state of America's schools, this may sound like a pipe dream to some of you reading this. And that's why I'm leaning so hard on SLANT as a default set of classroom rules that are clear and easy to enforce. SLANT requires students to:

• Sit up and remain Seated;

• Listen;

• Answer and Ask questions;

• Note-take; and

• Track the speaker with their eyes.

SLANT provides unambiguous expectations for classroom behavior. It would be hard for any parent to take issue with these rules, even the parents of students with IEPs and 504 plans. They are easy to teach to students. They are easy to observe in a classroom. Most of all, they are easy to enforce.

"Jeremiah, Track the speaker please. Your eyes should be on me or your notes: not your phone."

"Avery, please sit up."

"Lucas, where's your pencil? We're all taking notes."

"Isabella, how heavy was the sled Buck pulled? It's at the beginning of your notes from today if you don't remember from the reading."

"Pencils in hand if you understand how to begin today's work. If not, leave your pencil on your desk and I'll come help you get started."

After the first two or three weeks of school, a teacher should be able to say, “Carson: T” and point at a poster of the rules on the wall, wait for him to align his behavior to the classroom norm, and move on with instruction.

If students break these rules then refuse to follow the teacher's redirection, the protocol for school discipline should be strictly followed. (Principals: if you need help communicating this to your staff, see my previous post here. I recommend you role-play in-class correction with newer teachers and visit them individually in their classrooms to practice some more when they're not in front of a large number of staff.) It is crucial that all schools have a clear discipline policy which outlines steps for correction of behavior, even to the point of what teachers should and should not say when redirecting a student. This should also be printed in the Family Handbook for full transparency.

Parents, you should be able to ask specific questions about how administrators support teachers when students break rules. The idea that violations of SLANT require “investigation” by an administrator is a non-starter. If you're talking to admin about an out-of-control classroom that is hurting your child's education, brook no excuses about “fairness”.

SLANT can be followed by any student, and reasonable, occasional accommodations to it should not prevent other students from benefiting from them. So why is there push-back from administrators (and sometimes teachers) on rules like this?

It has been my experience that principals will hide unwillingness to discipline some students behind "investigations" so that blame can be laid at many feet, relieving the administrator of having to apply consequences for student rule-breaking.

SLANT should be a hard rule and the teacher its final arbiter once the Principal on Patrol has has given all staff explicit, in-person instruction on expectations for the enforcement of classroom standards. If a teacher says a student violated SLANT and then refused to correct his behavior, the principal should back her in applying the appropriate consequence per the discipline policy, no questions asked. If the principal doubts the teacher is enforcing the rules in accordance with the beginning-of-year training on enforcement, he should make himself more visible in her room and have some informal conversations addressing any areas of confusion. He should never undermine her authority by refusing to enforce consequences for what a parent or student might consider inconsistent/unfair enforcement. If one of his teachers is failing to follow protocol, he needs to re-teach her and offer more support.

Situations like this lead into the last and probably most important part of the Patrol: using Patrol data to help decide how to allocate resources for faculty support.

Patrol Data Informs Instructional Coaching

The data collected from the Principal on Patrol is key to monitoring classroom instructional practices. Why do kids break rules? Why do they leave the classroom? Why do they act out and refuse to do work?

There are lots of reasons a student may misbehave, but only one a school can effectively remediate: a student's sense of his own incompetence. If the teacher is not able to structure lessons so that all students can achieve a modicum of success after explicit instruction, then the teacher probably needs additional professional support. Keep in mind that the school’s primary purpose is learning scaled for the greatest number of people. Yes, we have to crack down on incorrigible students, but we also need to ensure that instructional practices are effective for the majority (80% or greater) of kids in a classroom. Keeping behavior under control has one purpose: to ensure all kids get the best chance to learn.

Beyond the data from the Principal on Patrol being used to inform the administrative and/or PBIS/RTI/MTSS (intervention) team about students who may need additional academic and/or behavioral support, his legal pad (and the notes of the SROs) will also provide useful data to the curriculum and instruction team to help them determine which, if any, teachers need training and support. This could take many forms: instructional coaching, release periods for observation of effective classroom practice, small group trainings on Professional Development days, release days for collaborative unit-planning with an instructional coach, more frequent observation with actionable critical feedback provided by the instructional coaching team, etc.

Conclusion: Presence and Discipline Increase Learning Across Campus

Part of the reason our schools are such a mess is that there are few effective systems of accountability for students and teachers.

The Principal on Patrol is a relatively inexpensive replacement for armies of coordinators, psychologists, and support staff that are hired because of the ballooning misconduct in classrooms and the assumption that all such behavior is an unmet need the school should address.

In fact, there are precious few unmet individual needs the school can effectively address. Yes a counseling session can put a band-aid on childhood trauma -- but it usually results in more missed hours of instruction which can hurt a kid in the long-run. A math tutor once a week may be able to help a bit with fundamental skills, but judging from the outcomes of most Middle and High school-based intervention programs, that meeting is just another box the adults check while kids struggle to catch up.

With the move toward the Community School model (WSCC), far more interventions may be available to your child, including those of the medical variety. Because of FERPA laws, you may not know what medical and/or psychological interventions they are accessing. Either way, such interventions result in more time out of class.

All of these interventions assuredly do one thing: prevent your child from receiving instruction with the rest of her class. Mission Creep, well-intentioned though it may be, undermines the primary goal of our school system: instruction.

Schools have a crucial role to play in the education of a child. By trying to do everything else that may correlate to learning, education professionals have been stretched far, far beyond their capacities and pulled way, way outside their lanes. At best, we can call what a good school does "training" but, at worst, we're using operant conditioning to inure children to systemic failure and to the idea that working hard and following the rules is for suckers.

A purpose-driven Principal on Patrol with a clear set of objectives and limited additional duties can do a lot to encourage individuals to behave in ways that produce the best academic outcomes across an entire group.

Teachers and students alike desperately need legitimate authority to defend learning in America's classrooms. The Principal on Patrol is one way it can be reasserted.

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