Providing Educational Leadership: First Nations Administration Handbook
Providing Educational Leadership
First Nations Schools
Administration Handbook
Prepared by
Barbara Kavanagh for
The First Nations Schools Association
Originally published March, 2003
Updated November, 2006
Table of Contents
Introduction
Section One: The Principals Role
1.1 A Principal’s Management Responsibilities
1.2 A Principal’s Leadership Responsibilities
1.3 Liaison With the Community
1.4 Other Duties
Section Two: Respecting the School’s Meaning
2.1Understanding and Reflecting the Community’s Goals for the School
2.2 Creating and Maintaining a Vision for the School
2.3 Creating a Positive School Culture
Section Three: Working Together for Success
3.1 Working With Teachers
3.2 Working With Parents
3.3 Working With the School Governance Agency
3.4 Working With the Community
3.5 Working with Other Service Agencies
3.6 Dealing With the Media
Section Four: Day-to-Day Operations
4.1 Record Keeping
4.2 School Calendar
4.3 Policy Development
4.4 Staff Meetings
4.5 School Budget and Resources
4.6 School Safety
4.7 Drug and Alcohol Awareness
4.8 Scheduling
4.9 Technology
Section Five: Evaluation/Assessment
5.1 Evaluation of Students
5.2 Evaluation of Teachers
5.3 Evaluation of School Programs
5.4 Evaluation of the School
Section Six: Importance of Self-Care and Development
6.1 Common Challenges for New Principals
6.2 The Importance of Professional Development for the Principal
6.3 Support from the FNSA
List of Relevant Associations
References
Appendix One: Sample School Vision Statements
Appendix Two: Miscellaneous Policy and Procedure Samples
Appendix Three: Teacher Evaluation Tools
Appendix Four: Teacher Orientations
Introduction
This handbook was developed by the First Nations Schools Association (FNSA) in an effort to provide support to principals and administrators in First Nations schools.[1] The FNSA recognizes that administrators of First Nations schools work in particularly challenging situations. They not only have a wide range of responsibilities and very demanding workloads; the nature of First Nations schools also means that many people work in significant isolation without the support of nearby colleagues and supervisors. In addition, many principals and administrators of First Nations schools are relatively new to their position and/or to First Nations schools, and they must simultaneously strive to understand their leadership roles within their schools and the unique context of the schools and communities in which they operate.
This handbook was developed in an effort to share information about the various responsibilities of school principals, and the unique aspects that relate to working in a First Nations school. By necessity, the information presented is quite general, as it is intended to apply in a wide range of circumstances, but it should be noted that First Nations schools in BC vary tremendously. Not only are the languages, cultures, values, and perspectives of the school communities different; the school sizes range from only three or four to nearly 300 students, they have anywhere between one and dozens of staff people, and the grades offered range from K4 and K5 only to every grade from K4 – 12. In addition, some of the schools are only a year old, while others have been operating for more than 20 years. Some of the schools are located in or near urban centers, while others are extremely remote, sometimes hundreds of kilometers from the nearest center, many accessible only by plane or boat.
Finally, First Nations schools differ greatly in terms of their governance and overall structures. Many First Nations schools are band operated, either with or without a school board, but other schools have chosen any number of other options, such as registering as an independent school, operating through a contract with a public school district, or belonging to a First Nations controlled school district. First Nations choose any of those options for a variety of reasons, including funding implications, jurisdictional concerns, and access to quality services at reasonable rates.
Update on School Structures
On July 5th, 2006, representatives of First Nations and the federal and provincial governments signed an agreement in recognition of the right of First Nations peoples to make decisions about the education of their learners. That agreement includes a detailed framework that First Nations can use to negotiate agreements regarding jurisdiction for education. Taking advantage of the jurisdiction framework will be entirely voluntary, and interested First Nations will be required to formally “opt in” to the process.
The jurisdiction agreement is based upon the creation of two types of Education Authorities. First, each participating First Nation will designate a Community Education Authority, which will have law making authority with respect to its membership. Under the proposed model of First Nations Education Jurisdiction, First Nations’ Community Education Authorities may take many forms. It is hoped that the framework that has been negotiated will accommodate all of the models First Nations may wish to establish. The CEAs will have responsibility for determining policy directions for their education systems and will oversee the implementation of First Nations education programming on reserve. They will also be responsible for approving agreements with other bodies for the delivery of education programs and services.
Each Community Education Authority will delegate aspects of its jurisdiction to a central First Nations Education Authority (FNEA). The purpose of the FNEA is to provide support to First Nations who wish to exercise jurisdiction over education. The FNEA will also help to ensure that there is adequate support for smaller First Nations and will provide a strategic approach to some components of jurisdiction. First Nations are still providing direction regarding the role of the FNEA; some of the powers that have been considered for delegation to the FNEA include teacher certification, school certification, and curriculum and standards. The FNEA will not have inherent jurisdiction and will only exercise jurisdiction in delegated areas.
Once implemented at a local level, jurisdiction agreements will significantly change the control of First Nations schools, but the exact nature of those changes has not yet been determined. In addition, school staff may not be immediately affected by the shift in jurisdiction, as schools are expected to maintain their established programs in the short term and continue their ongoing efforts toward improvement over time.
Up-to-date information about the jurisdiction negotiations is available on the FNESC web site at
In spite of their differences, First Nations schools share many similarities. The schools are committed to providing quality instruction as well as a nurturing, caring environment for children. The schools emphasize and promote First Nations cultures and languages, and they strive to reflect the values and traditions of the communities they serve. The schools also share many common constraints. Historically, teacher turnover rates have been quite high, which has caused disturbances for schools, students, and communities. In addition, most First Nations schools have limited resources, relatively new administrators and teachers, and they tend to be quite isolated.
In order to successfully meet those challenges, it is crucial that principals understand and fulfill their key role in improving schools and ensuring that they are excellent places for children to learn. As Sparks and Hirsh (2000) note:
In their search for ways to improve school performance, educators and policy makers have addressed a broad array of challenges confronting schools. These approaches to improvement have included raising standards, strengthening teacher professional development, refocusing schools around the primary goal of student achievement, and holding schools accountable for results. But only one area of policy focus – strengthening school leadership – can exert control over all of these challenges simultaneously.
With that perspective in mind, this handbook was prepared in an effort to assist the dedicated principals of First Nations schools. The development of this handbook involved a review of relevant literature, as well as the collection of sample information from First Nations schools throughout BC. In addition, further information and details were gathered through the author’s attendance at a four day Short Course for Principals and Managers that was facilitated by Chief Nathan Matthew at the University of British Columbia (UBC) during July, 2002.
Early drafts of this handbook received significant feedback from Chief Nathan Matthew and Susan Gower, two individuals with significant expertise in First Nations school administration. A draft of the handbook was also shared at three school administrators’ workshops in September and October, 2002. Over 40 First Nations school principals and administrators participated in those workshops, and their valuable feedback and input was incorporated into the final version of this handbook. Finally, this updated version of the handbook reflects requests for additional information and feedback from school principals.
One final note relates to the terms used in this handbook. First Nations schools use a variety of terms to describe the person who has administrative responsibility for the school, including principal and school administrator. For reasons of simplicity and consistency, this handbook uses the term principal, but the concepts described within have relevance for anyone who is responsible for the overall operation, leadership, and direction of First Nations schools.
Section One: The Principal’s Role
The job of the principal is both extremely demanding and critical to the success of a school. As Lease (2002) writes, “while the work of teachers and the interest of parents contribute vitally to student success, make no mistake about the fundamental ingredient – the ability of the principal to lead change and establish direction.”
Principals are expected to make daily, often immediate decisions in the midst of constant demands from a variety of constituents. Further, the decisions they make can affect the lives of their students, teachers, other staff members, parents, and community members. The principal is expected to lead the school, maintain discipline, manage the budget, assist staff, respond to parental inquiries, and report to the school governance board. As Sparks and Hirsh (2000) state:
Not only must school leaders perform the tasks of organizing, budgeting, managing, and dealing with disruptions inside and outside the system, today's instructional leaders must be able to coach, teach, and develop the teachers in their schools. They must be steeped in curriculum, instruction, and assessment in order to supervise a continuous improvement process that measures progress in raising student performance. They must build learning communities within their schools and engage the broader school community in creating and achieving a compelling vision for their schools.
While those tasks alone may seem to constitute a full-time job, in many First Nations schools, principals are also asked to sit on a variety of out-of-school committees, help with programs for youth, participate in community planning, and often act as school carpenter and plumber!
In some ways, the various roles of school principals can be divided into management and leadership responsibilities, although there is of course considerable overlap between the two categories. Managers focus on "running a smooth ship," while instructional leaders focus on learning and instruction. Effective principals are both managers and instructional leaders, recognizing that both roles are essential and providing a balance between management and instructional skills (Chell, 2002).
Often, management responsibilities can, if allowed, take up all of a principal’s time, particularly because management issues are often very pressing and require immediate action. The consensus in the literature is that, although the role of the principal as instructional leader is widely advocated, it is seldom practiced; principals still spend most of their time dealing with managerial issues. Stronge (1988, cited in Chell, 2002) calculated that elementary school principals spent 62.2% of their time on managerial issues and 11% on instructional leadership issues, even after undergoing training or in-service emphasizing their role as instructional leader. Thus, the image of instructional leadership has become entrenched in the professional rhetoric but all too often is lacking in administrative practice.
Similarly, the FNSA annually collects data from First Nations schools to explore their staffs, programming, and educational results. The 2005 data collection initiative asked schools to indicate how their administrators’ FTE is allocated by estimating the percentage of total work time that is assigned to a list of tasks. The results of that question are shown below (FNSA, 2006).
Allocation of administrator’s timeAverage % time per task
Day-to-day administration39%
Financial administration16%
Instructional leadership18%
Classroom teaching11%
Out-of-school meetings9%
Other7%
Total 100%
To be truly effective, principals must pay adequate attention to both their management and leadership functions. Some of the management and leadership responsibilities of a principal are outlined below, and more detail about many of the key activities is provided in further sections of this handbook.
The participants at the FNSA sponsored workshops described the balance between management and leadership functions in terms of a pie chart. Principals are continually pushing to enlarge the time allocated to leadership functions – a continual battle given the plethora of other pressures they face. The workshop participants encouraged one another to keep pushing the boundaries to find more time for their leadership roles.
1.1 A Principal’s Management Responsibilities
Most people are fairly familiar with the numerous management responsibilities of principals. Principals are concerned with the overall functioning of the school, including ensuring that it is operational for the commencement of each school term and having a full school staff in place. Principals also manage the school budget and ensure that the funding available will allow the school to operate for the duration of the school year. Principals are responsible for having reasonable timetables in place. In addition, principals are generally asked to oversee discipline, ensure school safety, organize regular staff meetings, and maintain the school’s record keeping, busing system, and instructional supplies.
Many of those issues will be discussed further in section four: managing day-to-day operations. That section includes a review of topics such as file keeping, school calendar, policy development, staff meetings, school budget and resources, school safety, drug and alcohol awareness, scheduling, and technology.
Appendix Two of this document includes many sample school policies that relate to a range of administrative issues. Principals should feel free to adapt the samples to make them appropriate for their particular situations and needs.1.2 A Principal’s Leadership Responsibilities
As mentioned above, while a principal’s management function can often seem to constitute a full-time job, it is imperative that principal’s maintain a focus on their role in “educational leadership” – that is supervision, ensuring quality curriculum and instruction, and ensuring that the school is continually working towards its goals for improvement. According to Robbins and Alvy (1995), “leadership practices of principals in high-performing schools include helping to establish clear goals, providing a vision of the good school, and encouraging teachers by assisting them in finding the necessary resources to carry out their jobs.”
While the leadership practices of principals are certainly central for all schools, they have special relevance for First Nations schools, which are more autonomous and usually not part of a broader educational decision-making structure, such as a school district. That means that the principals of most First Nations schools are often responsible for leadership and decision-making functions that are otherwise undertaken by District personnel. It also means that principals of First Nations schools are more isolated in their decision-making, a fact that brings many unique challenges and opportunities.
Principals are, primarily, the instructional leaders of their school, meaning that they shape the environment in which teachers and students succeed or fail. Although teachers are absolutely critical to the learning that takes place at the classroom level, the principal addresses school-wide issues in instruction and curriculum that relate to classroom decisions, and as such they have a significant impact on all of the teaching that takes place in the school. Principals, therefore, must understand every facet of instruction at a high level (Lease, 2002). As the instructional leader, the principal can affect every factor that encourages student learning in the school, and the principal is also responsible for continually assessing the school’s operations and programs to ensure that they are meeting community and school expectations.
One of the key components of instructional leadership, then, is knowing what the community and school expects for its students, and maintaining a clear focus on the goals or the “vision” for the school. Some schools may not have a clearly stated philosophy or a defined vision of what the school can achieve. In those instances, the principal can help the school and community to identify their educational values and set out a vision.
If a vision has already been developed, the principal can ensure that it is shared, understood, and that people commit to the vision so that it remains a real guide for the school’s programs and activities. In this regard, principals act as planners and prioritizers for their schools, sorting through the massive range of possible approaches and programs and maintaining a focus on what matters for their students and community. More information about creating and maintaining a school vision is included in section two of this handbook.
Principals are also the shapers of the school culture, which can become either a positive influence or a significant barrier to learning. The elements that make up a school’s culture include all aspects of the school’s environment that have the potential to influence the learning, discipline, and morale of all those who work and study there. According to Pasi (2001), the ongoing challenge for principals is to identify steps for enhancing school culture and the conditions under which students can learn more, educators can teach more, and everyone can feel welcome and respected.