Female Principal Interview Preparation Guide

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Another tough question, and you can approach it from different angles. Should a principal be “only” a leading figure, a person who represents the school in public? Should they just delegate the work, or should they actively participate on a daily life of an educational institution?

Honestly, a good answer to this question depends on your philosophy of work, and leadership. But you have to justify it with your answer (perhaps with an explanation how your methodology and approach to the role helped you to achieve good results in your past job, or how it works for ABS school, one of the successful educational institutions in the city).

Good principal should expect a lot from one person only–from themselves. You can have some basic expectations, such as honesty, transparency, being open for discussion, basic discipline. But you should not expect anyone else to take care of your job, or to make it significantly easier for you.

Show us that you focus on the things which you can control–that means your attitude to other people at school, your motivation, the way you help the others to do their job. Law of action and reaction can never be fooled (at least not in a long run).

You can say that the idea has crossed your mind, but you understand that you are not at that stage of your career yet. Tell them that you prefer to focus on the present, and on the near future. Say that you think about getting a job of an assistant principal (that is your focus right now), becasue you feel qualified for this position, and ready to do it from day one.

Tell them that you will see what happens in five, or ten years time, and that you may eventually become a school principal one day, after you gained enough experience as an assistant principal.

Conflicts belong to every workplace. Tell us about the conflict you had, and what you did to reconcile the conflict. It is your attitude that matters to us, not the particular conflict situation you narrate. You can speak about a conflict you had with your boss, with another teacher, or with a school counselor.

Show us that you respect the opinion of another person (regardless of their position), that you admit that you can be wrong, that you try to approach each conflict in a constructive way, and that you do your best to ensure that the situation won’t have a negative impact on your relationship with your colleagues, or on your work.

People want school improvement to come from a simple fix. With variables as complex as society itself, there will be no simple solutions for all schools and all kids. We need to approach improvement in education not as a fix but as an ongoing dynamic that is achieved through consistent commitment to a common ideal; all children, through education, are entitled to the widest possible array of intellectual, cultural, social, political and economic opportunity. This goal is certainly not easy, nor can we ever really know if it is fully realized. That understanding, that we will never have the absolute answer should not be a source of frustration, should be a source of energy and pride.

By asking this question, the hiring committee is attempting to assess the following:

Do you understand what traits contribute to the success of a principal. As a teacher, what traits do you value most.
Your response may indicate or suggest possible conflicts with the current principal.
Responses to this question may include:

It is important that a successful principal...
has a vision and a plan to reach that vision...combined with the ability to bring faculty members together to form a cooperative team and motivate them to reach district goals and objectives.
be visible... the principal's presence should be evident on a continual basis. He or she must be easily accessible to both students and teachers.
has a great sense of humor, and can relate well to a diverse group of individuals.
genuinely cares about the students, teachers, parents, and the district.

It seems that the basis of the current school reform movement is the belief that teachers and schools are not sufficiently motivated to get better. Thus, competition, punishment and rewards geared to outcome goals are their “innovations” for change and improvement. I believe this creates perverse incentives to manipulate outcomes rather than encourage know how and motivate sound practice.

I also don’t think it is helpful to refuse to acknowledge that some students come to school with intellectual, social, and cultural advantages to be successful in school environments. Acknowledging this fact is not a surrender to poor results. It is merely recognizing what anyone working in a classroom sees every day. It also helps when trying to honestly analyze what is needed, in terms of different approaches and resources, to help students to be successful. We have no problem acknowledging this in art, music or athletics. Why is there such fear in acknowledging it in academics?

Assistant principals are often responsible for organizing and supervising various school events. Interviewers are trying to understand if you have such experience, if you have an idea about some problems that can occur during the event.

Try to stay positive, show them that you actually enjoy supervising events, that you enjoy doing things you will do in your new job. Talk about an example situation when you faced a problem, but eventually managed to solve it (can be a problem of discipline, can be organization problem, injury of one of the students, or anything else).

Another tricky question, especially if the school principal sits in the hiring committee… Nevertheless, assistant principals should have some degree of independence, and they should have a power to make decisions (at least at their level of leadership).

You can tell the committee that you are ready to work independently, but at the same time understand the importance of teamwork, and unity of school leaders, and hope to meet the school principal on a regular basis, to consult your ideas and decisions you plan to make.

The main role of anything, in the process of education, is to help the students to understand the lessons better, to make the lessons more engaging and interesting for everyone. Technology is no different.