Describe: I spent Wednesday, February 10, shadowing one of the assistant principals at Swanson Middle School. I was able to see the wide variety of responsibilities that make up her job executed throughout the day. She attended a county-wide meeting, observed two teachers and conducted a SMART goal meeting with one of them, stopped by to observe lunch duty and bus duty, met with a parent concerning her son, and met with two students separately concerning an incident in the hallway. At the end of the day I attended the department meeting (Math) that is also part of her responsibilities, although she was unable to attend that day.

Reflect: This opportunity was very eye-opening for me in terms of what a typical day looks like for a middle school administrator. I suppose I didn’t expect that she would be physically all over the place. In fact, she said that she wants to give students the impression that she “is everywhere,” and I’m sure she’s successful at that! It spoke to how important it is to simply have the administrator present at any given event, because the inherent message is “I care. I’m paying attention.” I have often thought that about the professional learning community (PLC) meetings that we have at my school: they have a very different tone (for me, at least) when the administrator tasked with attending that team’s meetings is there.

The county-wide meeting was a different story; it started with everyone looking at suspension data (which was confidential, which is why it is not included here) broken down by school and by race. From what I gather, the county is concerned about minority students being suspended at higher rates than white students. Across the county, the assistant principals were concerned that so-called “repeat offenders,” students who are suspended multiple times, are skewing the data and increasing the rates of minority suspensions. I asked why the data couldn’t be looked at with repeat offenders broken out, and was told that the state does not look at it that way.

Connect: Relating to the county-wide meeting, I feel strongly that Standards 5.3 and 5.4 are in evidence here. I’ve heard that when suspension rates are broken down further by individual administrator, that clear patterns are evident. In my mind this means that the “values of equity and diversity” (Standard 5.3) are at stake, and “the moral and legal consequences of decision making in the school” (Standard 5.4) are at the forefront. Unfortunately, some of the administrators at the meeting may have felt defensive about their school’s data. The meeting could have been an opportunity to look at the problem in a different light, and reflect on best practice in a difficult, and potentially problematic situation. I hope that in the end that is what the county is able to promote.