Education Week - October 16, 2019 - 15

good teaching" and that principals should be steeped in
effective teaching practices, which invariably transcend
content and grade level.
But over the last decade or so, there has been a burgeoning argument around whether taking a deeper
dive into subject areas outside their expertise would put
principals in a better position to coach and support all
teachers.

Grounded in Good Teaching
There's broad consensus that principals need deep
knowledge in three broad areas: curriculum and pedagogy; assessments for student learning; and classroom
environment and culture.
With a firm grounding in those areas and equipped with
guided questions, principals can have educated conversations with teachers about strengths and weaknesses across
grade levels and subject areas, and connect them with experts who can help if principals do not know the subject
deeply, said Ann O'Doherty, a former principal and director of the Danforth Educational Leadership Program at
the University of Washington.
"These are general, broader areas that a principal needs
to know and be able to recognize-when they are seeing
those practices and not seeing those practices, and have
a sense of how to move teachers along," O'Doherty said.
"I think having a deeper understanding of that teaching
and learning framework is essential, and that people start
with that."
Principals should understand academic standards
for every grade level in their school and have a working
knowledge of the curriculum and teaching materials,
said Susan Korach, an associate professor of education
leadership at Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver. But also essential is knowing how to
evaluate and collect evidence that students are learning,
she said.
At the same time, Korach said, principals are responsible for making sure there's content-level expertise in the
building, even though it may not be theirs.
"The recognition that 'I don't know enough about
something' should propel the leader to work with people
who are experts on what kinds of support would help fill in
the gaps," Korach said.
But other academics are suggesting that when principals possess content knowledge beyond the subject they
taught, they can be even more effective at improving
teachers' instruction.
While it is unrealistic and unfair to expect a principal
to know deeply the content of all that's taught in their
school-including subjects many may not have taken
when they were students-principals shouldn't just lean
on the refrain that "good teaching is good teaching" and
point teachers in the direction of experts when the need
arises, said Jo Beth Jimerson, an associate professor of
educational leadership at Texas Christian University.
Jimerson and Sarah Quebec Fuentes, an associate
professor of mathematics education at TCU, have been

You can position
yourself as
a learner
because you
authentically
are the learner.
You don't
understand the
content, and
so you're right
there alongside
the student,
experiencing the
struggle with
them, and in
that sense could
be offering
more valuable
feedback."
TIM SCHLOSSER
principal
SeaTac, Wash.

conducting interviews with 31 educators-15 administrators and 16 teachers-to understand how much principals'
content knowledge matters.
They found that principals who do not know the content
often relied on the good teaching refrain and provide feedback that generally dealt with "atmospherics"-classroom
climate, student interactions.
"There is definitely value to the kind of 'good teaching is
good teaching' mantra, where there are certain crossover
practices that appear to be beneficial no matter what the
content is," Jimerson said. "So how we are engaging students, how we are using formative assessments, these kinds
of things do seem to be both content neutral and valuable."
But teachers have also told them that the feedback from
principals who had "even a modicum of baseline knowledge of how the content is taught" was more actionable
and valued, Jimerson said.
An algebra teacher, for example, told them it was more
valuable to have a principal who could discuss functions,
"than it was for somebody to ask ... 'whether I had done a
thumbs-up every seven minutes,' " Jimerson said.
"So, teachers value the crossover practices, but when
administrators have some kind of content knowledge,
they seem to be able to see what they are observing in the
classroom in a much more complex and nuanced way,"
she said. "It does add value to that feedback, and it also
seems to improve the relationship and credibility between
the teacher and the leader."
But to muddy the waters a bit, the inverse was not necessarily true. A principal's lack of content knowledge did not
negatively impact the relationship between the teacher
and the principal. Teachers, for the most part, already
knew what their principals taught, and principals who admitted to some weaknesses and were interested in learning alongside teachers added to the principal's credibility.
From her research, Jimerson believes that while there
are common teaching practices that help, principals who
can gain a baseline understanding of how to teach content outside their area of expertise can be more effective
at helping their teachers and finding the right professionallearning resources and mentors.
That skill can be particularly useful in cash-strapped
districts, where every school may not have an instructional coach or subject-matter expert, or in rural school
districts where the principal has to wear many hats.
So, just how can principals expand and build their expertise? Jimerson suggests these steps:
* Choose one subject area a year and dig deeper into it.
* Subscribe to a practitioner journal in one content area,
such as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics'
journal. Principals should read it monthly, and discuss it
with their teachers.
* Make the learning public. Teachers and other experts
in the building and districts should know that principals
are engaging in this process.
* Have conversations with teachers about what you're
reading and ask to visit classrooms to see in practice what
you've just read.
* Work with the district's instructional coaches and con-

Inside the Principal-Teacher Relationship | 15

Education Week - October 16, 2019

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