Albert Bennett, Ph.D, Harold Washington Professor of Educational and Public Policy and Director of St. Claire Drake Center for African and African-American studies at Roosevelt University, Chicago, emphasizes the value of principals having opportunities to talk to each other as they face new challenges.
Albert Bennett:
One of my biggest regrets is the job is expanded, there's less and less time for principals to talk to principals. And we see that all the time that there's a new political dimension in many school systems. Clearly the educational focus is there, the high stakes of accountability focus is there so there's very little time for senior principals to engage junior principals.
So mentoring—coming into a profession induction and mentoring are important whether or not you're a new teacher or a new principal. There are tricks of the trade that senior people know that they can share with people who just started out in the profession and that doesn't happen (inaudible). There are no formal mechanisms, the informal networks, which used to exist had dried up because the job has become so unmanageable that they have to—many principals get to school at 7:00 and they're there at 9:00. There is no time for collegiality and sharing when there's that much stress around a job.
I've always said that any system that relies on super human effort cannot succeed because we as humans can't every day for 10 years or whatever, contribute super human efforts to a job.