Nancy Slattery has been a teacher for more than two decades and, until now, she had never really considered going into administration.
The classroom was where Slattery felt she could have a positive impact on children’s lives; the principal’s office had little appeal.
Lately, though, Slattery and her colleagues in North Shore School District 112 have been getting an unusual amount of encouragement to step away from the blackboard and move into management.
Since October, Slattery has attended after-school workshops that organizers hope will lure a few teachers away from teaching. The district’s new Leadership Academy gives teachers an introduction to budgets, personnel, building management and other topics that they don’t usually deal with.
Spurred by the shortage of qualified school administrators in Illinois, more school districts are trying to coax teachers out of the classroom and into the office. School districts are developing internship programs or offering workshops to teachers in an effort to “grow their own” administrators.
“It has made me realize that if I want to get an administrative certificate, it is achievable,” Slattery said. “I had not given much thought to it before.”
Early retirement programs of the 1990s have contributed to the widespread shortage of administrators, prompting many school districts to view their own teachers as perhaps the most accessible pool of candidates for management jobs.
“I want them to want my job,” Niles Township School District 219 Supt. Griff Powell said.
Powell said that when he recruits educators, he pays particular attention to those who seem interested in pursuing leadership positions in the future.
“I am seeking out upwardly mobile candidates,” Powell said.
A report from the Illinois State Board of Education says 24 percent of administrators in Illinois are eligible to retire. That number will increase significantly in the next three years, when 47 percent of administrators will join the ranks of prospective retirees who are at least 55 years old and have 20 or more years of experience. The state board said 80 percent of school administrators in Illinois are at least 50 years old.
Administrative positions include more than just principals and superintendents. Other administrative jobs–curriculum director, finance director, business manager–are also increasingly difficult to fill.
Across the Chicago area, attempts are being made to remedy the administrative shortage.
Northwestern University and the Chicago Public Schools are working together to help teachers become qualified as administrators through a training program, said Fred Hess, director of NU’s Center for Urban School Policy.
Teachers who already have their administrative certification attend classes at NU for five weeks in summer, learning what it takes to be a principal in the Chicago Public Schools. They then become associate principals, working under mentoring principals.
In Naperville, a training program offered by School District 203 is aimed at lower-level administrators, such as assistant principals, but last fall top teachers in the district were also invited to participate.
District 203 Supt. Donald Weber said new administrators participate in a mentoring program that meets four times a year, providing a support network and place to ask questions.
In Tinley Park, Kirby School District 140 is casting a wider net for qualified applicants.
Supt. Arnold Drzonek said there is a need for more mentoring programs to help young administrators get experience. Drzonek said he hopes to expand his district’s mentoring program, which focuses on “education associates”–teachers who head up a department or grade level and work closely with the administration.
In Woodland School District 50 in Gages Lake, 13 teachers participate in monthly workshops on school administration, Supt. Dennis Conti said.
“Other school superintendents have been stealing my assistant principals right and left,” Conti said. “They’ve gone into full-blown principalships.”
That has left the district particularly in need of assistant principals, he said.
In Highland Park District 112, more than half of the 20 administrators will be eligible for retirement over the next few years, Supt. JoAnn Desmond said.
“We have so much talent within our district,” Desmond said. “But often times, teachers can’t envision what it might be like to be in a leadership role.”
A current search for a new elementary school principal is a good example of the problem. The district has received 37 applications for the job, which in years past would have attracted more than 100 candidates.
“There is so much competition for top candidates,” Desmond said.
Desmond said the district’s Leadership Academy has attracted about 25 teachers. It consists of workshops on administrative topics, as well as opportunities for clinical experiences.
“It has given me a whole new appreciation for what administration is all about,” said Fran McCarthy, who teaches special education at Oak Terrace Elementary School. “I have a better perspective on just how difficult administration is.”
Eventually, the district hopes the program will provide a link between teachers and university programs in administration to facilitate enrollment in a degree program.
The Leadership Academy has already produced results, Assistant Supt. Laurie Macintyre said. One of the participants, Ravinia Elementary School teacher Bob Chleboun, was recently selected to be the district’s summer school director.
