A Rural Strategy for Filling Principalships.

Rural schools are hard pressed to attract candidates to fill their principal vacancies due to lower pay, rural isolation, lack of women and minority candidates, and no strategy to grow their own leaders from within the system.

Montana, with its hundreds of rural school districts, responded to the problem with a strategy that requires collaboration from state agencies, the universities, administrative professional organizations and local districts.

Most rural schools have teachers who are committed to that school and community. Among those who call that rural community "home" are teachers who demonstrate leadership potential and teaching excellence and who would make good principals. The challenge is enticing these teachers into the principalship even though they recite the common refrains: too much stress, too much time, insufficient compensation and extensive training requirements for certification.

Spotting Talent

Consider the challenge of the Shields Valley School District, located in a rural agricultural area of Montana consisting of two small towns that consolidated their small schools into one district serving about 300 students. The elementary principal is required to travel between two towns that are 10 miles apart to the elementary sites in both towns, and the pay is low because of the land-rich but cash-poor mindset of the ranchers who serve on the school board. What is there to attract a high-caliber principal to the Shields Valley district?

Superintendent Richard Shaffer, however, recognized leadership talent and teaching excellence in a young teacher and coach who had community ties and Shaffer offered him the opportunity to participate in a principal intern program that would place him in the elementary principalship starting the next fall. Six years later, that principal intern still serves as an administrator in the district. The usual barriers of proper certification, accreditation standards and appropriate mentoring are addressed by a statewide agreement forged by the Montana Office of Public Instruction. Here is how it works.

The district superintendent identifies an excellent teacher with leadership potential for a principal vacancy in the district. The district contacts one of the two universities in Montana, which initiate the required contract spelling out the responsibilities of all the parties. The principal intern is required to participate in a three-week summer session of graduate studies, worth nine credits, in critical areas such as teacher supervision and school law.

The state education agency provides three-year provisional certification to the principal candidate, satisfying state accreditation standards. The candidate begins as an intern principal the following fall. Districts generally pay tuition costs.

A Common Void

Awarding provisional certification is not unique as most states have some method in place to do that. Montana's internship program goes well beyond simply placing a minimally qualified person in a principalship under provisional certification. It is designed to grow quality school leaders. It differs from other programs in important ways.

The districts pay a $2,000 fee to the university to hire experienced, successful school administrators to serve as mentors to the intern. The university mentors make on-site visits at least monthly and are available by phone and e-mail for consultation as needed. These outside mentors fill a common void in rural districts where the superintendent is usually the only other administrator and often is consumed by multiple roles, leaving no time to mentor.

This is not to say, however, that the mentoring responsibility of the superintendent is ignored. The contractual agreement asks for a commitment of time from the district superintendent for mentoring. The added benefit is that the outside mentoring gives the principal a varied perspective. Additionally, the university training for mentors helps orient them on to how best to support the intern principal.

The universities also are helping to address the shortage of rural administrators by making certification course work more accessible through distance learning and through shorter, more intensive summer sessions. Interns have been able to easily fulfill their course requirements for certification within the allowed three years.

The professional associations also play a significant role in the mentoring of the intern principals. Montana's elementary and secondary principal associations have waived registration fees to their annual meetings for the interns and have offered special sessions for them and their mentors. They introduce new interns at their general assemblies and have devised specific strategies for helping these fledgling school leaders form a critical professional network by assigning them conference mentors. Special attention is given to include the interns in regional training workshops throughout the year.

Mentoring Support

Evaluation of the effectiveness of the Montana Principal Internship model recently was completed. Findings show that principals who have been interns are evaluated as favorably by their superintendents as those who have followed the more traditional preparation path.

However, the research findings clearly indicate that mentoring plays an important role in skill development as well as providing intern support. These findings suggest that mentoring strategies should be the focus of efforts elsewhere to recruit, grow and retain principals from within. Using multiple mentors from within the district and external to the district, along with assistance from the professional associations, is vital to address the principal shortage.

Joanne Erickson is an assistant professor of educational leadership at Montana State University