Which school administrators are necessary?

[ColbertWatcher]

After reading some great threads today about education, I'm starting to wonder what administrators are necessary to run/operate a school.

Any ideas?

(EDITED TO ADD) And what should their duties/responsibilities be?

[T Wolf]

1. It depends on the district. Ours is overloaded with hig-level, and high-salary

admins. A super and two principals for 600 kids.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. What would be their duties? n/t

[T Wolf]

6. Not really sure, even after having two daughters go through. I just know that three

is too many for such a small district.

They could get by with two, or maybe even one.

Those high on the food chain everywhere eat at others' expense.

[zazen]

3. the big racket is educational "consulting" and evaluation

You wouldn't believe the number of redundant, useless fly-in well-catered conferences and workshops and retreats for high level administrators --council of that, commission of this--that are routinely held to produce "reports" that claim the same set of recommendations over and over and over again. I have friends who make big bucks in this--there are worse things to do on the planet, but a few years ago I really pushed on one of them to try to build some unpleasant issues like climate change and peak oil and the beginnings of the mortgage crisis into all of their "visioning." I give him credit for trying.

I'm so SICK of the verbiage of "preparing our children for the high-tech world of the 21st century by cultivating their critical thinking and problem solving skills yada yada yada." It doesn't produce "problem solvers." It produces kids who have tons of intrusive busywork that requires all sorts of personal "reflections" that are then evaluated.

[greenkal]

4. The school secretary...

and that's it! After a couple of decades of working in schools, I've never seen a principal that helped teachers. They hurt much more than they helped. Getting rid of them would free up enough money for more free school lunches.

[ColbertWatcher]

5. Good idea. I know secretaries run companies, why not let them run the schools! n/t

[murielm99]

7. They do that already.

Any teacher new to a district or building knows that the secretary is the go-to person for anything. If you get on the bad side of the secretary, you are in trouble. Make friends with the secretary right away. Secretaries run the building.

It doesn't hurt to have the custodian and cafeteria workers on your side, either. They see everything and know everything that is going on in the building.

[KamaAina]

8. I have long believed that the problem is that administration is favored over teaching

better pay and better working conditions. Not much to do about the working conditions -- that's pretty much up to the kids :-) -- but we should try to structure pay so that the best teachers don't vie to be promoted to administration, thereby taking themselves out of the classroom.

[sad sally]

9. Schools need administrators to go to "important" meetings,

have their pictures in the local newspapers shaking hands with somebody "important," and be willing to be either dunked during the school carnival or hit with a pie.

Seriously, schools need well trained well paid teachers to help parents and society get the next generation ready to take over. They don't need all the layers of bosses who don't care or know what's going on in the classrooms.

[fed_up_mother]

10. The ones that fire the bad teachers.

:rofl:





Sorry, couldn't help it!