Top Candidates Vie for Houston A+ Principal Leadership Academy Slots
More than half of the 60 finalists for Regional Principal Leadership Academy come from HISD
Imagine a reality show where contestants vie for the chance to fill a job many consider to be among the most challenging of our times.
Who wants to be a principal? Thankfully, the top 60 candidates do for the nonprofit Houston A+ Challenge’s aspiring principals academy, which held its final round of selection on April 3 and 4, 2009, at the Hilton Americas hotel in downtown Houston.
These teachers, assistant principals, and other education and business professionals have already risen to the top of a pool of more than 250 individuals who applied this spring to the Regional Principal Leadership Academy. And those two days—packed with interactive, hands-on, problem-solving activities—will help determine which 20 candidates get to spend the next 18 months in an intensive training program that prepares new leaders for the Houston region’s struggling secondary schools. More than half of the finalists this year come from HISD.
“It’s competitive, intellectually stimulating, and it gets you to think about the real-world problems that principals have to deal with every day,” said candidate Craig Stowers, a teacher from Humble ISD. “No matter what happens, whether I get picked or not, this is an invaluable experience.”
Opening the two-day event, Houston A+ Challenge Executive Director Scott Van Beck said that in the 25 years since the release of the influential “A Nation at Risk” report, public schools have been “tinkering around” with reform – and yet the student dropout rate remains stubbornly high, and the increasingly complex needs of Houston’s 21st century workforce remain unmet. The time has come, Van Beck said, for schools to transform.
“We’re looking for transformative principals. We’re not looking for ‘coping’ principals,” he told candidates. “You’re here today because you want to be that kind of leader.”
Sheri Miller-Williams, Director of Leadership for Houston A+ Challenge, said that after whittling down the applicant pool—screening online applications and essays, and conducting hundreds of interviews via phone and in person—the group-selection event was designed to give candidates a unique, albeit nerve-wracking, chance to shine among their peers. Candidates will be notified in early May as to whether or not they have made it into the academy.
Walter Hunt said he knew exactly how the candidates were feeling. Last year, he was one of 40 candidates in the hot seat, competing for just 20 slots in the academy’s first cohort.
“It’s a lot of pressure. This year, it’s 20 out of 60, so it’s even more competitive,” said Hunt, who was selected and now is serving as a principal intern in Humble ISD.
Candidates hail from all across the Houston region, and those chosen for the academy will be placed as principal interns, shadowing seasoned middle- and high-school principals in partnering local districts, including Aldine, Houston, Humble, Spring Branch, and YES Prep.
Traveling the furthest for the opportunity to join the Houston A+ Challenge academy was Grady Hill, an assistant principal from New York City. After one interactive activity where candidates had to work collaboratively—but silently—to solve a puzzle, Hill observed that a leader’s role in a 21st century school is a similarly complex task.
“It’s not enough to say, ‘This is my job, and I’m doing OK, so that’s as far as I’ll take it.’ Everyone in a school has to be doing a good job, in order to achieve success,” he said.
Candidates had at least one thing in common—a passion for helping students in underserved communities. Kenneth Gay Jr., an assistant principal in Aldine ISD, traced his desire to become a leader to the first time he saw the film, Lean on Me, where Morgan Freeman stars as an inspirational principal of a struggling New Jersey high school.
“I saw a black man in a tie, making a difference in the lives of kids,” he said. “I saw that and I knew it was achievable. I knew I wanted to be the best teacher I could be, and then make it a point to try my best to become a principal.”
Laura Alaniz, an assistant principal at Houston ISD’s Stephen F. Austin High School, told of a similar motivation. “I see the need for students, especially minority students, to connect with leaders who not only understand their experience, but also challenge them through rigor in the classroom,” she said. “Our students need to leave us fully prepared for the world in which we live—that is my drive.”
Jennifer Pali, a teacher at Sterling Middle School in Humble ISD, said she hoped the Houston A+ Challenge academy would inspire more teachers to consider taking on leadership positions.
“We are already leaders in our classrooms,” she said. “Take any opportunity to fire up your passion for kids.”
On the second day of the event, candidates delivered presentations on how they would turn around a struggling secondary school, and how their leadership style would help them execute such a transformation. Evaluators including Melissa Hayhurst, principal of Kingwood High School in Humble, will help determine which individuals are selected into the Houston A+ Challenge aspiring principals academy.
“This group is focused, they’re knowledgeable, and they’re savvy,” said Hayhurst, who also serves as a mentor principal for interns in the academy. “You don’t normally see long lines of people wanting to be school administrators—especially for high-needs schools. This makes me really hopeful for our next generation of leaders.”