FIRST THINGS FIRST:
Improving Instruction in
America’s High Schools

        High school principals hold one of the most demanding and complex jobs in America. They are expected to be engaging speakers, thoughtful planners, creative problem-solvers, skilled politicians, and superb financial planners. But no role is more important than the one they have supervising their school’s instructional program.

    Nearly every state has used or adopted the ISLLC standards as the basis for getting a license to be a school principal. At the heart of those standards is an emphasis on the principal’s role improving the quality of teaching and learning. Standard 2---Leadership for Teaching and Learning---is described as the “core work of education leaders.”

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      “I like the underdog,” says Leonard Franks, principal, El Reno (OK) Academy.

    That is the driving force that keeps the former science teacher and coach going to work each day at his alternative school, which has between 80 and 90 sixth through 12th grade students at any time of the school year. The Academy provides a core program plus electives for students who are at risk of dropping out of school or not graduating.

    Few of Franks’ charges come to El Reno due to discipline problems. Rather, they are burdened with a variety of challenges ranging from having to work eight hours a day to help support their family to being a single parent to being homeless.
    
    “Our goal is to get as many of our students as possible to graduate high school,” indicates Franks, who has been principal at El Reno for eight years. “Clearly, it’s a lot cheaper for all of us for these students to earn a diploma than to be supported by society.”

     A major challenge facing Franks and his six person teaching staff is to explain the value of an education to their students.

     “Some of our youngsters don’t see education as valuable,” he explains. “They know legally they have to come, but they see no payoff for studying and working hard in class. Many parents tell the children that they got by without an education, and there simply aren’t a lot of role models for some of our kids as to the payoff of education.”
 

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