The Principal's Office: A Social History of the American School Principal

Chapter Four: Cracks in the System: School Leadership, 1945–1980

Chapter FOUR Cracks in the System School Leadership, 1945–1980 In 1952, an elementary principal in rural southern New Jersey described the challenges of his job in a period of rapid educational change. In his four years as principal of the Woodstown Elementary School, Howard Morris had seen the enrollment increase from 423 to 639 students, had overseen the construction of a new school building, and had incorporated staff and students from the former racially segregated black school. All of this had come to a head when school opened in September 1950, primarily because the construction was not yet finished, and principal Morris struggled with the continuing presence of contractors, a faulty door frame clogged with mud, windows that didn’t lock, cracked walls behind the steam pipes, missing toilet paper holders, bulletin boards that were too hard to put tacks into, and so on. By the end of the school year, the school still needed sidewalks and a few bookshelves, and the new drainage system in the front yard was still unfinished.1 The integration of the black school was relatively more successful: there was “only one complaint concerning assignment of white pupils to Negro teacher,” the principal noted with some relief, and the students seemed to get along, particularly the boys in sports, although Principal Morris believed that the African American students were “having real trouble keeping up in their lessons,” and, he ominously added, “this appears to be a long range problem.” But Principal Morris was distracted with more immediate problems, including planning a first aid clinic for teachers and transportation to the upcoming county spelling bee; addressing a problem of traffic safety; 85 86 THE PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE­ evaluating the textbook budget; supervising a new janitor; reviewing students ’ standardized and psychological tests; evaluating the new insurance plan; investigating the vexing problem of Bus Route #3, which for some reason was making the local residents along the route very unhappy; assuring the superintendent about Miss Mathis’ annual presentation of “The Story of Menstruation” to the seventh- and eighth-grade girls and securing the film projector for that event; and keeping track of newly enrolled students, teachers who called in sick, a teacher who was called up for military duty, and the installation of the Jungle Jim purchased by the Parent Teacher Association. Due to what Principal Morris described as “various administrative activities, adjustments, moving etc.” during the fall, he noted to his superintendent that he found himself “spread very thinly” and he knew that this would need to change “or the supervisory program will sag.” In the spring, he was able to return to supervision, and in April, he reported that he had made twenty-eight visits that month to eighteen teachers’ classrooms, for anywhere between twenty minutes to two class periods, and he had met with most of those teachers in a conference. But he admitted that he could not remember the gist of all of his conferences. He was more successful at holding individual meetings with teachers in his office to discuss specific problems with student achievement or behavior. Principal Morris’ account of his work as an elementary school principal encapsulates many of the challenges facing school leaders in the years immediately following the Second World War. In this period, schools experienced an unprecedented increase in the complexity of administrative operations with additional challenges introduced by postwar legal and policy restrictions , student and parent dynamics, and curriculum development. Most notable among these changes was the increased external influences on the school, as postwar American public schools opened up to outside scrutiny and governance. The principal, positioned in the middle of the educational system, faced both the impact of modern cultural changes in the student and school community and the intensification of modern educational policy developments. These double pressures pulled the school leader in opposite directions: increased cultural pressure pulled the principal out into the hallways and classrooms while more administrative demands from the educational bureaucracy tied the principal to the office desk. As Principal Morris reported on his typical workday, for example, he juggled the administrative and legal requirements around issues of employment, transportation, facility construction, curriculum development, community engagement, field trips, racial integration, standardized testing, traffic safety, textbooks, janitorial services, sex education, and insurance policies. And his day was also busy with personal interactions with teachers, staff, students, and parents.2 87 CRACKS IN THE SYSTEM Late twentieth-century schools experienced an...