Living the ABCs of Running a School

Nonprofit Program Is Helping Prince George's Schools Train New Principals

It was a few minutes before 9:30 a.m., and Glynis Jordan had already had a busy day patrolling the halls of Fairmont Heights High School. She'd shepherded kids to class, sent one boy to detention because he was running late, sent another back to his locker to put on a school uniform and covered a class for a teacher who wasn't there.

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Jordan, a 12-year veteran of middle and high school classrooms and now a trainee in a program that embeds experienced educators in schools for a year to learn how to become principals, this was all part of learning the ropes.

So was what happened next.

"Security to the career center," a female voice squawked through Jordan's radio. "Security to the career center, please."

Jordan, a tall woman in a dark brown top, jeans and brown shoes, comfortable clothes for a job that requires her to be moving constantly, walked quickly down the hallway. When she found the room, she knocked on the door, not knowing what was on the other side. It turned out to be a classroom where a substitute had lost control.

"You can't be afraid of them," Jordan said later. "You can't have one ounce of fear, or you lose the whole school."

That's one lesson Jordan has absorbed in her first semester at Fairmont Heights, where she is a trainee in the nonprofit New Leaders for New Schools program. In return, she has won the grudging respect of students at Fairmont Heights. This is a skill she will need if she takes command of her own high school next year.

A few years ago, Fairmont Heights, a school of slightly more than 1,000 students just east of the District, was a mess, security officers and teachers recalled. There were wires hanging from the ceilings and students hanging out in the halls. Test scores were abysmal; in 2004, 5.1 percent of the students who took a state math proficiency test passed.

Peggy Nicholson, the principal and Jordan's mentor, took charge two years ago and is credited with cleaning up the school. Serious challenges remain -- 35 percent of the students passed the state math test last year -- but teachers and other staff members said the school's disciplinary climate has improved markedly.

The New Leaders for New Schools program is built on the idea that leadership like Nicholson's is essential to improving achievement at urban schools. The organization has given intensive training to more than 300 principals in several urban school systems across the country, including the District. This year, the nonprofit organization started training the first of about 28 principals it plans to work into the system over the next three years.

The selection process for the New Leaders program was rigorous. Peter Kannam, head of the nonprofit's Baltimore division, said 129 people applied to be in the Prince George's training program. Sixty-two made it to the first round of interviews. Twenty-one made it to the next round. Five were chosen.

Jordan was one of them. So was Chandra Brown, who was assigned to Seat Pleasant Elementary School, also in Capitol Heights. Although the principals-in-training work with a New Leaders coach, most of the learning is done while dealing with the myriad real-life problems that crop up at a school.