Living the ABCs of Running a School

"I think it's been extraordinary," said John E. Deasy, the superintendent of Prince George's schools. "Not only did we get tremendously good people in our cohort, every report in every meeting has been about how well these residents are doing."

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For Jordan and Brown, a big part of the job is helping teachers and other staff members do their best in the classroom. They also are trying to master the whole intricate operation of a school.

Brown, her principal, Kasandra Lassiter, and several instructors sat around a small circular table recently and tried to figure out which students needed additional help in reading and math. They were also trying to head off a crisis: Science projects were due next Friday.

All the projects were supposed to be about the Chesapeake Bay. Some were too ambitious. The children had been doing their class work, but nothing was getting done at home. The students hadn't gotten oysters or bay plants or any of the supplies they needed.

"We know they're not working at home, so what are we going to do to get it done here?" Lassiter asked. She answered her own question with a strategy: "Whatever you're working on that doesn't have to deal with that project, you need to get it done. We need to pick topics that are simple, unfortunately, at this point in time."

Sandra Edmonds, a fifth-grade science and math teacher, looked slightly incredulous.

"I just want to know how we're going to do this," Edmonds said.

Lassiter replied, "Have an honest, courageous conversation about what is going to get done."

Later, as Brown visited classrooms in the building, talking with students, she remarked on what she had learned from Lassiter.

"I'm going to feel equipped, because I'm really learning a lot," Brown said. She had been a second-grade and fourth-grade teacher in Prince George's schools for a decade, but training to be a principal gave her another point of view. As a principal, her interactions with teachers -- like Lassiter's with Edmonds -- would be as important as what she did with students.

"I didn't see leadership qualities in myself," she said of her reasons for applying to be a principal. "I just [applied] because I saw it needed to be done."

Jordan applied because, as she put it, being a teacher gave her the chance to affect the lives of a few hundred students. Being a principal would allow her to shape the education of thousands.