Powerful Partnerships : A Handbook for Principals Mentoring Assistant Principals

"This much-needed handbook is an excellent resource for principals and assistant principals as they face the challenges of school improvement together. The exercises focus school leaders on building their collective strengths, expanding their learning opportunities, providing schools with strong succession plans, and enabling leadership teams to address differences while building the capacity for effective teamwork."
—Sandra J. Stein, Chief Executive Officer
NYC Leadership Academy

Nurture the development of future school leaders through effective principal–assistant principal partnerships!

Assistant principals represent the next generation of school principals, so it is critical that schools and districts address the professional development of these key administrators. In this essential resource, Gary Bloom and Martin L. Krovetz demonstrate how principals and assistant principals can use their collaborative relationships to prepare assistant principals for future leadership roles.

This resource views the partnership between principals and assistant principals as a coaching-based relationship that benefits students and schools. Through this apprenticeship approach, assistant principals receive the mentoring and support they need to become tomorrow′s school leaders, and principals benefit from a more effective leadership team. The authors offer discussion questions, activities for the assistant principal, and shared activities that help principals and their assistants to:

• Develop a shared vision for their relationship and their school
• Design a plan for communication and professional development
• Build assistants′ skills in school management, instructional leadership, and personnel management

Addressing a critical yet frequently neglected topic, Powerful Partnerships helps principals mentor assistant principals, promote their professional development, and prepare them for challenging new positions in the future!