*4.1.3 Principal supervisors evaluating principals*

Supervisors confirmed that they were accountable for planning for the end-ofyear summative review, in addition to mentoring and guiding principals. During the year, they assessed the final results, overall performance, and leadership quality of the principals. At year's end, at the summative evaluation, both the principal supervisor and principal met to discuss assessments in an honest and open manner on the day of the summative evaluation. Comparing the principal's self-assessment with the preliminary evaluation of the principal supervisors and discussing inconsistencies between the two was the most challenging issue at this stage. As Bruno stated, "Everyone has a right to speak, defend, communicate, and voice concern—but not everyone has a right to be right." Bruno made an effort to resolve ratings where there were major disparities by asking the principal to supply supporting documentation from their portfolio.

When the opinions of both the principal and principal supervisor on the selfassessment were mostly in agreement, the summative evaluation took only a halfhour. However, 2 or 3 hours were needed to finish the evaluation when findings varied and there were significant disagreements. Principal supervisor Maria elaborated on situations in which the principal and principal supervisor had diverging views:

*In the case of disagreements with the principal, then you are certainly free to explain why you think it should be something different. If there has been something that a principal supervisor had either forgot about or was unaware of, a principal supervisor might change his mind or say, "We feel that we have not seen what you are talking about."*

Thorough conversations about the self-evaluation gave principals and principal supervisors a chance to elaborate on their comments and share their perspectives.

### *The Roles, Challenges, and Needs of Principal Supervisors: A Case Study DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108834*

The summative review was not a tough process, as nearly every supervisor repeated, because they had spent the whole year observing their leadership and tracking their development throughout the designated supervisory period. The summative evaluation's findings provided the principals with feedback on their development. As highlighted by principal supervisor Edward, individualized feedback was given at the summative evaluation as opposed to generic criticism so that every principal was aware of every facet of their operational performance. Feedback scores in all categories then served as a roadmap for principals' future development and implementation of change at their institutions to raise the bar for their evaluation performance.

As the findings in the literature suggest, supervisors have the right to carry out the assessment process and ultimately rate principals on their leadership abilities. The assessment process is more about creating a path for principal leadership development rather than just providing comments and reports [6, 37]. In addition, supervisors can use the evaluation results to provide principals with a chance for professional growth, either individually or in groups, with other principals who have similar needs.

### *4.1.4 Principal supervisors as a key mediator between the central office and schools*

All but one principal supervisor considered their secondary responsibility as supervisors to be acting as a "liaison" between the central office and the schools, informing principals of "recent updates and policies," and monitoring the flow of "daily school operations that aligned with the district agenda." However, this role of liaison obstructed the planning process for some principal supervisors, such as Julia. She explained:

*[There are] a lot of administrative details as a liaison between the district and schools. A lot of time is spent on this aspect. For example, at the beginning of the year, they [schools] are missing teachers, so I have to deal with it ... and I have to go back to ADEC headquarters and push that through the system. This morning, the principal had [an] ... issue with the parent of a special needs student. [Now,] I need to go back to headquarters and push that through the system ... so a lot of liaison [activity]. You will have to prioritize things and delay your plan*

A large portion of Julia's time was spent on managerial chores and administrative concerns, including exam preparation, parent grievances, issues between teachers and students, and other matters that fell more under the responsibilities of the principal. It became an urgent rush to be ready for school inspections, so Julia attempted to set additional time to make sure those schools were ready for the specific areas the inspectors were looking into. She stated, "I have one school that is being inspected, so of course I am going to be in that school more right now. I have three schools this year that are being inspected."

Principal supervisor Bruno mentioned that on days he spent with principals, he would routinely go back to the central office to handle several concerns affecting his schools. Bruno handled a variety of administrative issues, including complaints from parents, student enrollment problems, budgeting concerns, absentee teachers, scarce resources, special needs matters, and other troubles. He, like the other principal supervisors, effectively acted as a go-between for the district office and the school. Principal supervisors Mariam and Khalid stressed additional duties, such as updating principals on new regulations and procedures, and reporting underperforming instructors and parent complaints to the central office.

Some studies have claimed that supervisors have a full workload of administrative tasks despite the transition of principal supervisors toward being primarily instructional leaders [18]. Principal supervisors still often serve as mediators who contact schools to make sure their performance is in line with the criteria of the central office. However, given the conflicting demands of the central office, such as policy meetings, planning, and administrative oversight tasks regarding school operations, principal supervisors are often limited in their ability to mentor and support their assigned principals [18, 21, 23].

### **4.2 Theme two: obstacles principal supervisors face in fulfilling their obligations**

Principal supervisors can assist their principals in various ways, including mentoring, coaching, and guiding them as they deal with the numerous difficulties associated with running a school. Unfortunately, there are many districts that do not take full advantage of the uniquely impactful position that principal supervisors hold. As a result, the principals in those districts may struggle with many additional obstacles that could have been otherwise swiftly dealt with or avoided altogether with the skilled guidance of a supervisor. On the other hand, if the principal supervisor and principal carefully address issues together, obstacles can become opportunities for developing leadership practices and strengthening the supervisory relationship. In real-world practice, this does not come without difficulties, and the challenges from principal supervisors' side of the equation are often overlooked. The principal supervisors interviewed in this study revealed several difficulties and impediments they faced in carrying out their responsibilities. These impediments all fell within the following three areas: (1) vague guidelines and lacking standards of practice, (2) excessive time expended on administrative issues; and (3) the absence of professional development.

### *4.2.1 Vague guidelines and lacking standards of practice*

Principal supervisors reaffirmed their strict compliance with their "job description as a guide." However, they added that no formal criteria or rules were given to serve as a foundation for their practice. The lack of rules and largely unrestricted freedom to perform their duties as they saw fit often made it harder for them to do their jobs. This was particularly true of supervisors who did not have the necessary skills to provide effective supervision. For example, principal supervisor Khalid stated, "We do not have professional standards … like the ones school principals have, though we have some meetings that ... feed into some new policies or direction toward our job." Several other principal supervisors echoed Khalid's sentiments.

One positive aspect of district-granted autonomy was the ability to create the customized supervision that each principal required. Principal supervisor Mariam affirmed, "We have a greater degree of autonomy in decision-making regarding constructing supervision in the formative process... At the same time, there is no obligation for supervisors to make common decisions. It is not a goal to fully comply with supervisory structures." She reiterated that supervisors should design customized supervisory frameworks to meet the individual needs of their assigned principals, but it is necessary to set some fixed standards and norms. Given the correct balance of these two elements, principal supervisors can develop optimal development plans for their principals in an adequately consistent manner across the board.

## *The Roles, Challenges, and Needs of Principal Supervisors: A Case Study DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108834*

In the current evaluation, the dearth of standards and norms, combined with complete freedom to set their own agendas, served as a double-edged sword. This combination either strengthened the supervision in the case of experienced principal supervisors or lead to catastrophe when the supervisors were inexperienced or ill-prepared to have such free rein. Undoubtedly, when placed in the hands of a novice and untrained principal supervisor, too much autonomy may result in significant issues. This result is not unexpected as several studies have stressed the importance of developing written rules to precisely define the tasks and duties of principal supervisors and set up a structure to continually direct their focus toward the highest standards [7, 21, 29, 38]. According to the study, principal supervisors' duties are changing to place a greater focus on instructional leadership [18]. Nonetheless, districts must explicitly identify administrative and supervisory functions as well as the skills expected of supervisors holding these jobs.
