Interview with a principal of an elementary school in a suburban area

Summary of the Interview

In the interview, it was attempted to inquire about factors behind the success of Fairfax school system. The school leader described that the key approach to impart quality education was to develop a close collaborative relationship with children and their respective parents, without any distinction. The students need to be given some recognition in order to encourage them for learning, and this recognition should be based on the talents of students instead of the academic performance only. The school leader also mentioned that previously the school system consisted of mostly Anglo or English-speaking students, whereas now nineteen different languages are spoken in the school. This diversity has also brought new challenges in the form of communication barriers between the teachers and students. The matter was resolved by inducting English-learner program. In order to effectively organize the operations of the schooling system, there are meetings held from time to time where targets and schedules are determined. The principal also mentioned that an effective leader has to be open to criticism, which should not be taken personally. Instead, she mentions that criticism is only the description of the situation, and it should be taken in that context.

Questions

The interview of a school leader has been conducted, in order to analyze how far the particular school is in line with the defined guidelines mentioned by Daniel L. Luke in the book Education Empire: The evolution of an excellent school system.

We had questioned the chosen leader as to whether the school had experienced the effects of the economic, linguistic and cultural increase. A question regarding whether the concerned school was also facing issues such as English Language Learners and the achievement gap as Fairfax County is also facing? The interview also questioned ...