By Mindy Farry Accountability and School Improvement Representative
By the time you’re reading this article, classrooms are airing out, teachers are decorating bulletin boards, buses are running, and everyone is wondering the same thing: “How do we make this our best year yet?”
The answer isn’t found in January data meetings or spring testing. It starts long before that—in the first month of school. I’ve visited enough schools over the years to know that you can often tell by the end of September what the rest of the year is going to look like. That’s not because every problem has been solved. It’s because effective leaders establish a culture that says, “This is how we do things here.” Those first few weeks matter.
Decide What Is Non-Negotiable
Teachers are walking into a new school year with new students, new responsibilities, and often a few new initiatives. They don’t need a list of twenty priorities. They need clarity.
What are the two or three instructional practices that every classroom should demonstrate every day? What expectations will never change, regardless of grade level or content area? When leaders are clear about those non-negotiables—and consistently reinforce them—teachers can spend less time guessing and more time teaching.
You ask teachers to review their non-negotiables in the classroom. What are the non-negotiable expectations for every classroom, every day?
Keep Saying It
One faculty meeting isn’t enough. Neither is one email. If something is important, it deserves to be repeated. Whether you’re talking about attendance, classroom expectations, instructional strategies, or school culture, your staff should hear the same message in meetings, walkthroughs, coaching conversations, and informal visits to classrooms. Sound like a broken record, and the message is getting across! Consistency builds confidence. Mixed messages create confusion.
Guard Every Minute of Instruction Time
One of the quickest ways to improve student achievement doesn’t cost a dollar. Protect instructional time. Every unnecessary announcement, interruption, extended transition, or last-minute schedule change chips away at learning. Five minutes here and ten minutes there doesn’t seem like much until they’ve added up to hours of lost instruction.
Ask yourself—and your leadership team—a simple question: “Would I interrupt this lesson if I were the student sitting in that classroom?” If the answer is no, it can probably wait.
Get Into Classrooms Early
Don’t wait until evaluation season to find out what’s happening. The first month should be filled with quick classroom visits—not to “catch” teachers doing something wrong, but to understand what’s working, identify where support is needed, and celebrate effective instruction.
The best walkthroughs end with conversations, not checklists. When teachers know you’re there to support them, those visits become opportunities for growth instead of sources of anxiety. So many tasks (major and trivial) take time away from administrators. There is nothing more important, however, than helping teachers become better teachers. You cannot do that unless you are in classrooms consistently, encouraging, giving advice, assisting.
Set personal goals for how many classrooms you will visit in a week. Publish that goal. I used to display a huge poster “thermometer” with my weekly goal on it right outside the main office. It kept me accountable to the staff and to myself.
Resist the Temptation to Do Everything
Every year brings new programs, new requirements, and new ideas. Some are excellent. But trying to implement everything at once usually means implementing nothing particularly well. Schools improve when leaders stay focused. Instead of asking, “What else can we add?” consider asking, “What should we become exceptional at?” When there are too many priorities, it becomes like skimming a stone across the lake. The stone only brushes the surface instead of sinking in deeply to the bottom.
Depth almost always beats breadth. Many of you may have heard my story about one of my favorite bosses. He came into a leadership meeting with a huge bull’s eye on a piece of poster paper. He then drew multiple arrows on the poster. Some arrows were pointed directly at the center, while others were flying haphazardly in a multitude of directions. He said, “These arrows are just like you. You all have great arrows with sharp tips, but if they aren’t linked to our overall goal, set them aside for another time.” That helped me as I walked back to my building. It helped guide purchases, hiring, scheduling…every decision had to be aimed at the bull’s eye.
One Final Thought
As leaders, we don’t control every challenge the school year will bring. There will be staffing changes, enrollment issues, unexpected obstacles, and moments when even the best plans need to be adjusted.
But we do control how we begin. The first 30 days are our opportunity to establish expectations, build relationships, protect learning, and create momentum that carries us through the rest of the year. A strong start doesn’t guarantee a successful year—but it certainly makes one much more likely.
Here’s wishing you a school year filled with purposeful, targeted leadership, great teaching, and students who thrive because of both.
References
Fullan, M. (2020). Leading in a culture of change (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Fullan, M., & Quinn, J. (2016). Coherence: The right drivers in action for schools, districts, and systems. Corwin.