Current Principal/Assistant Interview

School Code:

Interviewer:

CURRENT PRINCIPAL/ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL INTERVIEW PROTOCOL
1. Tell me little about yourself.
[Probe: When did you come to the school? What is your educational background? How many years
have you been a principal? At this school? Do you have prior experience or training working with lowperforming schools or students?]

2. Are you aware of any major school improvement efforts that occurred before you came to this school?
[Probes for turnaround schools: Were you aware of the turnaround that occurred in student
achievement? Who or what do you think was responsible for the turnaround?]
[Probe for comparison sites: Which of the school improvement efforts had the most significant effects on
student achievement?]

3. What was the school like when you arrived?
[Probes: What were the school’s strengths? Weaknesses? What was the student achievement profile?
What were the teachers like? What was the general climate of the school? What was the relationship
between the school and the district? Were reform efforts underway? If so, what were they? How were
they working? Have they changed? If so, what influenced the change(s)?]

4. Have any changes been made in the overall approach to reform since you arrived? If so, on what basis
were they made? To what extent did school-based data influence these changes? What has been the
reaction of staff? Of parents? Of the central office? How frequently have changes been made?

5. Are the actions to improve student achievement monitored? If so, how?

6. What would happen to the school, principal, and teachers if the school did not meet its achievement
targets?

7. Describe the formative and summative assessment system for student achievement at your school.
How do you use data from these assessments?
[Probes: How/where did you learn to use these data? Have there been any changes in the assessment
system in the past 5 years?]

Current Principal/Assistant Principal Interview Protocol
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8. Do you have authority to hire replacement teachers or are they assigned from the central office? From
what sources do you find new staff?

9. How do you support staff?
[Probe for use of external assisters, staff development opportunities, schedule changes to facilitate gradelevel and content sharing.]

10. When new teachers come to the school, are there practices (e.g., formal or informal mentorships,
special orientation) to introduce them to the key curriculum, instructional, and organizational
activities? Please describe.

11. What programs or policies currently exist designed to ensure sustained achievement?
[Probe: When were these introduced?]

12. Is there anything else I should know to tell the story of your school improvement efforts?

Current Principal/Assistant Principal Interview Protocol
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