Andrew Shen Named R.J. Grey's Next Principal

Q&A with Andrew Shen:

What motivated you to seek the principal position?

Becoming a principal has certainly been a career aspiration that I’ve had.

The fact that there was an opportunity to pursue that goal in a place that I’ve already grown to become quite comfortable with and enjoy is the main reason. Whenever you think about becoming a principal you want to think about being in a place where you’re going to work with people who you like and who you respect, to work in a place where you think you have a connection with the students and also a community where the parents are supportive of the school.

In my time here, those are the three things that I’ve come to experience. I think it was a logical decision that made a lot of sense.

Do you think the number of applicants (35) is indicative that is perceived positively outside our community?

Absolutely. It speaks highly to the reputation that R.J. Grey has. I think, to that point, from what I heard there were a lot of sitting principals who applied. R.J. Grey is a great place to work.

What are the major differences between your present and future roles?

The main job of the assistant principals is, for lack of a better term, “making sure the trains run on time” on a daily basis. They’re responsible for thinking about the operational aspects, some of the mechanical aspects, and the daily interactions that involve supporting students and supporting staff.

I think as much as a principal still needs to have that connection on a day-to-day basis with students, staff and parents, his or her biggest role is to think about the direction of the school, to think about vision, to think about whether we are coordinating our resources and our energy in a way where we’re moving toward larger goals.

I’ll be working with the different people who are part of the school community and thinking about the direction in which we’re headed.

The biggest challenge for me will be having have faith that the assistant principals who are here will make sure that the day-to-day work is getting done so I can keep my eye on the larger picture.

What are your thoughts about supervising staff that have been at R.J. Grey longer than you have?

The good news is that I’ve had the past four years to develop relationships with them. So I think they’ll base our interactions on those experiences and not so much on my youthful vigor.

What are the three most important qualities that someone leading a middle school should possess?

I think developing a sense of trust between yourself and different people with whom you work is important.  Certainly, having people think that you are a person of integrity, that you are a person of commitment, is important. I think people realize that they’re not going to agree with everything that their principal decides, and that’s okay as long as they have the sense that they know where you’re coming from, that you’re honest about your decisions, that you are consistent with your decisions.

I think a sense of humor is important. One of the best parts about this particular age group is that they’re not always predictable. You need to maintain some perspective and a sense of humor to appreciate some of the nuances of the age group and to remind yourself that this is a great opportunity to influence students at a time where they are impressionable, where you can help them develop some skills that will make them successful in the future. I think a sense of humor helps with that.

Being forward thinking is important—thinking about the big picture and being five steps ahead. If you don’t do that, you get bogged down in the “tyranny of the urgent”--little problems here, little problem there.

How will you judge your success a year from now?

There are a couple things. When we talk about the principal’s role with the staff, we have a new teacher evaluation system coming up. That’s both by necessity and by choice. The state of Massachusetts recently passed a law that dictates new features of how we evaluate and supervise teachers. But even if that weren’t there, as a district we’d be thinking about what are better ways we can provide more supervision and more professional support to teachers. That’s coming underway next year.

One big goal for me is to develop a system where teachers feel more comfortable, more supported. Efforts will be made to have colleagues and administrators in their classrooms working with them on their instruction, where it’s not just about performance. Another set of eyes, another person to talk to about things that don’t go quite the way a teacher wants them to is important.

One of the other goals that we’re hoping for next year is to really think about ways that we help students who exist at the margins, who don’t always feel that they’re as successful as they can be and students who we feel could be more successful. We need to put in place the structures that will help them to reach their potential.

Right now we have one academic support center, which is a general ed support center. Next year we’re going to have two, one for 7^th grade and one for 8^th grade. Our hope is that that will allow us to expand our ability to support a wider range of students and intervene in their academic lives earlier.

This year we started a general ed reading program. Now that it’s off the ground, we’re hoping to expand that in its second year.

We have a new librarian/media specialist. We’re looking at ways that we can incorporate her skill set in helping students who are in the academic support centers, in the reading program, in the classrooms.

We have a lot of talent and we have a lot of capacity. We’re doing lots of great things as islands. Can we find ways to have them interact in a more productive way? Can we connect them and find ways to work more in concert together?

At the end of next year, I hope we’re starting the process of moving in that direction.

Are there any other new challenges you’ll be facing?

The number of diagnosed concussions has skyrocketed. This year we’ve had over 35 students with concussions. When that happens, it has a real impact on a student’s ability to engage in class for anywhere between a couple of days and over two or three months. These students have limited access to their curriculum because their physicians have said, understandably, that they should not be engaged in their work 100%. What do we do with those students? Their parents are frustrated, the students are frustrated, and their teachers are frustrated. It’s like they have to take a “time out” but yet school still needs to run.

Our hope is that we can use the ASC, now that we have greater space, to support those students or students who experience anxiety throughout the day. There are situations where we can utilize these new supports in unique situations, intervening a lot earlier and in more effective ways.

What will you tell the parents of incoming students?

The junior high is a place where we know there are going to be a lot of changes. We want students to be successful, but part of being successful is learning how to adjust to challenges and how to respond to moments of difficulty and failure.

The challenge that we all have, regardless of age group, is that we live in a world where, I think, the definition of success has gotten a little narrower.  People are worried about competition and this idea that any mistake along the way will somehow have repercussions way down the road. That’s tough. I don’t necessarily blame them for that; we live in a culture where there is some of that messaging.

There are benefits to helping kids see that success doesn’t go in a straight line, that sometimes it’s a little bit circular. One of the things I actually keep in my office is my own 7^th grade report card. It was not a good report card.  For me it’s a reminder that that didn’t define who I was or what my potential was. 

Middle school should be about discovery and curiosity, in terms of content and in terms of students themselves. They’re going through ten different types of changes and the more we can get them to realize that it’s about discovering and taking risks, not just about doing well in everything. That’s important for us as a school.

Shen will officially step down as Assistant Principal and begin his post as Principal on July 1, 2012.