As a high school principal for the past 12 years, I have had a revolving door of highly successful AP’s and worked with my colleague and (phenomenal) AP Chris Berry to figure out what worked and why. Chris has a unique perspective as he has worn several different hats in our school before joining the administrative ranks and had the opportunity to observe close up what was going on, who was most successful, and most importantly, why.

I’m frequently amazed by the frustration some of my principal peers feel about working with their AP’s and have tried to capture why the way our training relationship works has been so effective for us. Chris and I are presenting the Forum for New Principals and Assistant Principals in February at the NASSP Convention and would welcome hearing from both AP’s and principals about what would be most helpful from both perspectives to make the principal/AP relationship as productive as possible in the best interests of students.