What principals need to know to respond to a crisis

As of December, there were at least 48 school shootings in 2022 and approximately 141 since 2018 (Education Week, 2022). Each of these had devastating effects on their communities. In addition, schools frequently experience environmental disruptions such as tornadoes, snowstorms, and hurricanes. A 2022 U.S. Government Accountability Office report revealed that, since 2017, more than 300 presidentially declared major disasters have affected school districts across the U.S. and its overseas territories. And schools experience innumerable crises on a day-to-day basis that might not make national news. For example, a leaking pipe could flood a school, forcing the building to be closed.

Amid all these situations, school leaders are expected to initiate emergency protocols to the best of their abilities to ensure the safety of all stakeholders. The COVID-19 pandemic was one such crisis that affected all schools. Yet an analysis of data from a nationally representative RAND survey found that principals were generally ill-prepared for the challenges that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic — such as school closure, virtual learning, and so on (DeMatthews, Reyes, et al., 2021). Although no one was prepared for the specific challenges that came with the pandemic, the researchers argue crisis management in general is overlooked in the literature and ignored in principals’ evaluations, despite being a critical part of principals’ responsibilities.

Challenges of the pandemic

The pandemic presented at least three broad categories of challenges for school operations:

Inequity. The pandemic exacerbated inequities that plagued students from low-income and minority backgrounds. These manifested in the form of students lacking access to technology and academic support at home, which affected their ability to effectively engage with virtual learning.
Stress and burnout. The life-threatening nature of the virus and the adjustments to new modes of learning were accompanied by concerns of teacher burnout, student social-emotional and mental health challenges, and general frustration from parents and community members. The added demands also could contribute to principal burnout, leading to increased turnover (DeMatthews, Carola, et al., 2021).
Flow of information. The rapidly changing guidelines from federal and state entities during the pandemic meant that schools had to filter and make sense of evolving and, at times, conflicting information.

Important attributes for principals

The emerging literature on school leadership during the pandemic suggests that principals relied on three attributes to succeed during the pandemic: attentiveness to inequities, clear and consistent communication, and emotional intelligence. For example, in a recent study on principals’ crisis decision making, my colleagues and I (Jackson et al., 2022) found that, when making decisions about reopening schools, principals had to determine what was in students’ best interests (equity); listen to the concerns of the community regarding their reopening plans (emotional intelligence); and share the results of their deliberations with all stakeholders (communication). The pandemic highlighted the value of all these attributes, but their value extends beyond the pandemic.

Equity-oriented leadership. While the pandemic did not cause the inequities that surfaced, scholars have argued that it exacerbated those that existed before. As the primary agent of socialization, schools, and by extension principals, had to find creative ways to address these inequities by providing food and other resources to families in need, offering technological support, and challenging racist policies and practices. In this way, the pandemic “brought out the best in school leaders, who have reacted in creative and equitable ways” (Virella & Cobb, 2021, p. 2). Before the pandemic, principals might not have taken such a proactive stance in challenging inequitable policy and practices.

Crisis communication. The need for clear, concise, accurate, and timely information is magnified during times of crisis. The politicization of COVID-19 and proliferation of fake news conspiracies created competition for accurate information. Rapidly changing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization added another layer of complexity for school leaders to navigate (Jackson et al., 2022). Principals’ ability to sift through this information and to engage in two-way communication with their communities was critical in addressing these ambiguities and confusion. By keeping communication lines open, principals were able to build and maintain relationships with the public, which also enabled them to address needs that arose within the school community.

The spontaneous nature of crises makes it challenging for principals to be fully prepared, but cultivating a set of skills relevant to crisis response might reduce some of the burdens school leaders experience.

Emotional intelligence. Not surprisingly, the overnight transition to virtual learning and the months of isolation that followed may have lasting social, emotional, and mental effects on students, teachers, and school administrators. Amid these challenges, principals working in empty buildings, behind laptops, disconnected from those they lead, were forced to respond to the many different emotions of those in the school community (Harris & Jones, 2020). The emotional burden of these responsibilities was particularly taxing on school leaders who might not have been prepared for these challenges (DeMatthews, Carola, et al., 2021).

Implications for principal preparation

The difficulties school leaders faced during the pandemic highlights the need for principal preparation programs to rethink their programs to “encompass the leadership skills, practices and actions suited to the current, and potentially ongoing, COVID-19 situation” (Harris & Jones, 2020, p. 245). Even as COVID-19 subsides, we cannot know when the next crisis will come or what it will be. Leadership preparation programs must focus more on developing in aspiring school leaders the competencies they need to manage a crisis.

For example, principal preparation programs should consider scenario-based learning and role-playing with aspiring leaders to cultivate thinking and practice around these skills as part of any crisis response discussions. Admittedly, the spontaneous nature of crises makes it challenging for principals to be fully prepared, but cultivating a set of skills relevant to crisis response might reduce some of the burdens school leaders experience while navigating the specific uncertainties of their situation.

The emerging literature on COVID-19 responses acknowledges attentiveness to inequities, communication, and emotional intelligence as three of the most important priorities in principals’ crisis response. But other skills, such as decisive decision making, may also be important. And professional development in these skills need not be limited to principals. Educators at all levels can benefit from some learning about these key competencies and how to apply them in a crisis.

References

DeMatthews, D., Carrola, P., Reyes, P., & Knight, D. (2021). School leadership burnout and job-related stress: Recommendations for district administrators and principals. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues, and Ideas, 94 (4), 159-167.

DeMatthews, D., Reyes, P., Solis Rodriguez, J., & Knight, D. (2021). Principal perceptions of the distance learning transition during the pandemic. Educational Policy, 0, (0).

Education Week. (2022, August 1). School shootings this year: How many and where. Education Week.

Harris, A. & Jones, M. (2020). COVID 19: School leadership in disruptive times. School Leadership & Management, 40 (4), 243–247.

Jackson, M., Bass, L., Jackman-Ryan, S., Picart, J., & Hoeflaken, K. (2022). Locating equity in principals’ pandemic decision-making practices. Peabody Journal of Education, 97 (3), 274-290.

U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2022, January). Disaster recovery: School districts in socially vulnerable communities faced heightened challenges after recent natural disasters (GAO-22-104606). Author.

Virella, P.M. & Cobb, C. (2021). Leveraging the crisis for equity and access in the long term: A brief research report. Frontiers in Education, 6.

This article appears in the February 2023 issue of Kappan, Vol. 104, No. 5, pp. 66-67.