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I never wanted to be a principal. This is a common refrain from many school leaders, but it could not be more true for me. I resisted at every opportunity leading up to accepting the role at Frederick Elementary School (FES) in 2017, when FES became a Baltimore Curriculum Project (BCP) neighborhood conversion charter school.

Whenever I am asked what finally changed my mind, the answer is the same; it was being a principal in a BCP school. My prior experience with BCP and its schools from my days with the Baltimore City Schools district office (BCP’s partner) afforded me the opportunity to know the leadership and staff as well as the schools and their principals. I always admired the value that BCP leadership placed on honoring principal leadership at the school-level and providing appropriate levels of support when needed. 

One of the other BCP values that I observed and appreciated was the use of research and evidence-based strategies in all facets of operation at both the school and operator levels. It was a community of learners, and I felt at home within it. I also valued being associated with an organization that had rockstar principals on the roster already. It was a challenge to be able to live up to the reputation of the BCP principal. At the time of my departure from FES this past summer when I became BCP’s Chief of Schools, BCP had two school leaders formally designated as Distinguished, Baltimore City Public Schools’ highest honor for principals (with one additional principal eligible for the distinction), two formally designated as Transformational (the second highest honor), and another two eligible for that distinction. That means that every school leader in the organization was recognized for effectiveness in leadership. I am proud to have served alongside BCP principals, and I am even more proud to now serve BCP principals in the realization of their visions for their school communities.

After six years in that role, it was an honor to be invited to join the leadership of BCP to further the commitment to supporting school leaders and using research to drive sustainability and reform efforts across the organization. In keeping with that commitment to research and turning theory into practice, I am deeply invested in the development of future leaders. During this Principal Appreciation Month, I would offer some thoughts on the future of leadership development for urban schools.

The Leadership Challenge

Issues facing urban schools and school districts have become increasingly complex. From the pervasive use and manipulation of social media to the extreme effects of inequity as the result of oppressive systems and structures, school leaders are called upon to navigate social issues in schools while limiting their impact on student outcomes. Recent cases and headlines in public education, such as the debates over Critical Race Theory and challenges to African American studies courses, to the debates over parents’ rights bare out some of these new dynamics in real terms. 

Educational leaders, now more than ever, are asked to develop new insights and ways of solving problems; however, training for leadership in the current social climate is often not sufficient. Research on recent educational reform efforts suggests that educational leaders tend to believe that they function in spaces and systems that are complicated, when in fact they operate more times than not in complexity. A prevailing assumption in the K-12 public education arena is that expert knowledge, based on prior experience, is the greatest factor in the perception of one’s preparedness for leadership roles. 

However, with rapid changes occurring in society at large, and within the field of public education, school leaders are finding that relying on previously successful strategies to address new problems is not always sufficient. New insights and learning are needed to address the complexity involved with many of today’s educational challenges. School leaders are attempting to see beyond the face-value of a problem, recognize complexities, and question standard methods of operation. Senge (1990) suggests that organizations need to be set up to allow for what he calls personal mastery – a commitment to continuous personal learning, growth, and development. 

For district-level leaders responsible for appointing school leaders and those engaged in preparing future school leaders, it is important not only to know what the prior experiences of potential leaders are. It’s also essential to understand  if and how effective leaders have learned through their experiences to build a capacity to handle complex problems.

Making a Case for Critical Reflection in School Leadership

Along with understanding how leaders learn from their experience, it may be considered of equal benefit to explore the role of critical reflection in the generation of new learning. Brookfield (2005) suggests that examining how people develop the capacity to recognize and then challenge the systems and structures that result in oppression of individuals and ideas is essential to a critical theory of learning. 

There is growing consensus in progressive educational leadership that critical reflection is a desired competency of current and aspiring leaders (Elmore, et.al., 2009; Drago-Severson, 2009; Eaker, et.al., 2002; Elmore, 2000; Fullan, 2005; Marzano & Waters, 2009). Critical reflection has the potential to generate new insights and support paradigm shifts necessary for the complexity of the challenges facing school leaders today. Research shows that critical reflection supports the generation of new learning (Brookfield, 1987, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2015) and even supports paradigm shifts or perspective transformation in how leaders approach new challenges (Mezirow, 1981, 1990, 1998). 

Critical reflection is increasingly being used in teacher preparation and development programs. Likewise, a cursory survey of formal education programs at higher education institutions, as well as local, district-specific professional development activities in recent years reveals that reflection is being promoted and used more frequently in principal development and training programs. 

More Than Thoughtfulness and an Open Mind

One of the challenges with using critical reflection in training programs is that it is easy to simplify critical reflection as simple thoughtfulness, and paradigm shift as simply a willingness to try new things. Critical reflection on experience is a point of intersection between learning from experience and transformative learning in that it lends itself to perspective transformation and the generation of new paradigms.

Harold Henry

Harold S. Henry, Jr., BCP Chief of Schools

It is at this intersection that critical reflection adds depth to leaders’ experience and capacity to navigate deeper levels of complexity. There is also a distinction between general reflection and critical reflection. While acknowledging that any level of reflection may include critique, critical reflection speaks more directly to how one challenges the efficacy of their prior experience. This is significant because it is the failure to challenge what is believed to be known based on success at previous levels, that may cause leaders to fail at effectively solving a complex problem.

It is my experience – and the research and lived leadership of my BCP principal colleagues bears this out – that  leaders engaging in critical reflection may be more likely to develop new insights and paradigms about the work that are contextually relevant and have greater chance of sustainability.

Read more about Mr. Henry’s new role at BCP and his leadership.

Thank you to all BCP Principals for your dedicated leadership and vision!

Mark

Gaither

Wolfe Street Academy

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Matt

Hornbeck

Hampstead Hill Academy

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Tetra

Jackson

Frederick Elementary

 

Bernarda

Kwaw

Govans Elementary

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Rhonda

Richetta

City Springs Elementary/Middle

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Nneka

Warren

Pimlico Elementary/Middle

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Author

About the Baltimore Curriculum Project

Baltimore Curriculum Project (BCP) is the largest operator of local neighborhood, public charter schools in Maryland. We create safe, supportive learning environments for children PK-8 by providing innovative, research-based educational strategies, intensive teacher training and extensive support for administration and staff. We support our local neighborhood needs by tailoring our resources and support through community partnerships.

As one of the longest-running charter operators in Maryland, our schools are regularly recognized as some of the most highly acclaimed neighborhood charter schools in the state. 

Pimlico Elementary / Middle School

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2707 E. Fayette Street
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Fax: 410-675-7030
bcpinfo@baltimorecp.org

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Mark Gaither

For the past seventeen years Mr. Gaither has lead Wolfe Street Academy, a Baltimore City Public Conversion Charter School in Southeast Baltimore operated by the Baltimore Curriculum Project. Over 80% of the school’s students live in poverty and 80% of its students speak another language besides English in the home. With a focus on finding and retaining great educators, providing them with proven curriculum and supporting the whole child through the Community School strategy, Wolfe Street Academy went from the 77th to the 2nd highest performing elementary school under the previous state standardized test, has consistently outperformed the Baltimore City Average on the PARCC assessment and, most recently, was recognized as a 4-Star School by the State of Maryland Department of Education for the past two years, including being the 2nd highest rated elementary school in the 2019 school year. Mr. Gaither has been recognized by the Fund For Educational Excellence with the 2019 Heart of the School Award and has been one of the district’s Transformational Principals since 2015. Mr. Gaither lives in Baltimore with his wife and two sons.

Matt Hornbeck
Matt Hornbeck has served nearly two decades as the principal at Hampstead Hill Academy, among the highest performing elementary/middle schools in Baltimore City. HHA is a diverse, neighborhood, conversion charter serving 920 PreK-8 grade students.
Principal Hornbeck helped design Fair Student Funding and was a member of the collective bargaining team that negotiated a performance-based teacher’s contract. He has worked as a consultant to urban districts on resource allocation and professional development, a senior associate on Capitol Hill with a project to improve high poverty schools, an elementary school teacher, a program assistant at The Children’s Defense Fund, and an undergraduate admissions officer. He holds a bachelor¹s degree from Bowdoin College, a Master’s in Educational Administration from Temple University, and a law degree from the University of Maryland.
Mr. Hornbeck is a graduate of City Schools, as are his children. He is interested in correcting the systemic undercounting of low-income immigrant students, moving students from learning to read to reading to learn, increasing daily science and math minutes in the schedule, robust arts programming, and using restorative practices to develop the emotional intelligence of students and staff. Mr. Hornbeck lives in Baltimore City. His brother is a principal, his daughter is a teacher, and his son lives and works in Brooklyn.
Bernarda Kwaw

Bernarda Kwaw is the principal of Govans Elementary. The Baltimore native began her 28-year career with Baltimore City Schools as a teacher at Collington Square Elementary for 10 years before becoming a staff developer and later an assistant principal. She served as the as assistant principal at Govans Elementary for three years before taking on her role as principal.

“I’m enjoying my experience at Govans—like many families in Baltimore City Public Schools, the families here really care about their kids’ education,” she said. An involved staff and a sense of community are other highlights, she added.
Principal Kwaw plans to push students to mastery through a teaching method known as Direct Instruction. Students are grouped based on ability so that all students improve academically and no one gets left behind.

Principal Kwaw earned her bachelor’s degree in education at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania and her master’s in educational administration at Morgan State University in Baltimore. She lives with her husband and four children in Idlewood. When she is not focused on making Govans the best it can be or attending school events like the annual Back to School Bash or Winterfest you can find her at the beach.

Rhoda Richetta

Rhonda Richetta became the principal of City Springs Elementary/Middle School in 2007. In 2007, there were 355 students enrolled at City Springs and over the next several years the enrollment more than doubled. City Springs is a PK-8 neighborhood conversion charter school with one of the highest poverty rates in the City.

Principal Richetta led the implementation of restorative practices at City Springs beginning in 2007 that resulted in a tremendous transformation in school climate and culture and significant reduction in school suspensions. City Springs has become a model restorative school and has received local, national, and international recognition for its implementation of restorative practices and positive school climate and culture. In 2017, Dr. Richetta was selected to serve on the Maryland State Commission for the School-to-Prison Pipeline and Restorative Practices that resulted in legislation requiring the use of restorative practices in all Maryland schools.  

Also under Dr. Richetta’s leadership, City Springs was listed on the website of the National Institute for Direct Instruction as a model Direct Instruction school for educators to visit and has implemented honors courses and a culturally relevant curriculum for students in our middle grades.

Dr. Richetta has been serving as a Transformational Principal for the district for the past several years and in 2021 was named a Distinguished Principal, the highest pathway available for principals in Baltimore City Public Schools. Also in 2021, Dr. Richetta was elected by her peers to serve as the Vice President of the Public School Administrators and Supervisors Association.
Dr. Richetta holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education from East Stroudsburg University, a Master of Science Degree in Education from Johns Hopkins University, and a Doctor of Education Degree in Education Leadership, Management, and Policy from Seton Hall University. She lives in Baltimore City with her four dogs.

Nneka Warren

Nneka Warren is originally from Norwalk, Connecticut where her first teaching experience was in high school as a teacher’s assistant in an after school program at the YMCA. She joined City Schools in 1999 after graduating from Morgan State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary education.  Mrs. Warren worked her way up in City Schools serving as teacher, Instructional Support Teacher, Academic Dean, Assistant Principal, Interim Principal and now Principal.  She became the leader of Pimlico in December of 2018. Mrs. Warren has worked hard to implement change in the school culture of Pimlico and continues to focus on Pimlico becoming a model for Restorative Practices and academic achievement. Mrs. Warren’s passion for education and the youth of Baltimore can be summed up in this quote from Anthony J. D’Angelo, “Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.”