I was asked the following question from Kim Powell on Twitter:
@gcouros If you were on an interview committee for HS principal, what questions would you ask to look for an #InnovatorsMindset? Great opportunity to move forward and would love your expertise ! #leadership
— Kim Powell (@kimpowelledtech) May 8, 2019
Although I had written a post more focused on interview questions for teachers, I had not done one specific to administrators. Below, I have created questions that might be useful to an administrator interview but could also help leaders think more deeply about their practice. As always, please feel free to use and modify to suit your specific community.
| Characteristic | Interview Questions (For Admin) |
| Empathy | How do you learn to meet the needs of your staff, students and community? If they were to tell me about your leadership style, what would they say? |
| Problem-Finders/
Solvers |
How do you encourage your staff to develop their learning while connecting to the larger version of a school or district? |
| Risk Takers | How do you create a culture where the community feels taking risks to support student growth and development is something that is encouraged, not looked down upon? |
| Networked | We often hear “we want a world-class education” in schools. How do you connect outside the community to learn and grow and how will you support your community to learn from others outside our school community to provide the best opportunities for students? |
| Observant | Tell me about something outside of education that has influenced your leadership? How does it connect to education? |
| Creators | We want our students to be active creators in their learning. Give some examples of how you would do that as an administrator and how you develop staff as creators as well? |
| Resilient | How have you led others through tough situations? How have you helped them and yourself grow through the process? |
| Reflective | How do you create opportunities for active reflection within the work day for yourself and community? |
This is not a comprehensive list of questions for every administrator interview, but hopefully, you can find some value.
What questions would you add? What would you modify? If you have questions that you think would be great for administrators, please leave them in the comments below.
