A school is only as successful as the sum of its parts. Bringing those parts together to work in unison to improve student achievement are the school’s leaders, including its principal and vice principals.
One school leader who is dedicated to ensuring all students achieve is Mark Anderson. Anderson, who has been named ACSA’s 2011 Secondary Co-Administrator of the Year, has a unique split position of vice principal of Nogales High School and learning director of Rowland USD.
Anderson said while honored at the award, it is really a culmination of the efforts of each member of the school team.
“It is an honor to be recognized by my peers. I also feel it’s validation not just for me, but for my entire school site for all the work we have been doing these past few years,” he said. “I really am part of a team and I have not done anything in isolation, so I look at this as an award for the entire community.”
Anderson said it is the support of his leaders, the quality of his staff, the involvement of parents and the community, and the dedication of students that in turn have led to his success.
“I am blessed to work with a principal and a superintendent who believe in me and put a lot of faith and trust in my work,” he said. “Their leadership has created an environment where I have been able to be successful. I am also fortunate to work with a staff that is innovative; the teachers here are very dedicated. Of course I work in a great community. Nogales High School has parents who are committed to the success of the school. Also, we have wonderful students – they truly are the nicest group of students and they want to do their best.
“While I am the person receiving this honor, the truth is that the only reason I’ve been able to do the work I have is because of the support of so many.”
Anderson has been vice principal since 2006 and learning director since 2009. He believes one of the greatest challenges facing education today is a limited vision. In other words, it takes an innovative leader to see beyond what is possible.
“I think that as a whole we are limited by our own visions of what schools can be,” he said. “We cannot afford to feel like we have made it; education is a living science that is constantly growing and changing, and we need to grow and change with it.”
Although his positions now are administrative in nature, Anderson said he will always be a teacher at heart. In fact, learning is at the core of everything he does. During his tenure, Nogales High has seen a 75-point growth on the API in four years, and proficiency on the CAHSEE has improved by more than 10 percent. In addition, proficiency in Algebra 1 has jumped from 4 percent to 20 percent in just two years.
Anderson said his motivation for his work is simple: it’s the students.
“I truly love being around high school students,” he said. “It is inspiring to be around a group of young people who see the world as one big opportunity. They inspire me every day. I never really stopped being a teacher; I became an administrator just so I could teach more students at one time.”
Anderson said he entered the field of education reluctantly, starting out as a Spanish, geometry and algebra teacher in 2003. But his principals encouraged him to take his career to the next level and served as mentors along the way.
“I entered education very reluctantly, and was encouraged by my former high school principal. But once I started teaching I was hooked. As a teacher, my principal and vice principal at the school saw in me a lot of potential to be a leader and gave me plenty of leadership opportunities in the school, encouraged me to get my administrative credential, and when an opportunity became available for me to move to administration helped me apply. I do not know if I would have done it if it were not for their belief in me that I could have a wide, positive impact on the lives of many students.”
Anderson said when he was young, his mother showed him a picture of a person sitting in a rowboat without any oars. She told him, “We can sit and drift aimlessly in life and let the water take us wherever it may, or we can put our oars in and row and create our own destiny.” That was a message that has stuck with him to this day.
“I am one who sets out rowing, to work hard, and to take pride in my work so that no matter what I am doing I am always doing my best,” he said. “As long as we stay focused on the fundamental purpose of education – student learning – we can continue to change the world.”
Of course it helps to have a support network behind you, and ACSA has been an important partner in Anderson’s career.
“ACSA has been a great network for me,” he said. “I think being an administrator can be very isolating. … Through ACSA I’ve been able to share and learn from so many other administrators about how they navigated situations – what they did to achieve success in their school communities. I have friends across the state I can call upon for support and who can call me as well. ACSA has also helped to keep me current in educational research. The conferences and workshops in my region have been a great way to stay current in educational research, which is important when it comes to making decisions.
“It really is an honor for my entire school community to have this recognition. I hope that I can give back to ACSA all that it gives me.”
Anderson, along with all of ACSA’s Administrators of the Year, will be formally honored during ACSA’s Leadership Summit, Nov. 3-5 in Sacramento. Visit www.acsa.org/leadershipsummit to register.