Through coincidence Latin School started this year with three brand new department chairs. Combined with two that were new from last year, this resulted in five departments (Math, Foreign Language, Physical Education, English, and Science) led by master teachers who as of yet had little administrative experience.

Exemplary teaching is central to being a successful chair, and this is certainly a major strength of this group. However, part of a chair's job can also be fundamentally different from that of a teacher. An effective chair needs a degree of organization, patience, and perspective that even excellent classroom teachers may not have developed. It was decided that I would meet regularly with this group of new chairs and see what advice my 26 years as Math department chair could provide.

I anticipated stimulating conversations, and our first meeting did not disappoint me. What follows is a small part of our first conversation.

The discussion eventually turned to the different types of stress, or tension, that each chair will experience. The consensus of this particular group placed the chair somewhere on the right side of the following horizontal stress line. They saw that they were more supervisor than colleague, even though there is a strong teaching component to their job.

There will be times when someone in the department needs to "carry the bad news." In a competitive school like Latin, student and parent complaints can occur for a wide variety of reasons, some justified and some not. Someone in the school, highly knowledgeable of the particular subject matter under consideration, must possess the administrative authority to weigh both sides. Clearly this person is the department chair. Our group could also envision that there would also be occasional tension within the department arising from a variety of issues, such as several teachers wanting to teach the same course, or prioritizing budget items. Again, a department chair with administrative authority is needed to make these types of decisions.

It was also recognized that at different times, and for different leadership styles, movement along the line left or right could occur, and exact placement can fluctuate somewhat.

It was pointed out, however, that there is also vertical stress.

A department chair comes under almost continuous vertical stress between being an advocate for the student, and being an advocate for the program. This is a much more complex tension which is very frequent and can be subtle or obvious.

As an obvious example, consider a hypothetical AP course in US History. Suppose this course has a reputation of vigorous classroom debate, accurate and demanding simulation, and an original research component. The reputation of this class is legendary within the school, but the work load is daunting, and only the best and most organized students will thrive in its environment.

On the one hand, good schools encourage students to take risks, and so the chair could become an advocate for a particular student with a less than stellar background being accepted into the class. The chair could also become an advocate for a "more reasonable" approach to this subject; in particular, one that would be less time-consuming for the student.

But on the other hand, the chair needs to remember that the department must have some courses that challenge the most organized and the very brightest. Thus, the ideal position for the chair along this vertical stress line (advocate of the student vs. advocate of the program) is not easy to determine.

As can be seen from the graph, a high vertical placement could cast the chair in the role of "gatekeeper", spending most of his or her time keeping students out of particular classes or tracks. While a low vertical placement may be more popular with the student body, if not handled properly department colleagues may feel a lack of support for a challenging program.

There are many subtle ways in which a chair may experience vertical tension, and these occur frequently. A few examples will give the picture: Rigorous teachers complaining about a "breakdown in standards"; unexpectedly low standardized tests scores; and a well meant desire to "make every minute count" all pull the chair toward being an advocate for the program. Alternatively, a close identification with those who struggle the most, or a belief that students just need to slow down and enjoy life outside of school pull the chair toward being an advocate for the student.

In a perfect world schools have appropriately challenging courses for all of their students, and all students can correctly estimate their potential to excel. However, until this becomes a reality, vertical stress on the chair will remain a constant part of his or her job. Regardless of the chair's position there will be unhappy advocates.

The department chair routinely makes decisions on hot issues that directly affect teachers. Chairs need to prepare themselves for this by considering their function in the school. The department chair mentoring process at Latin is meant to do this.

Warren Hawley was chair of Latin's mathematics department for 26 years, and has taught mathematics at Latin for 28 years. He is the author of Foundations of Statistics and is presently coordinating Latin's mentoring program for new department chairs.

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